Video game publishing giant Electronic Arts is laying off around 350 employees across its marketing, publishing and operations divisions.
In an email to employees, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the company had "a vision to be the world's greatest games company" and to do this, it would streamline its organisation to meet the needs of its players. Part of this will involve "ramping down" its current presence within Japan and Russia and finding "different ways" to serve players in these regions. Globally, it wants to provide higher-quality games and services and also improve its Frostbite tools, network, and cloud technology to further unite its community.
EA added to this with the following statement:
“This is a difficult day. The changes we’re making today will impact about 350 roles in our 9,000-person company. These are important but very hard decisions, and we do not take them lightly. We are friends and colleagues at EA, we appreciate and value everyone’s contributions, and we are doing everything we can to ensure we are looking after our people to help them through this period to find their next opportunity. This is our top priority.”
The publisher said it would attempt to find positions elsewhere in the company for some of the affected employees and a representative later confirmed the publisher would provide "severance and other resources" to employees who were laid off.
According to an employee working in one of the affected departments, these layoffs had been expected for "a while now" and EA had placed hiring and travel freezes on marketing for several months. An organisational reshuffle within the marketing and publishing divisions had also been known about since last October.
[source kotaku.com.au]
Comments 50
Well, it is EA. I do feel sorry for the people who lost their job, but I do think EA is a horrible company.
Mr Wilson, one of the most overpaid CEO in the US, will still keep his job and his salleries with bonuses but those who are actually creating and delivering the goods based on his poor decisions will lose their jobs? Yep, sounds about right.
And as for wanting to be the greatest games company in the world, they may have some real difficult competition from the likes of Nintendo and Sony, and then there’s all them indie developers etc.
I hope those people find new jobs soon.
As for EA ... well they do not deserve to be in the gaming industry anymore.
Well that's sucks for the developers. Hope they can find new positions soon.
But it's EA, they can't ride that Esports rehash games every year, forever. And gamers and casual players are starting to fight back on bad practices like loot boxes (done incorrectly) and overpriced dlc (especially when it costs about the same as a whole game, while only containing a few new things, new as in maybe reworks of past titles).
350 peoples from EA lost their job. 🙄
Blame to EA for keep making Mediocre games with overcharged prices. 😒
Good. Less workers for one of the greediest companies to ever 'grace' the planet.
These giant corporations...UGH! U really need a side hustle these days, just in case. No if’s ands or but’s about it!
@FragRed Wow.. 35 million for the guy last year in compensation.
350 people may have been laid off...
But won't somebody think of Andrew Wilson's 2nd Yacht??
Oh EA, why did you got obsessed with the money? You made good games in the past like Lord of the Rings: The Third Age and LotR: The Return of the King (video game).
you had me at "world's greatest game company"
I'm guessing the CEOs are getting a cut in their millionaire salaries as well, right? Right?
Almost as bad as Activision.
"a vision to be the world's greatest games company"
Well, at the very least this didn't just come out of the blue. It seems it has been known about for quite a while now.
If EA really wants to "be the world's greatest games company", then they should probably start by replacing their current CEO with somebody more competent. Otherwise, I don't see them getting any closer to reaching that goal.
Something something Big American Game Companies something...
This is the sort of thing that happens when you release the same handful of games every year for 30 years on the trot.
It's because of Yasha
Guess loot boxes and making the same games every year isn't raking in as much money as they would like
People who keep buying yearly iterations rigged With microtransactions like FIFA are to blame aswell !
Backing down from hamfisted corporate invasion of Russia and Japan? I could see how that might be an option when what you're making and marketing are culture products for providing individuals the possibility to grow through personal aethetic experiences. I mean, it's in the game.
Hey remember when the Wii U was tanking and Iwata took a massive pay cut so that nobody had to be laid off?
@TheBigK I think it was more symbolic, but the message was loud and clear. He is the only CEO I have ever heard of to do this. And in fact, many CEOs get pay raises in situations like this- Wells Fargo most recently. We lost a good one.
350 layoffs thats about what? 35m?
This while their ceo makes 32million a year.
Capitalism at its finest guys.
So glad i have not bought an ea game since the gamecube days, they dont deserve any money with these mallpractises
@TheBigK The Man was truly a legend who actually cared about his employees.
Fantastic, here's to 5000 more. Also, put that Wilson fuccer and his surroundig board in jail for criminal levels of greed and sociopathic levels of lack of empathy.
Ah, people with a vision. I once knew a small forum website whose owner wanted to make it the #1 site on the whole wide internet, and basically the greatest thing ever, because he was so amazing. Pissed of his userbase to the point of many people quitting, banned the rest on a whim, and deleted the whole thing after a fight with his mods.
I'm not saying that's going to happen to EA, but it would be fun to watch.
@TheBigK While Iwata was an amazing person in general, I think part of that can be attributed to Japanese work culture. Everyone feels more of a responsibility to the company; especially those at the top. If something gets messed up, they usually own it and think about what is best for the company. In the case of Iwata, he recognized that a cut to his own pay was best for Nintendo as a whole. He realized that they couldn't produce good things if they got rid of their staff and made the others anxious that they might be next.
Huge American companies, though? Nah. It's every man for himself. If a CEO screws something up, they are likely going to try to pin the blame elsewhere and lay off lower workers. They also seem to care less about their product and more about shareholders/investors.
@Manah please tell me this is the tale of reesetera in the near future.
There's a reason they were voted worst company in America for multiple years in a row.
@Baart No, that’s how ResetEra came to be in the first place (spawned out of NeoGAF after a big scandal involving child porn and sexual assault allegations, among other things). Ironically the sane people are back at NeoGAF now while the total nut bars are at ResetEra.
https://www.wired.com/2011/07/nintendo-satoru-iwata-pay-cut/
"Iwata's salary, reported last year to be around $770,000, will be cut by 50 percent. Iwata earned significantly more last year in bonus pay, which he said would be reduced this year because of the company's declining profits. "
I bet the Executives got fat bonuses though.
Feel sorry for the staff but EA are to blame. Keep churning out rubbish the bubble will burst eventually.
@Ttimer5 Where does it say developers? These are support staff. Marketing are sales people who don’t make money.
Wilson: "This is a difficult day for all of us...but a difficult couple of weeks for those we fired! Maybe even months! Muhahahahaha suckerrrrrs!"
Aw, and EA were just about to be voted most popular corporation of the year.
For those who didn't read the article:
"Shareholders want to be extremely filthy rich, but so far we've only managed to make them ever-so-slightly less extremely filthy rich. Therefore, we're forced to fire hundreds of employees and give the money to our true customers — the shareholders.
And no, don't expect our CEO to pull an Iwata move; he needs his yearly multi millions to support his family."
Im sorry for those who lost their job, but look on the bright side
You can now work for a decent coorporation!
Oh EA........... how about you just cut your paychecks on the people who are in the top earning the most...... Including YOU CEO!
"...it would streamline its organisation to meet the needs of its investors and executives...."
Fixed that for you. Stuff like this is one reason why I no longer give money to EA. In fact, stuff like this is why I would hesitate working for most large video game companies at this point.
I hate EA as much as the next guy, but at least their executives aren’t taking bonuses (that we know of) while laying off employees, like Activision.
Hopefully everybody who is losing their jobs are the ones who worked solely on the microtransaction/loot box portion of the company. All those people deserve to be fired.
This brings back a wild idea I had off past rumors. Nintendo and Microsoft actually do partner up, then do what Microsoft tried to do and buy out EA. Between the 2 companies, they could probably release better(at least complete) versions of EA's titles.
@superguy123 actually, it appears that he made **35.7** million last year...you were off by about 3.7 million...which could pay for about 60-70 employees, easily...
https://www1.salary.com/ANDREW-WILSON-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-Electronic-Arts-Inc.html
I wish EA didnt have a monopoly on NFL games.
Don't really get people gloating about this. The ones that suffer are the people who are doing their jobs. The ones who are responsible for the things that many don't like - repetitive franchises, microtransactions, lootboxes - they don't get hurt by this. Arguably those most responsible - execs and majority shareholders who push for higher returns - benefit from job cuts, at least in the short term (which, let's face it, is all anyone is really thinking about when they make such decisions).
I'm no expert on the gaming industry, but that's how it seems to go for all big corporations.
Please Nintendo, buy EA and make all their Games exclusive.
@Lone_Beagle
That doest help ea's case, like at all...
Japan's ceo's take a smaller paycheck,
Western devs fire people.
What a world to be alive in
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