Originally announced back at Gamescom 2022, dark historical fantasy RPG Wyrdsong’s developer, Something Wicked Games, seems to be the most recent studio to suffer mass layoffs.
28.02.2024 - 22:31 / digitaltrends.com / Andrew Wilson / Tomas Franzese
EA announced that it will lay off 5% of its workforce by the end of March as part of an initiative that will also see it move away from making a lot of externally licensed games in the future.
“We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry. This greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities — to deliver the entertainment players want today and tomorrow,” CEO Andrew Wilson explained in a post on EA’s website.
In terms of licensed games, EA studios are running a Lord of the Rings mobile game and developing titles based on Black Panther, Iron Man, and Star Wars. In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, EA says the Marvel games are not impacted by this change. That said, it certainly makes it seem a lot less likely that any more projects like these will emerge at EA in the future.
Wilson’s comments imply that this change in licensed strategy won’t impact its sports game output, though. Essentially, EA wants to double down on bigger games with greater potential based on IP it has full control over. “Fans are increasingly engaging with the largest IP, and looking to us for broader experiences where they can play, watch, create content, and forge deeper connections,” Wilson claims in his post.
RelatedGamesIndustry.biz estimates that 5% of EA’s workforce is about 670 game developers and that this restructuring plan will cost the video game publisher between $125 and $165 million. Just two months in, 2024 has been full of video game industry layoffs. Just this week, Sony announced plans to lay off over 900 employees, Saltsea Chronicles developer Gute Die Fabrik shut down, and Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games and The Expanse: A Telltale Series studio Deck Nine Games both also announced layoffs.
Originally announced back at Gamescom 2022, dark historical fantasy RPG Wyrdsong’s developer, Something Wicked Games, seems to be the most recent studio to suffer mass layoffs.
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EA is the latest game company to announce layoffs, with 5% of its workforce to be made redundant. From the most recent headcount EA provided – 13,400 in March 2023 – that would amount to around 670 people.
Deck Nine has announced that it had laid off 20% of its overall workforce, due to the current market situation which has led to a large scale series of redundancies across the video game industry. The developer, which has developer Life Is Strange: True Colors, Life Is Strange: Before The Storm, Life Is Strange Remastered Collection, and The Expanse: A Telltale Series, confirmed the news of X, formerly known as Twitter.
EA is the latest game company to announce layoffs, with 5% of its workforce to be made redundant. From the most recent headcount EA provided – 13,400 in March 2023 – that would amount to around 670 people.
Electronic Arts is the latest video game company to announce layoffs and video game cancellations.