Earlier this year we reported that Activision had laid off around 800 of its employees through restructuring, and now a new report from Kotaku claims EA has laid of 350 people from its marketing, publishing, and analytics departments.
An email from EA CEO Andrew Wilson was allegedly obtained by Kotaku, who said the goal is the consolidate these departments and improve customer support. International strategies are also being changed, meaning offices in Japan and Russia are being closed.
"We have a vision to be the World's Greatest Games Company," he wrote. "If we're honest with ourselves, we're not there right now. We have work to do with our games, our player relationships, and our business."
An EA statement on the matter also added the following:
"Today we took some important steps as a company to address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead. As we look across a changing world around us, it's clear that we must change with it. We're making deliberate moves to better deliver on our commitments, refine our organization and meet the needs of our players. As part of this, we have made changes to our marketing and publishing organization, our operations teams, and we are ramping down our current presence in Japan and Russia as we focus on different ways to serve our players in those markets. In addition to organizational changes, we are deeply focused on increasing quality in our games and services. Great games will continue to be at the core of everything we do, and we are thinking differently about how to amaze and inspire our players."
"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."
One EA representative also told Kotaku that they are working with employees to find other roles within the company, and that they'd be providing severance to those laid off, as well as other resources. No details were provided on the severance.
An affected employee added that these cuts were not unexpected, since EA froze hiring and travel on marketing for the last few months. Those in marketing and publishing had expecting reorganisation from as early as October, the source adds, saying: "I think some people will be relieved to not be in limbo anymore."
This news comes amidst a year full of massive layoffs at game companies, including Activision Blizzard and ArenaNet. Although the video game industry continues to grow, with the Entertainment Software Association touting ever-increasing revenue, it's been a challenging 2019 for game developers and publishers.
We wish those affected all the best, and have reached out to EA for a comment on the matter.