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We have been seeing that the economic situation of companies linked to video games is being precarious. And we once again have to echo this aspect when New layoffs have been confirmed from Electronic Arts. And we are talking about an important number, although not as much as the one that Sony accumulated recently, with 670 people affected on this occasion. But the most serious thing seems to come with the restructuring of many of the projects that could be paralyzed or canceled.
For now, we have only been aware of the cancellation of Respawn Entertainment's shooter, but other cancellations could occur in the coming hours. If we look at everything that was being done, We would have to look closely at other studies, such as Bioware or EA Motive, and start to shake.
New layoffs from Electronic Arts reduce its capacity by 5% and affect many studios
However, echoing the new layoffs from Electronic Arts, we must pay attention to the statement sent by the company, where the CEO, Andrew Wilson, would have had the job of exposing this serious situation. The main aspect that he wanted to highlight is that they required this action to look to the future with certain guarantees. This has required reducing its operating capacity by 5%. “In this time of change, we expect these decisions to affect approximately 5 percent of our workforce. “I understand that this will create uncertainty and will be a challenge for many who have worked with such dedication and passion and have made important contributions to our company.”declares the manager.
It is especially striking how Wilson points out that this industry is constantly changing and that we must evaluate what is being done and what needs to be done. “Given how and where we are working, we continue to optimize our global real estate footprint to better support our business”says Wilson. To this, he states that ““We are also closing the gap on games and moving away from the development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry,” seeking “greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our greatest opportunities, including our intellectual property, esports, and massive online communities, to deliver the entertainment gamers want today and tomorrow.”
It seems that we will have to be very attentive to future news, since “the communication of these impacts has already begun and will be largely completed at the beginning of the next quarter.” That is, changes will be made to face the next fiscal year with more guarantees. But we can already anticipate that will completely close Ridgeline Games, which was established in 2021 to develop single-player narrative campaigns for future Battlefield titles.
In the face of such uncertainty, it has been confirmed that some projects, about which very little is still known, such as the project for games Marvel, Black Panther or Iron Man will not be affected. We already have enough with Respawn's shooter, which seems to be the only major project affected. We can sit and wait, because the horror movie that is looming over Electronic Arts may have only just begun.