Wave of layoffs in gaming industry doesn’t seem to come to an end yet, as EA has laid off 350 of its employees recently, following the big unemployment in Activision Blizzard just a few months ago. Maybe the only difference is the unemployed staff in EA didn’t get surprised by the decision, as they informed it was something that they were expecting to see since last year.
The aforementioned layoff has effected Marketing, Publishing and some other departments and divisions within the company. While we have to wait for more accurate details, it seems that development studios aren’t cut by this wave of unemployment. According to the statement posted today, EA is “ramping down” it’s “current presence in Japan and Russia” as they focus to serve their players in different ways. The company declares through the statement that how hard it is to layoff 350 members of a 9000-person company, but these moves have to be made in order “to better deliver on their commitments, refine the organization and meet the needs of the players.” Here you can read the full note of the post:
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.
Along with the statement, Andrew Wilson, CEO at EA, has also stated through an email that “a vision to be the World’s Greatest Games Company” which they “are not there now.” EA will try to find new positions within the company for unemployed people and for those who cannot work with EA again, there will be severance packages.
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Includes several titles.
Which was showcased at E3 2003.