FEBRUARY 29, 2024 — 670 EMPLOYEES
The company has announced a restructuring including a reduction in its real estate footprint and a 5% reduction in its workforce.
CEO Andrew Wilson…
Team,
We are entertaining, inspiring, and connecting more people with more content and deeper experiences than ever before. Over the last year, we have organized our company to further empower our creative leaders to deliver our strategic priorities of entertaining massive online communities, telling blockbuster stories, and harnessing the power of community in and around our games. These actions have positioned us to build bigger, bolder experiences for hundreds of millions of players and fans around the world.
We are also leading through an accelerating industry transformation where player needs and motivations have changed significantly. 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. Our industry exists at the cutting edge of entertainment, and in today’s dynamic environment, we are advancing the way we work and continuing to evolve our business.
As a company full of creators and storytellers, we believe in the value of teams innovating together, and continue to learn and adopt new ways of collaborating to grow and serve our global communities. Given how and where we are working, we are continuing to optimize our global real estate footprint to best support our business. 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. Lastly, we are streamlining our company operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences for fans everywhere that build community, shape culture, and grow fandom.
In this time of change, we expect these decisions to impact approximately 5 percent of our workforce. I understand this will create uncertainty and be challenging for many who have worked with such dedication and passion and have made important contributions to our company. While not every team will be impacted, this is the hardest part of these changes, and we have deeply considered every option to try and limit impacts to our teams. Our primary goal is to provide team members with opportunities to find new roles and paths to transition onto other projects. Where that’s not possible, we will support and work with each colleague with the utmost attention, care, and respect. Communicating these impacts has already begun and will be largely completed by early next quarter.
I want to extend my appreciation to everyone who has helped contribute to EA’s ongoing story. We are a team that leans into our values to lead the future of entertainment, and I look forward to what we will create together. Thank you for all that you do.
Andrew
MARCH 29, 2023 — 800 EMPLOYEES
EA is continuing its cost reduction initiative by reducing office space and laying off 6% of its workforce, or 800 employees.
CEO Andrew Wilson…
Team,
As we near the end of the fiscal year, I’m writing to share an update on our business. Even amidst macro uncertainty, EA is operating from a position of strength. Our business is gaining momentum as we continue to deliver high-quality games and amazing content across some of the largest, most beloved franchises in the world.
We are leaders in a dynamic industry with new audiences, new technology, and new media trends fundamentally reshaping the world around us. This level of transformation creates powerful opportunities. Now, more than ever, we must be focused on our strategic priorities: building games and experiences that entertain massive online communities; creating blockbuster interactive storytelling; and amplifying the power of community in and around our games with social and creator tools. These priorities align our investments with opportunities to make the biggest impact.
As we drive greater focus across our portfolio, we are moving away from projects that do not contribute to our strategy, reviewing our real estate footprint, and restructuring some of our teams. These decisions are expected to impact approximately six percent of our company’s workforce. This is the most difficult part, and we are working through the process with the utmost care and respect. Where we can, we are providing opportunities for our colleagues to transition onto other projects. Where that’s not possible, we are providing severance pay and additional benefits such as health care and career transition services. Communicating these decisions began earlier this quarter, and we expect them to continue through early next fiscal year.
I want to extend my deep appreciation to all our employees who have contributed to our incredible story so far. It’s through your love of games that we continue to deliver on our mission of inspiring the world to play. Looking forward, we are focused on writing our next great chapter by bringing more amazing games to more people around the world — inspiring them to build community, participate in shared fandom, and have joyful experiences. The future of entertainment is interactive, and no team is better equipped to lead this transformation than us.
Thank you for all that you do.
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 — 207 QUALITY ASSURANCE TESTERS IN LOUISIANA
In a Zoom call, 207 quality assurance playtesters associated with Apex Legends at EA's Baton Rouge, Louisiana office were laid off. These were employees who contract with EA through a third-party company, Folsom, California-based Magnit Global, and not volunteers.
APRIL 2, 2019 — Original post…
Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts, the iconic video game company, has announced that it will be undertaking a reorganization that will result in a reduction of force of 350 employees or about four percent of its current headcount. The decision appears to be a business one driven by game launch issues and unsteady revenues.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson noted in to-be-expected corporate speak …
“We have a vision to be the World’s Greatest Games Company. 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.”
“Across the company, teams are already taking action to ensure we are creating higher-quality games and live services, reaching more platforms with our content and subscriptions, improving our Frostbite tools, focusing our network and cloud gaming priorities, and closing the gap between us and our player communities.”
“Today we took some important steps as a company to address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead. As we look across the 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, and 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 the 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.”
The reorganization is not unexpected with some employees recognizing the standard red flags of curtailing travel and placing promotions, raises, and bonuses on hold.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
