EA Lays Off Staff But in 'Reasonable' Numbers
Electronic Arts has announced a restructuring plan that will see about 6% of the company's workforce lose their jobs. The head of the company believes that EA is „acting from a position of strength.”.
Electronic Arts, the giant responsible for such hits as the FIFA, The Sims or Dead Space series, intends to lay off about 6% of the staff. Company representatives have not announced the exact number of affected people. However, given that in the last annual report (as of the end of March 2022) it was reported that the corporation employs 12,900 people worldwide, it can be estimated that management will say goodbye to 775 employees.
Restructuring plan
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the layoffs are part of a restructuring plan that also includes cutting expenses on real estate and focusing efforts around seizing better growth opportunities.
According to company reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company's actions are expected to result in savings of $170-200 million. The entire process should be closed by the end of September, this year.
Bright future
In a memo to his employees, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson noted that the company continues to operate from a position of strength and will focus in the future on priorities such as creating games with large communities, making the most of those communities and "creating interactive narratives that will become hits."
"Reasonable" number
Finally, it is worth noting that while layoffs always involve trouble for many people, those planned by EA are in line with current trends in technology markets. Recall that earlier this year Microsoft announced parting ways with about 10,000 employees (about 5% of the workforce). In contrast, in the case of Google it will be 12 thousand people (6% of the workforce).
