Following the announcement that BioWare is shutting down and reports that EA is laying off around 400 of its employees, a new report indicates that job cuts will happen across a range of EA’s studios. According to Vertical Slice, Maxis, Motive Studios, Respawn Entertainment, Ripple Effect, and Full Circle are among the teams that will be hit by layoffs.
Among those laid off is the now-former senior creative director of The Sims 4 developer Maxis, Anna Huerta, who took to LinkedIn to confirm that she was among those let go from the company.
“After some incredible accomplishments at EA, my role as Senior Creative Director of The Sims was impacted by today’s restructuring. I’m incredibly sad that I won’t get to continue working alongside such talented people on projects we care so deeply about, but I’m looking forward to whatever comes next. I love making games, but what I value most is working with people who share a passion for creativity, collaboration, and building a strong studio culture.”
While it would have been easy to assume that Motive Studios would be relatively safe since the team is working on Marvel’s Iron Man as well as providing support for Battlefield 6, it appears that among those affected, layoffs from the studio include concept artist Brandon Le and senior gameplay designer Jamieson Shearar, both of whom took to LinkedIn to confirm this.
Ripple Effect has been hit by layoffs as well, with multiple of its now-former employees taking to LinkedIn to announce that their roles had been cut. This includes character artist Corey Thomas, outsourcing artist Brandon Garcia, and technical artist Turner Spring. The team was hit by these cuts while it was in the midst of offering ongoing support for Battlefield 6 and was even working on a “new experience” for the shooter.
Similarly, Respawn Entertainment – the studio behind Apex Legends and the Star Wars Jedi series – has also been hit, losing employees like UX project manager Randall Wong and operations product manager Catheryn Grant.
The cuts come in light of EA announcing its larger plans for the company through a publicly posted internal email that was also sent out to its employees. Through this, the company has said that it is working on a brand-new American Football project, dubbed Gridiron, and is also working on bringing back the Fight Night boxing game franchise.
“We have two new projects in development you’ll hear about over the next few months, including a brand-new, social-first open-world experience for our American Football team that we call ‘Project Gridiron,’ and we are also in pre-production to bring back a beloved, fan-favorite in Fight Night, leveraging capabilities from our simulation fighting team.”
According to COO David Tinson and chief studios officer Cam Weber, the company has canceled many of its in-development projects, including Mass Effect. The two have said that the company is “making deliberate choices” that would help it recognize and capitalize on “the greatest opportunities” for players and the company itself alike.
It is currently unknown whether these layoffs will also start affecting the sports game development teams. However, reports have indicated that the College Football franchise might go to the back burner in five years.
