EA To Lay Off ‘5% of Workforce’ and To Double Down on ‘Owned IP’

It was just revealed that Electronic Arts plans to lay off around 5% of its workforce – which amounts to approximately 670 employees – in a bid to restructure the firm and amend its operating model. This news landed first on GamesIndustry.biz in the form of a memo circulated by EA’s CEO, Andrew Wilson.

The news comes mere days after EA announced a ‘small wave’ of layoffs following the closure of two mobile games. It was also revealed that Electronic Arts plans to ‘move away from’ the development of licensed IP that the company ‘does not believe will be successful in (the) changing industry’.

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In the last day or two, thousands of industry workers have lost their jobs as studios left and right issue waves of layoffs that are indicative of the ongoing struggles in the wider business. Most recently, the likes of PlayStation and ESL FACEIT suffered from sizeable layoffs that are effectively eliminating hundreds of employees from the books.

On GamesIndustry.biz, the news was broken that EA intends to strip 5% of its workforce from the company. It was estimated that almost 700 employees would be impacted by this wave.

The CEO of Electronic Arts stressed that there’s a desire to move away from licensed IP development – but this won’t impact games that are in production now, namely the Black Panther and Iron Man titles. It was claimed that the reason for this is:

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.

In the report published by GamesIndustry.biz, it was claimed that this restructuring effort – including redundancies – will cost Electronic Arts up to $165 million. This wave will bring the total number of EA employees laid off in the last year to around 11% of the entire company.

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