Electronic Arts' (EA) and Battlefield Studios' new popular multiplayer shooter game Battlefield 6 may have ended up being the best-selling game of 2025 across Xbox, PC, and PS5, but that hasn't spared its development teams from layoffs, according to a new report.On Monday morning, IGN reported that "an unknown number of individuals" have been cut from all four of the teams working as part of the coalition of developers that makes up Battlefield Studios. This means that workers at DICE, Criterion, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios have all been affected.When asked for comment on more specific details such as how many employees have been impacted and EA's reasoning for the layoffs, the publisher issued the following statement:"We’ve made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community," a spokesperson said. "Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we’re continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs."The cuts come a few weeks after the start of Battlefield 6 Season 2, and the addition of the Contaminated map and Little Bird vehicle that've both been well-received. With that said, Season 2 overall has still failed to reignite excitement for the FPS in the wake of its sharply declining player count on the Steam charts.
Steam metrics don't tell the whole story, of course, but in this case, the dwindling player count lines up with community sentiment that EA and Battlefield Studios have done a relatively poor job with Battlefield 6's live-service support so far. Some of Season 1's additions were widely disliked, and while Season 2's are a big improvement, fans are still complaining that the pace of content delivery is slower than it needs to be.New maps have been one of the largest pain points, with many pointing out that Battlefield 6 is getting just two new maps in the same seasonal timeframe that saw previous titles like Battlefield 4 get four. On top of that, players also want bigger maps that better showcase the combined arms battles Battlefield is known for.Other points of contention include the continued absence of a dedicated server browser for the game's official servers, its painfully grindy progression system for weapon unlocks and attachments, and numerous issues with netcode, audio, and more (the devs say these, specifically, are being worked on).EA is calling the layoffs a "realignment" and says they're part of a process "to better align our teams around what matters most to our community." Recently, however, DICE producer Alexia Christofi said that the fact Battlefield Studios is "a team of a certain size" is limiting its ability to make maps faster.In that context, cuts are a surprise, though perhaps they've come as part of a broader effort to move more of Battlefield's developers into map development. Regardless, they're still very unfortunate to see, especially with how frequent layoffs in the gaming industry have been throughout the last few years. I hope everyone affected is able to land a new position as soon as possible.
🗨️ Are you still playing Battlefield 6?
How are you feeling about Battlefield 6 and its post-launch support thus far? Are you still playing the game, or have you largely moved on? Have you never played it before? If so, why? I'm curious to hear from you, so let me know all of this and anything else about BF6 that's on your mind in the comments.
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