What you need to know
- Electronic Arts is laying off 670 workers across different divisions, or around 5% of its current global workforce.
- The layoffs will see studio Ridgeline Games close, as well as the cancelation of a Star Wars first-person shooter at Respawn Entertainment.
- The upcoming Iron Man and Black Panther games are still in development.
- Electronic Arts laid off 774 workers back in March 2023, with an additional 50 laid off from BioWare.
It's another day in 2024, which means there's more mass layoffs in the gaming industry.
Wednesday's culprit is publisher Electronic Arts, which announced that it is cutting 670 workers, or about 5% of its current workforce, as shared by GamesIndustry.biz. As part of these closures, Electronic Arts is canceling an upcoming Star Wars shooter that was being developed by Respawn Entertainment.
This game — which was announced back in 2022 alongside a Star Wars strategy game and a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order — was still in early in development, but was rumored to feature a Mandalorian character, though not necessarily the titular Din Djarin from the show and upcoming film.
Electronic Arts is also closing Ridgeline Games, a studio in Seattle, Washington that was founded in order to develop a campaign for the next Battlefield game. Criterion will now be leading single-player efforts for future Battlefield titles.
The previously-announced Iron Man and Black Panther games, which are being developed by Motive Studio and Cliffhanger Games, respectively, are still in development.
Electronic Arts already laid off hundreds in 2023
All of this comes as Electronic Arts already laid off 774 employees back in March 2023, which was (at the time) 6% of the company's workforce. An additional 50 employees were laid off from BioWare later in the year, with the studio declaring that it needed to be "agile" in developing Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect game. Neither game currently has a release date.
What does this mean for Electronic Arts and Star Wars fans?
The loss of a new shooter set in part of the Star Wars universe and being developed by Respawn Entertainment is a big blow to the hopes of anyone who likes everything about that premise. Electronic Arts is continuing to slim down its projects, so players should overall expect less games with a great focus on live-service projects.
That doesn't mean there won't be any new games, of course. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor — also developed by Respawn Entertainment — was the ninth best-selling game of the year in the U.S. It seems overwhelmingly likely that Respawn will, at the very least, close out the trilogy with one final game starring Cal Kestis. The strategy game Respawn is co-developing also appears to still be in development.
Analysis: A rough year revs up
Just yesterday, I was writing about how 900 people at PlayStation were losing their jobs. Numerous companies have cut hundreds upon hundreds of workers, and we're not even in March yet. I pray the bleeding stops, but until it does, workers are going to have to rely on each other. I also sincerely hope more developers join unions (or start new unions if need be) in order to help scrape out better protections against this grim tide in the industry.
