The grim industry summer continues as EA lays off staff ahead of $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia, likely to soothe the sting of its $20 billion debt

Andrew Wilson, chief executive officer of Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), speaks during the company's EA Play event ahead of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Saturday, June 9, 2018. EA announced that it is introducing a higher-end version of its subscription game-playing service that will include new titles such as Battlefield V and the Madden NFL 19 football game.

It's looking like another grim summer for the videogame industry. Microsoft is eyeing up several studios to shutter, and the CEO of Epic Games says there's a tidal wave sweeping over the AAA business, which I'm sure is fine.

The next step in this macabre march comes from EA, which will reportedly be laying off an unknown number of staff ahead of its $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia's public investment fund, which is set to have a whopping 93.4% stake when all is said and done. This comes courtesy of Kotaku, which claims it's spoken with sources inside the publisher, and shared an email sent to EA's customer support team.