It’s always disappointing when you hear about something that will invariably lead to the suffering of another person. Today marks yet another downturn in what has been a vicious year for those working within the games industry – at least those working at certain sections of it. This time we see news of roughly 350 people being laid off by Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) in a round of job cuts that is seeming all too frequent now.
While it is true that EA’s third-quarter results were below expectations, despite the company bringing in $262 million in net income, causing the company’s shares to plummet – this was quickly countered by the incredible uptake of players for the title Apex Legends. These are seemingly another entry in what are routine annual layoffs, though likely increased as a result of a below-target third quarter and possible hard fourth quarter, with the recently released Anthem having met a mixed reception and poor physical sales.
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The areas affected by these layoffs are marketing, publishing and analytics. In a statement on EA’s news page, CEO Andrew Wilson says:
Today we took some important steps as a company to address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead. As we look across a changing world around us, it’s clear that we must change with it. We’re making deliberate moves to better deliver on our commitments, refine our organization and meet the needs of our players. As part of this, we have made changes to our marketing and publishing organization, our operations teams, and we are ramping down our current presence in Japan and Russia as we focus on different ways to serve our players in those markets. In addition to organizational changes, we are deeply focused on increasing quality in our games and services. Great games will continue to be at the core of everything we do, and we are thinking differently about how to amaze and inspire our players.
This is a difficult day. The changes we’re making today will impact about 350 roles in our 9,000-person company. These are important but very hard decisions, and we do not take them lightly. We are friends and colleagues at EA, we appreciate and value everyone’s contributions, and we are doing everything we can to ensure we are looking after our people to help them through this period to find their next opportunity. This is our top priority.
This comes at the end of a turbulent period for those working within certain sections of the industry. Activision-Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), despite having a record-breaking year laid off around 800 people (previously rumoured to be 200 people) to improve profits during the current year. Arena-Net also faced a number of layoffs last month. In addition to this, GoG, the digital storefront owned by CD Projekt, is reportedly in financial trouble. These are just smaller examples in a large number of job cuts within the industry.
I can only wish all the best to those who have lost their jobs. Fortunately, in situations like this, others within the industry tend to rally around and spread news of vacancies.
