Electronic Arts in Freefall: MASSIVE LAYOFFS Weeks Before Earnings Call

EA Lays Off Upwards of 400 MORE Employees as Industry Bleeds Jobs—BioWare's Collapse a Symptom of Deeper Rot... and DEI jobs ELIMINATED!

Electronic Arts is once again gutting its workforce (I know, I know... shocker), this time, laying off between 300 and 400 employees in a wild move that adds to an already devastating year for the entire video game industry. This latest wave here includes the 100 job cuts at Respawn Entertainment following the cancellation of two in-development titles—one of which, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier (paywalled), was supposedly an extraction shooter in the making, set within the Titanfall universe.

While EA's official statement frames these cuts as “strategic realignment” - Let's be real - it all paints a much darker picture. The layoffs are reportedly affecting EA’s Experiences team, including Fan Care, marketing, QA, and development roles... alongside those invented DEI jobs that were all the rage a few years ago, but we'll get to that in a sec.

This move marks yet another major shake-up just weeks before EA’s Q4 and FY2025 earnings call on May 6, where they’re expected to address the situation—and likely try to spin it as a positive, because hey - EA, amirite?

To date in 2025, the industry's now lost nearly 2,500 jobs across nearly 60 companies in just a few months, making this year one of the most brutal for developers in recent memory... and that's on top of another downturn in the industry last year as well.

Now, about the DEI slop that's been shoved out - It's worth noting that some of the employees, like Samantha Santana (please never contact or harass these people), are being let go at Respawn and across EA were brought in through DEI-driven hiring — a practice that has prioritized ideology over talent for faaaar too long. While I’m not naïve enough to think that this cancer of DEI will ever be fully removed, seeing even a small purge of it from the industry is a step in the right direction. Maybe, here... just maybe, nature is finally starting to heal. But - at the same time - after years of watching this rot fester, I won’t hold my breath either.

EA has been no exception to avoiding the industry downturn, with layoffs now spanning across Respawn, BioWare, and Codemasters over the last two years—many of which seemed to foreshadow the current collapse we've been witnessing...

Oh - and speaking of BioWare, the studio’s decline remains one of the clearest signs of EA’s failing leadership structure. Once a crown jewel of the publisher loved by all, BioWare has been a mess ever since Corinne Busche left the sinking ship of a studio for Wizards of the Coast, leaving behind a broken development pipeline and a team in turmoil. The writing staff was laid off and various other positions were spun into different areas of EA. I'd imagine those same folks are now the ones out of a job... As I predicted back when this move was taking place.

While Busche is often referred to with feminine pronouns by the media, it should be noted that he is a man—and this is an important correction in the pursuit of factual reporting. His playing dress up as a developer and subsequent exit marked the beginning of the inevitable downward spiral that EA has been unable to stop.

The loss of talent, vision, and now... the entire projects like the rumored Titanfall spin-off points to a company that’s no longer investing in creative risk—but instead - they're slashing their own teams to meet financial goals.

And yet, EA continues to deflect in favor of investors. The games industry needs a course correction. Whether EA will lead in that or continue bleeding, for now, remains to be seen.

~Smash