EA Lays Off Staff Across All Battlefield Studios Following Record-Breaking Battlefield 6 Launch (ign.com) 76
Electronic Arts has laid off staff across multiple Battlefield studios despite Battlefield 6 being the best-selling game in the U.S. in 2025 and the "biggest launch in franchise history." According to IGN, the layoffs include workers at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios. From the report: Individuals are being informed that the layoffs are taking place as part of a "realignment" across the Battlefield studios, as the team continues its ongoing, live service support for Battlefield 6 following launch. All four studios will remain operational, though the layoffs seem to be impacting a variety of teams across multiple studios and offices.
IGN asked EA for comment on total number and types of roles impacted, as well as for the specific reasons for the layoffs. An EA spokesperson told IGN: "We've made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. 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."
IGN asked EA for comment on total number and types of roles impacted, as well as for the specific reasons for the layoffs. An EA spokesperson told IGN: "We've made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. 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."
Makes sense... (Score:3)
It's harder to create a product than it is to maintain it.
Re: (Score:3)
It's harder to create a product than it is to maintain it.
It's harder to justify the additional 10% bump in stock price without dumping a ton of internal cost.
It's even harder when you have to do that shit every fiscal quarter.
Welcome to 21st Century Greed.
Re: (Score:3)
Labor is a market. If you're part of the oversupply, you'll be taken advantage of. I'm not making a moral judgement about it, it's simply the way of things.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Labor is a market. If you're part of the oversupply, you'll be taken advantage of. I'm not making a moral judgement about it, it's simply the way of things.
Perhaps you should make that a moral judgement. Perhaps ALL of us meatsacks should, as the half-assed delusion filled efforts of Good E. Nuff, AI bot for hire threatens every labor market on the planet with the choice that is good enough for Greed.
Labor, is the main means of human survival. If we still want to label that a “market” where that good is subject to supply and demand, then slavery merely got a corporate dress code. The Unemployables will soon be chained to UBI. And will be prayin
Re: (Score:3)
There is damage inherent in humanity. Catholics call it original sin but even if you're not a believer, I think it's pretty apparent.
People are damaged which means it'll never happen that we all agree to uphold a moral standard. Should we do better? Of course we should. But reality is reality.
Where being a believer helps is in the fact that there is something good about all of this. If it gets bad enough, people start to reevaluate priorities and suddenly, more will stand behind that moral standard and thin
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They served their purpose... (Score:5, Insightful)
... so now their salaries are just a liability for the company. Remember folks: In the corporate world, employees are not people. They are "human resources". Just another column in a spreadsheet.
Corporations have no heart, no soul. And that's exactly how shareholders want them to be.
Re: (Score:2)
These days the term is Human Capital and corps see just about all capital/assets as depreciating in value over time. It's not just an accounting term. It's an executive viewpoint.
Re: (Score:3)
Sure, but doesn't EA like to pump out a new Battlefield game every two years like clockwork?
Or, are they going with the Fortnite model where they keep doing quarterly mission packs to an existing game over and over again?
Re: (Score:3)
Bingo. I suspect thats exactly what they are doing.
They are looking at Fortnite where Epic is *still* making money hand over fist and recording 700K concurrent player counts close to a decade after release and thinking that sure seems like cheaper money.
Of couse they are missing that Fortnite is still actively worked on (Its the codebase against which the Unreal Engine is dogfooded) and 2026 fortnite is practically a whole different game than 2017 fortnite.
Also Am I the only person that finds the idea that
Re: (Score:2)
March 2017 - the Nintendo Switch was released
Yes you are old
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Corporations have no heart, no soul. And that's exactly how shareholders want them to be.
If you were paying the bill you'd act the same way. How many things that you don't use or need anymore do you keep paying for just to help someone maintain their income (not out of laziness and forgetting to cancel)?
I will periodically take a look at my spending and cut back on things I don't think are necessary. I do that regardless of whether I got a big bonus that year. This apparently means I have no soul in your worldview.
Re: (Score:2)
Companies think they can just ignore that indefinitely, but they are in for a rude awakening if they don't reverse course. (Especially those that are firmly in the category of "disposable income" / "discretionary spending".)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There's been so many layoffs in the gaming industry over the last two years that you'd think co-ops could be a real option for the displaced. There's a lot of talent available. Just not a lot of big publisher money to back them up.
Re: (Score:2)
Just playing devil's advocate, but
There's a lot of talent available.
is there, though? Maybe the ones let go were the easier to replace mouth breathers that can be swapped out for a fresh graduate with little to no difference in production? The people doing the real work are probably still there.
If these places are like some of the work place I've seen, you could more or less fire the bottom half and very little would be lost. Most of them are just lazy and don't care, but some are worse then that.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, many of the laid-off teams have been canned after successful launches. Even if some of them might be chaff, there's definitely wheat in there somewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree and disagree.
Corporations are obviously not alive and thus have none of that stuff. They're contractual arrangements. However, corporations are operated by humans. Those humans make decisions in the name of "the corporation". Those humans are choosing to put the financial advancement of the owners, investors, and higher ups above those of the workers.
This isn't an issue of being absent of a heart because that would imply a lack of malice. These decisions are made by black-hearted people. People with
Crazy People (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone that has chosen to work for EA or buy any EA product since circa 2015 deserves the fucking that EA will give them.
Ut ex exemplo patet
Re: (Score:2)
Fuck people for taking a job that pays to put food on the table. They made a poor choice and should deal with being treated like shit is an incredibly strange take. Let me guess it was her fault she got raped for the way she was dressed?
Re: (Score:2)
Most slashdotters are prosperity theologists because they're more successful than average.
People who believe in that shit aren't smart enough to understand that line of thinking leads directly to billionaires being the only people on the planet who matter.
Re: (Score:2)
I made four excellent decisions in life: 1. to have a talent for programming and 2. to have well to do parents who valued education and 3. to live in a stable, prosperous country and 4. to have no major illnesses.
Can't blame me for making good decisions. Everyone else should make them too and it's their fault if they don't...
[Poe's law? Do I have to say?]
Re: (Score:1)
How do you make the decision to have no major illnesses? Besides having a talent for programming is not making a decision. You did not decided your parents, they decided to have you. Living in a prosperous county is not a decision you made unless of course you came from 3rd world country.
Re: (Score:2)
Poe's law strikes again my friend. If only someone warned you.
EA and their ilk churn through their devs (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:EA and their ilk churn through their devs (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not just EA or even IBM that churns through people like this. I can name a half dozen companies in my city that do the same. Every year there's another crop of new recruits fresh out of college (fresh meat for the grinder!) that sign on with these companies despite their reviews on glassdoor and word of mouth. Every couple of months there's a purge and of course there are people crying that they didn't see this coming.
On some level I can't blame the companies that do this because as long as they can hoover up a bunch of warm bodies to restock their shelves, they won't change their company culture. The applicants are validating this toxic behavior.
The solution is simple: vote with your dollars and reward companies that aren't toxic. EA is a company that provides an an entertainment product which is even easier to avoid if you have shred of self control.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not just EA or even IBM that churns through people like this. I can name a half dozen companies in my city that do the same.
I've made the job hunt continuous for this very reason. You can't expect loyalty, or even be loyal, but you can expect the role to end so I personally feel it's better to be the one choosing when that happens.
It's well past time that IT was unionized, mostly because the young people coming into IT don't really know how to negotiate. It's not their fault however it drags IT down salaries for everyone else. Then there are more subtle things like ergonomics and people over-working and importing that fucki
Re: (Score:2)
that sign on with these companies despite their reviews on glassdoor and word of mouth
You say "despite" but in many cases the reason is "because" of word of mouth. Working for these fuckers as bad as it is does ultimately put a nice embellishment on a resume. Many people do this to kickstart their career.
"I am an open source coder who worked on a small indie game that you can find bolted to the end of a Humble bundle sale."
doesn't have the same ring as
"I worked for the world's largest gaming company on their signature and best selling title 'Battlefield', you may have heard of it."
A signific
Re: (Score:2)
You're definitely right that working for these cesspools does add nicely to the resume. It helps them get past the HR drones in the hiring process and it appeals to some hiring managers. They're force fed the BS about how "these experiences will help them land a job elsewhere so just endure the abuse for a little longer and soon you'll cash in!" Oh... you bought a house and got married while working there? Well now you're stuck because you can't afford to leave and you belong to them.
"Don't worry becaus
Re: (Score:2)
On some level I can't blame the companies that do this because as long as they can hoover up a bunch of warm bodies to restock their shelves, they won't change their company culture. The applicants are validating this toxic behavior.
Under capitalism, people need jobs so they can live.
There are literally thousands of applicants for any decent position.
The solution is not as simple as your reductionist thought process.
Re: (Score:2)
They sell their games to the same kinds of folks they employ. It's a nice little cycle. By the time you grow out of that style of gaming, you hopefully grow out of working for that style company.
Re:EA and their ilk churn through their devs (Score:4, Insightful)
EA is perfectly fine to burn through their developers like this - there are plenty of people who still think it's "prestigious" or desirable to work for a games company, and especially one that is "successful" enough that people would be clamouring for the opportunity. The absolute churn I see with these companies is insane.
This. The game industry has been like this for decades. It made a bit more sense when games were released on a CD and then not really updated compared to live service games, but still it was more akin to making a movie than a continually revving software product.
One thing that movie production employees got right in retrospect that games devs (and maybe other devs) haven't is that Hollywood is unionized. I'm still not quite pro union / guild... but that my be me just not wanting to admit the truth.
After some decades in software (only a few of those in games, mostly "enterprise" and saas) i wouldn't mind not having to argue with "idiot" managers entirely on my own. (though i say this even for cases where i'm a mid-level manager arguing with peers or execs so... )
Also i'll point out that lawyers have the bar as their guild. Doctors have the AMA and their whole licensing protection racket. Airline pilots all have unions. Professors have unions (and the whole tenure system). As SW engineers, managers etc. are we so smart to eschew all that ? i'm starting to wonder...
(though otoh one things those professions have in common is that they're not as easy to outsource. On the other hand compare merchant mariners... All ships are owned by and manned w/ developing world people entirely to bypass US labor laws so...
OT third hand, corporations have already done their best to outsource everything that's outsource-able to the point of diminishing returns so... would it be anything worse? )
Re: (Score:2)
The textile mills in New England worked much the same. Hire some immigrants fresh off the ships and burn them out.
Just be glad the company isn't locking the fire doors to keep you in. You do check, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3)
It doesn't have to be that rigid, Hollywood is project based, as is like construction work and both have heavy union involvement.
What a union/guild COULD moderate is better notice about who and when. less grind. more support from the companies between gigs, some sort of right to rehire when they ramp back up like there was in industrial unions. (which is what "lay offs" originally were iirc)
portable health insurance...
Unions have their own problems... and limitations, but having SOME level of collecti
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure people see EA as entirely "desirable" to work for. Just that its an AAA and for folks that want AAA on their resume then ....... well its better than hammering away on a Godot platformer in the bedroom while eating catfood and fighting off landlord eviction attempts..
I suspect most game devs if you ask them where they'd like to work would tell you Larian, Rockstar, MAYBE Ubisoft f they are interested in godlike project management (Ubisoft pump out a whole new Assasins creed every year.) somethi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Yep, the UAW really did a good job keeping GM running well. Or perhaps we should form a group of union bosses to help make sure everything runs well, what shall we call it? A central committee? perhaps Supreme Soviet? That will solve all the problems.
At the end of every project (Score:5, Insightful)
Its the less desirable employees who have to be moved on.
Anyone who works for a game company needs an attitude adjustment if they think they're going to be there for more than one project.
Re: (Score:2)
BF6 retention is terrible (Score:2)
CCU on steam is down like 90% since launch. For whatever reason, the players are not sticking even though by and large players seem to appreciate the game.
Re: (Score:1)
really need an union! and OT pay for crunch time w (Score:3, Insightful)
really need an union! and OT pay for crunch time why work you ass off at 80-100 hour weeks just to get canned when the project is over!
Re: (Score:2)
I miss just blaming Bobby Kotick for this...
Worst. Boss. Ever.
Actually, that's not true, I like blaming Bobby, but the dot com bust was worse (after I worked for and left Activision). I kept my job, but I saw 88% collective layoffs (multiple rounds). We joked the floggings would stop when morale improved. The guy that told me that joke was laid off.
And 10 years later I was laid off... and got a job paying more than twice as much. Wish I'd been laid off sooner, lol. No unions involved.
Re: (Score:2)
Go become an hero.
Who knew AAA game dev was now a gig economy? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like Hollywood. Gather up the staff, make the movie, and then disperse.
in hollywood they are union / in Guilds and do pro (Score:2)
in hollywood they are union / in Guilds and sometime do project work. Now can gameing be better if an big % of say an AAA was an project with union rules?
Biggest Launch? (Score:2)
Biggest launch doesn't mean much. That doesn't say they sold the most. Could mean they spent the most marketing on it. What we do know is that nearly instantly they were HEAVILY discounting it. That's not a sign of strong sales. This is the fastest any Battlefield game as ever gone on sale.
Lame AF (Score:5, Interesting)
I recently bought the game and played a little. My last battlefield was over a decade ago, battlefield1 and 2042 sucked in my honest opinion, I can't support all of the WW1 and WW2 remakes, and the premise of 2042 jumped the shark long before the game was released. That said, I have about 20 hours into BF6 and the level of shilling for battle pass and to sell skins makes me sick. What ever happened to paying $80 dollars for a game being enough to provide the consumer with all the things and not try to nickel and dime them. This is not normal and we shouldn't accept it...
Re: (Score:2)
Funny you mentioned that. Part of the reason for the layoffs may be that lots of other people feel the same way you do about the battlepass and other microtransactions and aren't paying up.
Re: (Score:2)
This is not normal and we shouldn't accept it...
You didn't just accept it, you voted for it with your dollars. You helped build that. You're an enabler for exactly what you said we must not accept.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The last Battlefield I enjoyed was Battlefield 2142, but that was 20 years ago.
Great job everyone! (Score:2)
bf6 all charms (Score:1)
It sucks, but not all are Top Performers (Score:2)
As others have stated, companies aren't faithful to their workers, so everyone, especially the peons are just numbers on their balance sheets.
However, large companies have a hard time getting rid of people that actually ARE underperforming and dragging down their peers and deserve to be fired, so "layoffs" are a way to do it since "firing" someone is much, much more difficult even in "at will employment" states.
Re: (Score:2)
"firing" someone is much, much more difficult even in "at will employment" states.
It's easy when managers manage. Then they have ample records of why someone is being terminated when it's justified. Further proof that most management is worthless.
Layoff after record breaking sales...ouch (Score:2)
Profit taking (Score:2)
welcome to capitalism (Score:2)
Electronic Arts has laid off staff across multiple Battlefield studios despite Battlefield 6 being the best-selling game in the U.S. in 2025 and the "biggest launch in franchise history."
In other words: "Your job here is done, bye bye." - so basically, you had a temp job without knowing it.
Good Business (Score:3)
To pump up stocks by firing thousands of people who's work you lay claim to is just GOOD BUSINESS. That the American way. Now, in practically any other country the company would be required to treat their employees legally and with respect. Those are BAD countries. All those stupid Europeans, Asians, et al. GOOD BUSINESS is just something they don't understand. Maybe that's why they can't double there billions of dollars since Covid. You need those billions. You have a golf game next week and Smithee won't be able to brag about his investments being better than yours. That's GOOD BUSINESS, anything that puts you ahead of the other billionaires. I mean, come on, those thousands could just go work at Walmart. It's not like they are "real" SMART people. If they were, they'd be the ones firing all of their employees.
Unionize the devs? Possible option? (Score:2)
I have to agree with another comment here that today's video game production is more like movie production than traditional software coding.
Just look at the credits for any of these "Triple A" games, today, and you see a long list of people involved in everything from music composition or voice actors to artwork or consultants over aspects of the gameplay. It's no longer all about the coders.
In Hollywood, the unions/guilds help protect the rights of the people involved in the productions, because ultimately
We finished the product, now you're all fired (Score:2)
Because our executives are too dumb to come up with a new idea for you to work on.
Executives should be prevented from receiving bonuses any year in which there are mass layoffs.