The troubling recent trend of mass video game industry layoffs continued this week.
This time, it was Electronic Arts, considered one of the industry’s biggest third-party video game publishers. Per Bloomberg, EA cut more than 300 jobs, with about a third of those affecting Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind Titanfall, Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi games.
Respawn’s official X account posted a statement on Monday that the studio had to cancel two “early-stage incubation projects” as part of these cuts.
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Bloomberg’s report indicated that one project was canceled earlier in the year, with the other described as a multiplayer extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe. It’s unclear how far along the game was in development, but according to Bloomberg, it was nowhere close to being released.
While none of us have access to the full economics behind EA, it should be noted that Respawn, in particular, has developed multiple financially successful games for EA. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was a commercial success, and Apex Legends has generated billions in revenue since 2019. Because of that success, EA CEO Andrew Wilson took home $25.6 million last fiscal year.
