Just before a billion-dollar deal, EA is said to have laid off employees again. This marks the third time that EA has cut jobs.
What are these layoffs? According to a report from Kotaku, EA is currently in the process of laying off more employees as part of a new round of layoffs. Although EA did not wish to comment on this matter, the website has obtained an email from last Wednesday stating:
“As part of this development, we are making changes to some positions or proposing such changes, creating new positions, and reallocating certain tasks to other teams, locations, or service partners”.
Internal email obtained by Kotaku.
The layoffs are referred to in the email as part of efforts to “adapt our way of working to better meet the evolving needs of fans”.
Here you can see what is supposed to happen in EA’s Battlefield 6:
Layoffs just before the big deal
Who is affected? Employees in various areas such as recruiting, customer support, “Trust and Safety”, and IT are reportedly the most affected by the deal. However, it is also not excluded that individual developers may be affected. Not only newly hired employees have been terminated, but specifically long-term employees are also said to be affected.
Reports indicate that especially employees in remote positions, as well as those at the Hyderabad location in India, are affected. This location belongs to PopCap Studio, which is responsible for titles like Plants vs. Zombies 2, Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes, Bejeweled Blitz, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2.
How is EA doing? According to Kotaku, this is already the third wave of layoffs for EA this year. In recent years, thousands of employees at large developers and publishers have been laid off. Kotaku reports:
- 200 testers from Apex Legends in 2023 via Zoom call
- an unknown number at Codemasters
- 800 people in another wave of layoffs in 2023
- Even more layoffs in August 2023 affecting BioWare
- In 2024, there were further layoffs affecting 670 people
- In 2025, additional personnel cuts were necessary at BioWare
- Additionally, there was another wave of layoffs in 2025 affecting 300 employees, of which about 100 worked at Respawn
- The closure of Cliffhanger Games Studio also occurred that year
- In 2026, there were two waves of layoffs, coinciding with the release of the extremely popular Skate and the best-selling premium game of 2025 in the U.S., Battlefield 6
However, what is supposed to happen to EA in the future is quite clear. The company is to be sold for around 48 billion euros to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake Partners, and Affinity Partners.
For this, they need the approval of the EU. The decision is expected to be made in a month, by July 22. Recently, EA generated approximately 6.5 billion euros in revenue, about one percent more than the previous year.
EA is not only trying to save costs through layoffs. They also want to generate even more revenue. To do this, they are considering new revenue opportunities with the industry, which likely means advertising: Because 80 € for EA FC 26 is not enough, the developers are now also selling advertising boards to sponsors
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