Electronic Arts (EA), a leading game publisher, has recently announced a significant restructuring plan that will result in approximately 5% of its global workforce being laid off. With a staff count of 13,400 as of March 2023, this move could potentially affect around 670 employees.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson shared this news in a letter to the employees, stating that the company is optimizing its global real estate footprint to better support its business and sunsetting games that are not expected to succeed in the evolving industry.
Moreover, EA has decided to shift its focus away from the development of future licensed IPs that do not align with their vision for the changing industry. Instead, the company plans to concentrate on its core strengths, including owned IPs, sports, and massive online communities, to deliver entertainment that players desire today and in the future.
Wilson said of the layoffs: “While not every team will be impacted, this is the hardest part of these changes, and we have deeply considered every option to try and limit impacts to our teams. Our primary goal is to provide team members with opportunities to find new roles and paths to transition onto other projects. Where that’s not possible, we will support and work with each colleague with the utmost attention, care, and respect. Communicating these impacts has already begun and will be largely completed by early next quarter.”
Unfortunately, as part of these cost-cutting measures, EA has canceled an in-development Star Wars first-person shooter (FPS) at Respawn Entertainment. This game was being helmed by former LucasArts veteran Peter Hirschmann, who has worked on several popular Star Wars titles in the past.
According to earlier reports, the game’s plot revolved around a Mandalorian bounty hunter who was not thought to be THE Mandalorian; the player would pursue bounties throughout the galaxy.
The player’s base of operations, or “the den,” was where the game began and held various features such as an upgrade station, an armory, a galaxy map, and your ship. It is understood that this is where you would decide which bounty(s) to pursue. The player could then outfit their ship with the weapons and armor of their choice, set out on the planet where the bounty is hidden, and land.
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The player could explore some larger open areas to find their bounties and other secrets, but the game was not an open world; instead, it offered a linear level experience. Because of the Mandalorian jetpacks, which allowed for both vertical dashing and horizontal boosting to reach those high-reach locations, combat was said to be extremely fast-paced. Additionally, there was rumored to be a takedown feature that allowed your character to defeat enemies by performing takedowns that were a lot less graphic than in something like DOOM.
The primary adversaries in the game were stormtroopers, who would patrol most maps while you attempted to complete your bounty. They came in a variety of forms, including the standard shotgun, heavy (rocket) types, heavy (regular), and more that you would expect from a Star Wars game. It’s also acknowledged that there were sporadic “boss-like” enemies in the game, such as AT-ST walkers and other such opponents.
Though it’s thought the game was still a ways off from release, it was known to have a well-polished vertical slice and a few other missions/levels that were almost finished.
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EA Entertainment president Laura Miele confirmed the cancellation of the Star Wars FPS, stating that the company is more interested in developing games based on their owned brands while providing support for existing games.
In another shocking move, Ridgeline Games, a company founded in 2021 to develop a potential single-player Battlefield game, has been closed by EA. Having been founded in late 2021, the Seattle-based studio has been hiring for its first project, which is a “narrative campaign in the Battlefield universe.” Marcus Lehto, the co-creator of Halo and one of the studio’s founders, left the company last week for what appeared to be personal reasons.
EA has assured that its primary goal is to provide team members with opportunities to find new roles and paths to transition onto other projects. The company has already begun communicating these impacts and aims to complete the process by early next quarter. EA’s restructuring plan is expected to be substantially complete by the end of this calendar year.
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