- Electronic Arts will lay off about 350 people from its marketing, publishing, and operations teams, and wind down efforts in Russia and Japan.
- The publisher missed its Q3 2019 fiscal guidance last month and saw its largest single-day stock drop in more than a decade.
- Rival publisher Activision Blizzard cut 8% of its workforce, about 750 people, in February following record financial results.
Game publisher Electronic Arts 
has announced that it is laying off about 350 people from its global workforce of about 9,000 employees.
In a statement released this morning, CEO Andrew Wilson detailed the motivations behind the move, which comes from changes made to its marketing, publishing, and operations teams. Additionally, the publisher is “ramping down” its efforts in Russia and Japan as it reevaluates how to serve those markets.
“Today, we took some important steps as a company to address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead,” wrote Wilson. “As we look across a changing world around us, it’s clear that we must change with it. We’re making deliberate moves to better deliver on our commitments, refine our organization, and meet the needs of our players.
“In addition to organizational changes, we are deeply focused on increasing quality in our games and services,” he added. “Great games will continue to be at the core of everything we do, and we are thinking differently about how to amaze and inspire our players.”
In February, EA announced that it had missed its revenue guidance for its fiscal Q3 2019 quarter, with net bookings of $1.61B USD compared to analyst expectations of $1.76B. According to MarketWatch, the stock dropped 13.3% the following day, falling to about $80 per share—the worst single-day percentage drop for EA in more than a decade.
“Great games will continue to be at the core of everything we do, and we are thinking differently about how to amaze and inspire our players.”
Following that announcement, EA began layoffs at its Melbourne, Australia, mobile game studio, FireMonkeys. However, the publisher has seen a financial uptick since its Q3 report, thanks to the success of free-to-play battle royale shooter, Apex Legends . Shares are up more than 25% since then, trading at $103 as of this writing.
Related Article: Activision Blizzard to Cut 8% of its Workforce
The Esports Observer reached out to an Electronic Arts representative for further information about the layoffs, including whether it impacted the publisher’s Competitive Gaming Division. We will update the story if we receive any additional details.
EA’s Competitive Gaming Division currently oversees the Madden NFL 19 Championship Series, as well as various leagues based around its FIFA 19 soccer simulation. Apex Legends has been a hit with streamers on Twitch so far, and several esports organizations have signed top players in the hopes that an esports scene will develop around it. Additionally, EA just released the “Firestorm” battle royale mode for historical shooter Battlefield V, which could also generation competitive interest.
Last month, publisher Activision Blizzard
reported even larger layoffs, with about 8% of its 9,600 employees cut—potentially more than 750 people. Activision Blizzard’s layoffs came on the back of its most profitable year to date.
