More Layoffs Announced From EA
April 28, 2013EA puts more heads on the chopping block.
After the recent cuts to BioWare and the closure of EA’s San Francisco office, we now see more people in the gaming industry lose their jobs. According to Kotaku, about 10% of the company’s 9000 employees have been laid off in the recent month. There was a letter leaked from EA CEO Larry Probst detailing a “streaming” of the company. Now none of this says what parts of the company will be effect, or even how many employees. Regardless, it is bad news that can not be taken lightly.
FROM LARRY PROBST
As we begin the new fiscal year, I want to provide you with a brief update on some important changes to our organization. As Executive Chairman, my focus is to ensure EA is delivering high quality games and services to our consumers, while helping the executive team develop a FY14 operating plan that drives growth, rationalizes headcount and controls costs.
In recent weeks, the executive team has been tasked with evaluating every area of our business to establish a clear set of priorities, and a more efficient organizational structure. This process has led to some difficult decisions about the number of people and locations needed to achieve our goals.
The workforce reductions which we communicated in the last two weeks represent the majority of our planned personnel actions. We are extremely grateful for the contributions made by each of these individuals – they will be missed by their colleagues and friends at EA.
We are also taking action to streamline our organization, including changes in two key areas:
· Core marketing functions have been consolidated under our COO, Peter Moore. The combined group will bring together our Label marketing teams, Global Acquisition Marketing and Marketing Analytics into one multi-talented team under Todd Sitrin’s leadership. The development and marketing teams will continue to work as cohesive units, driving clear and consistent messaging and consumer engagement for each of our franchises.
· Origin will move into Frank Gibeau’s Labels organization. Andrew Wilson will take on the leadership of Origin, working with CJ Prober and the team to create more value and an enhanced entertainment experience for our consumers.
Change is sometimes difficult, but essential. The adjustments we are making will put us in the best position to build great games and services, deliver them more efficiently to consumers, and demonstrate to players around the world why they should spend their time with us.
EA is a great company, with talented and hard-working teams, a strong portfolio of products and an extremely bright future.
Thank you all for your dedication and commitment to our long term success!”
So what can we take from this? Once again EA has lived up to it’s title of “Worst Company of 2012” and there are many unhappy people right now. All we can do is hope for a fresh start to those who lost their jobs recently, and to have them back to work soon creating games and entertainment we love so much.
