Electronic Arts announced that it is laying off around 300-400 employees (per Bloomberg), which includes many from the studio behind Apex Legends and Titanfall. In turn, Respawn Entertainment has announced that it has had to let go of about 100 of its crew as part of the staff reduction. EA, which has not always had the best responses from the gaming community regarding its decisions, has said that it is helping the laid-off staff to find other opportunities. The bulk of EA’s internal layoffs are said to be mainly from its Experiences and Fan Care teams, with others included from marketing and support, and those laid off are encouraged to apply for other positions within the company.
Per EA (via IGN):
“We are treating our people with care and respect throughout this process, working to minimize impacts by helping affected employees explore new opportunities within the company when possible and providing support during the transition.”
Respawn Entertainment has posted about the layoffs, indicating how it must refocus and adjust its remaining staff, although ironically enough, their home page, at the time of this writing, defaults to a “We’re Hiring! Join the Respawn Team”. Two unannounced games have been cancelled, one of which is rumored to have been a new Titanfall game. EA had already reportedly cancelled what is thought to be a different single-player Titanfall game back in 2023. It seems, at least for now, Titanfall cannot get off the ground, and fans will have to wait until Respawn can regroup before another installment moves forward.
Respawn’s remaining staff are primarily tasked with expanding and supporting Apex Legends, which per Steam’s charts still engages at least 100,000-200.000 players monthly, and its Star Wars Jedi franchise. Another irony with the layoffs is that it has been reported that staff from Apex Legends tied to development, publishing, and QA were let go. Regarding the Star Wars Jedi franchise, the challenges for the third and final game only seem to be increasing now following these layoffs, and its original team leader Stig Amussen having left in 2023.
