Yesterday, Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn Entertainment revealed that it would lay off a number of employees and cancel two “early-stage incubation” projects. Now, it’s emerged that these layoffs were part of a wider EA staff cut wave.
Respawn’s layoffs were announced yesterday, but the studio didn’t announce the numbers. Now, though, a Bloomberg report is claiming that the Respawn layoffs ran to around 100 employees, and that they were part of a wider layoff wave that saw “between 300 and 400” EA employees lose their jobs.
An EA spokesperson told Bloomberg that the cuts were part of “select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of driving future growth”.
Bloomberg goes on to say that one of Respawn’s canceled projects, codenamed R7, was “an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe”. The report also claims that said project wasn’t anywhere near being released.
As Bloomberg points out, reports of EA and Respawn’s layoffs come after what has been a relatively tough year for the publisher in terms of revenue. Back in January, EA admitted that big-name releases Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports FC 25 had underperformed, contributing to a “mid-single-digit decline” for the studio.
It’s also a difficult time for the industry as a whole, with studios like Veilguard developer BioWare, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League outfit Rocksteady, and even tech titan Microsoft letting staff go in recent months.
Despite the fact that some of the staff laid off from Respawn were working on the Star Wars Jedi series, work on the next installment of the series apparently continues apace, although we don’t know too much about the game yet.
Newly-announced turn-based tactics game Star Wars: Zero Company, which was revealed earlier this month, also doesn’t appear to have been affected by the layoffs.
We’ll have to wait and see what Respawn has in store for us next (beyond Zero Company and the new Star Wars Jedi game, of course). Stay tuned for more.
