Gaming News

The Veilguard Wasn’t Responsible For Respawn Layoffs, Claims Insider

On Apr 30, 2025 2:10 am, by NuclearCoffee

Summary

Respawn Entertainment has canceled two projects early in development, leading to layoffs reportedly affecting 300–400 employees.
EA’s financial woes have been public knowledge for quite a while, with EA Sports FC 25, Apex Legends, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard all having recently underperformed.
However, according to insider Jeff Grubb, Dragon Age was “not even a factor” in Respawn’s layoffs, claiming that Apex Legends and EA Sports FC 25 were more crucial.

Earlier today, it was confirmed by Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor developer Respawn Entertainment that it has canceled two projects that were early in development, one of them reportedly being another Titanfall spinoff. It was also confirmed that a wave of layoffs would follow the cancelation, which will reportedly see between 300-400 lose their jobs.

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It’s very sad news, but not totally unexpected if you’ve been keeping up to date with publisher Electronic Arts’ financial situation recently. During an earnings call last year, it was revealed that most of its big releases throughout 2024 failed to meet up to expectations, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Apex Legends, and EA Sports FC 25 all named as disappointments.

Due to all the conversation and toxicity that surrounded Dragon Age: The Veilguard during its release (and even now still), it was pushed to the front and blamed for most of EA’s financial woes. To make it clear, missing your expected player count by a whopping 50 percent is death for any series, but it has now been claimed that the underperformance of EA Sports FC 25 and Apex Legends were far more integral to the fate of Respawn.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Wasn’t Responsible For Respawn Layoffs, Claims Insider

Shortly after Respawn’s statement about the cancelations and layoffs, industry insider Jeff Grubb claimed that Dragon Age “isn’t even a factor” in the decision. Grubb seems to have pretty decent connections within EA and Respawn, having firmly shut down rumors of Titanfall 3’s existence earlier this month, and now Grubb claims that EA Sports FC 25 and Apex Legends were likely the main reason behind this new round of layoffs.

It makes sense really, as both will be far more valuable to EA than Dragon Age, and a small hit to those two behemoths will have had a much larger impact than a big hit to Dragon Age. In any case, it simply blows that we’re now having to deal with yet more mass layoffs at a big studio, and fingers crossed Respawn and those affected can pick themselves back up again.