There is no peace in this 2024 for the world of video games: also Respawn Entertainment was hit by massam layoffs with the publisher and studio owner, Electronic Artswhich canceled the Star Wars game in development, already confirmed in 2022.
The layoffs made by Electronic Arts are many more than initially thought and appear to amount to 670 people across all its studios, including DICE, for a total of 5% of its workforce.
The layoffs were announced by CEO Andrew Wilson, while president Laura Miele shared an internal memo revealing what the company's business priorities will be going forward. It was from her message that the cancellation of Respawn's Star Wars game, a first-person shooter still in the early stages of development, emerged.
The decision was made to focus internal studies efforts on proprietary brands and not on third parties.
Live service and intellectual property
Not much was known about the canceled game. Rumors had it starring a Mandalorian. The fate of EA's Star Wars strategy game is also unclear at this point. The company has decided to reorganize itself to focus on large open world games, large communities and live service games.
The team that was working on the canceled title would be largely reassigned to other projects, which include Apex Legends, Iron Man, Black Panther and the third installment of the Star Wars Jedi series, confirmed by the publisher.
The series that Electronic Arts will focus on include EA Sports, Apex Legends, Star Wars: Jedi, Iron Man, Black Panther, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Dragon Age, Skate and The Sims.
The layoffs were motivated only by the restructuring of the company, considering the latest decidedly positive financial results, and, added to the others that occurred in these first two months of 2024, bring the great total for the year already beyond the 8,000 jobs lost in all the industry.
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