Image via Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts.
Electronic Arts has reportedly laid off huge numbers of employees in yet another round of cuts targeting Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn Entertainment. According to Bloomberg News, the company has eliminated off "between 300 and 400 positions." IGN is reporting that over 100 Respawn employees have been "impacted" but the cuts, but it's unclear if they've been let go or are being given the opportunity to search for other jobs inside EA.
In a post on social media, Respawn Entertainment stated that the company has decided to "step away" from two "early-stage incubation projects" (Bloomberg says one of these was an Apex Legends extraction shooter code-named "R7"), and that it's made "targeted team adjustments" on the Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi teams. "We're offering meaningful support to those impacted, including exploring new opportunities within EA."
This is the second time in 2025 that Electronic Arts has laid off workers with one hand while its game studios post statements that obfuscate layoffs and emphasize workers being offered opportunities elsewhere in the company. In January Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare posted a blog stating that because work on the next Mass Effect game was still in the early stages, it had opted to assign employees to other teams at EA.
Moments after that blog went out, BioWare employees began posting on social media that the company had laid them off.
EA spent $125 million laying off 5 percent of its workforce in 2024.
The stunning number of employees allegedly let go in today's decision follows massive cuts at EA in 2024, including many at Respawn Entertainment. Last year EA told investors that it aimed to reduce its headcount by 5 percent by the end of the year, meaning it would leave around 670 people without jobs. Shortly after that announcement, EA shut down Battlefield support studio Ridgeline Games and canceled a first-person Star Wars game at Respawn Entertainment, saying the developer would work on new games set in franchises owned by EA.
Now it's unclear what EA's strategy for the studio is beyond the release of the third Star Wars Jedi game. Respawn's only other project is supporting the development of Star Wars: Zero Company with BitReactor.
If the numbers today are accurate, it would mean EA has laid off almost a thousand employees since the start of 2024. Those layoffs took place against the backdrop of two major developments for the company: the "underperformance" of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports FC 25, and the company's full-throated embrace of generative AI technology. EA hasn't announced its plans for using generative AI in game development—but for now, there will certainly be fewer workers to put those tools to use.
For now all game developers are left with is the impression that EA thinks generative AI and in-game advertising are more profitable bets than the many games it's canceled over the last few years.
