Layoffs at EA; Numerous Branch Virtually Ceased to Exist
EA Baton Rouge employees report an unprofessional dismissal of 200 people. This was said to have occurred during a conversation on Zoom.
According to independent sources (via Kotaku), more than 200 testers have been laid off from Electronic Arts' Louisiana branch, working so far primarily on Apex Legends. The termination of the employees was said to have occurred during an unannounced call on Zoom.
Sudden termination
Unaware of the news awaiting them, members of the studio were to be summoned at 8:00 a.m. for a previously unscheduled online meeting, which many of them joined from their private computers and phones. Once it was over, all of them were to be out of work, going on a 60-day notice period.
EA's plan was to come as a surprise not only to the former employees already on the job, but also to their immediate superiors. The dismissed employees were only given the chance to collect their belongings from the office under the supervision of building security and to receive severance compensation, which in many cases turned out not to cover the entire contract signed upon taking the job.
The future of the studio, Apex and EA's clarification
The EA Baton Rouge branch opened in 2008 and trained the testers who were laid off yesterday to take care of the quality of the constantly developing Apex and other projects.
Anonymous members of the affected group suggest that the quality guarantee they provided will be difficult to obtain by another team, which could have negative consequences for Apex Legends players in particular.
EA did not directly address the details of the incident, but assured that we can still expect a consistent level of attention to detail from them:
"As part of our global strategy, we are expanding the distribution of the test team of Apex Legends and we are ending the testing that was concentrated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which affects the services provided by our third-party provider.
Our global team, which includes remote testers from across the United States, enables us to increase our weekly hours of testing and optimizing the game and reflects our commitment to understanding and better serving our growing community around the world."
Despite this large wave of layoffs, EA's Baton Rouge will not be closed for now.
The whole unpleasant event may have been related to the recent closure of mobile projects related to Apex Legends and Battlefield and the cancellation of the single-player spin-off called Titanfall Legends.
