EA Cancels Star Wars FPS and reveals 670 job cuts
EA’s axing 5% of its global workforce, and has cancelled their highly anticipated Star Wars FPS
Last March, EA cut 6% of its workforce, and now the publisher has announced another round of layoffs. This time, EA are cutting 5% of its global workforce, laying off around 670 employees. A prominent Star Wars project has also been cancelled by EA.
This announcement comes one month after Microsoft announced 1,900 layoffs across Xbox and Activision Blizzard. This news also comes days after Sony announced plans to axe 900 staff and close down its London-based studio. Now is not a great time to be a game developer, and we hope that those who are affected by these cuts can find stable employment elsewhere.
When announcing the layoffs, EA stated that the publisher was “streamlining”, and that the publisher will be moving away from “future licensed IP” and towards “owned IP”. With this announcement, EA confirmed that they had cancelled Respawn Entertainment’s planned Star Wars FPS. Respawn Entertainment are well known for creating solid first-person shooters, like Titanfall and Apex Legends.
(Respawn Entertainment are the studio behind the Star Wars Jedi game series)
Respawn’s Star Wars FPS was reportedly a Mandalorian game. This game’s cancellation will be hugely disappointing for Star Wars fans, and for fans of single-player FPS titles. EA has also confirmed that they are winding down Ridgeline Games, a studio tasked with creating the single player campaigns of Battlefield games.
Ridgeline Games was established in 2022 under Bungie veteran Marcus Lehto. Lehto joined EA after the release of Battlefield 2042, which was criticised for its lack of a single-player campaign.
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