EA Developers Say Company Is a "Dead Place" After Layoffs and BioWare Closure

Following the mass layoffs carried out by Electronic Arts (EA), which culminated in the closure of BioWare, company employees broke their silence and spoke out about the restructuring. In reports published by the website Vertical Slice, workers describe an environment of uncertainty, lack of transparency, and emotional strain.

According to one source, the company's secrecy policy means that some employees only find out that colleagues have been laid off by seeing posts on LinkedIn. "My suspicion is that it is done to isolate the people laid off", said one worker.

The cuts are also reportedly disrupting project organization, as teams have to figure out who left and how to redistribute the work. Some laid-off employees say they were informed in virtual meetings without the opportunity to ask questions or say goodbye to colleagues. "It's very impersonal. You're getting laid off because you're just numbers on a list," another source stated.

EA offered some of those affected the possibility of seeking other internal positions, but some require in-person work three days a week, making it difficult for those who worked remotely to remain. "It's a joke. I didn't even bother looking [at the internal roles] because I don't want to work at this place anymore," said another employee.

Dissatisfaction also involves the encouragement of the use of generative artificial intelligence. According to the workers interviewed, leadership has been promoting tools like Claude, although its use is not yet mandatory. “Morale has been terrible. The line we kept hearing is 'do less, better' but it just felt like we were doing the same amount with less people,”, said one source. Another employee stated that the message from managers is: “This is the future, you have to get onboard.” For some developers, there is a fear that the technology will be used to keep smaller teams producing the same quantity of games.

Criticism also extends to the management of BioWare, the studio responsible for franchises like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. According to reports, the developer was hampered by constant changes in direction, including attempts to incorporate elements of games as a service and multiplayer modes into its projects. "A lot of money got wasted going down these roads that didn't lead anywhere," stated one source. Despite the criticism of the leadership, employees emphasized that the studio still had talented professionals.

The restructuring also affected other EA teams. According to sources heard by Vertical Slice, the developer Full Circle, responsible for skate., reportedly lost between 30% and 40% of a team of over one hundred people. Workers are questioning the discrepancy between the company's discourse about the long-term potential of the franchise and the reduction in the team responsible for the game.

The situation reinforces concerns about further cuts and the company's priorities. In an internal statement, EA said it intends to focus resources on fewer large-scale projects and support affected employees in finding other opportunities within the company. One source, however, summarized the perception of some workers with a criticism of leadership: "A cold dead place that's slowly decaying as leadership pilfers every last cent, leaving the rest of us to worry about how we feed our families."