Highlights
- EA's layoffs hit the Apex Legends community team, with 670 total layoffs planned company-wide due to industry changes.
- Ex-Global Social Media Lead for Apex Legends, Alex Ackerman, shared her job loss, sparking supportive reactions.
- EA's recent actions include canceling projects, closing studios, and laying off staff, part of a trend in the gaming industry.
EA has reportedly laid off some employees from the Apex Legends community team working at Respawn Entertainment. This move related to the Apex Legends team comes in the wake of a layoff announcement made by the California-based publisher last month.
Earlier, CEO Andrew Wilson had revealed there were plans to let go of 5% of EA's workforce, roughly 670 people. He said that these multi-part layoffs would be completed by the first half of the next quarter. The reason for this restructuring was revealed to be “an accelerating industry transformation where player needs and motivations have changed significantly.”
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In a post on Twitter, Alex Ackerman, the ex-Global Social Media Lead for Apex Legends, shared that she became the latest victim of EA’s layoffs. She revealed, “After 20 Seasons of Apex and 5 years at Respawn nearly to the day, my job has been made redundant and I have been laid off.” In addition, she highlighted that working on the battle royale title had been “the honor of my career” and “a highlight of my life.”
As soon as Ackerman broke the news, loads of supportive comments started pouring in. While some users expressed disappointment at her dismissal and thanked her for the work through the years, others questioned the company’s decision to ax the veteran who had been there all the way from Season 1 to Season 20 of Apex Legends.
Intensive Restructuring by EA Amid an Alarming Layoff Surge
EA has been busy with canceling projects, closing down studios, and communicating layoffs these past few weeks. First, the gaming giant revealed it was striking off plans for a Star Wars-based FPS which was being developed at Respawn. Then, it shut down the Battlefield-centric development studio, Ridgeline Games. Besides that, work on mobile games – including F1 Mobile Racing, MLB Tap Sports, The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, and Kim Kardashian Hollywood – were also announced for closure. The job cuts at EA are just one instance of an industry-wide layoff wave that is sweeping through.
Not long ago, some of the big names such as Riot Games, Xbox, PlayStation, and Activision Blizzard underwent organizational restructuring, resulting in layoffs. Game companies are shifting resources from certain projects to focus on those that they think have a higher chance of succeeding. These hard choices have stemmed partly from the increasing costs of producing a AAA game and partly because of overhiring during the pandemic era. What’s worrying is that 2023 saw a total of 10,000 employees being laid off, whereas the number for 2024 has already reached 8,000 in just over two months. As the year winds down, it will be worth keeping an eye on how the industry weathers this brutal layoff storm.
Apex Legends
Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game made by Respawn. In this shooter, players take up the mantle of a Legend — one of the playable characters — and form a squad with other players. The game is set in the same universe as the Titanfall series and the two franchises have had many crossovers.
- Platform(s)
- PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , PC , iOS , Android , Switch
- Released
- February 4, 2019
- Developer(s)
- Respawn Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Metascore
- 89
