California gaming company announces mass layoffs

A famed Silicon Valley gaming company is laying off hundreds of employees and shuttering prominent video game studio BioWare, according to an employee memo released Wednesday.

Electronic Arts, amid a business restructure, is laying off 3% of its global workforce, or about 400 jobs, according to Variety.

BioWare’s closing ends the gaming studio’s 31-year run after it developed prominent gaming franchises in “Mass Effect” and “Dragon Age.” The studio said in a social media post that it would focus on its staff’s transition and would halt development on another “Mass Effect” project.

“Over the past several months, we’ve taken a hard look at our business, how we operate, and what it will take to lead in this next era of interactive entertainment,” Cam Weber, president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, president and COO, said in a memo.

“We’ve challenged assumptions, confronted hard realities, imagined new possibilities, and made deliberate choices in order to deliver exceptional experiences for our players and to drive sustained growth,” they added.

EA is a titan in the gaming space, responsible for the “Battlefield,” “The Sims,” “Madden NFL,” and “Dead Space” franchises. A deal to buy out the company for $55 billion was completed in August involving the Jared Kushner-led Affinity Partners, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The EA execs said in the memo that the company would focus on three priorities: deepening its core, expanding its reach, and transforming the business.

The execs ended the memo on a positive note, saying the decisions were only made so the company could do its best work.

“The past several months have strengthened our belief in what EA can become. We have extraordinary people, franchises that matter to millions of players, and opportunities to build experiences we’ve only begun to imagine,” they wrote.

“Our responsibility is to make the choices, provide the clarity, and create the conditions for our teams to do their best work. We also want to give every game we choose to build its best chance to succeed for our players and fans around the world.”

Tech giant eBay also plans to lay off about 9% of its workforce, or about 1,000 jobs, CEO Jamie Iannone told staff in a memo that was reviewed by Reuters.

“Our strategy is working,” Iannone said in the memo, adding that “continuing to capture the significant opportunity ahead requires us to make thoughtful choices about where we focus and invest.”

The company, which is headquartered in San Jose, California, had 12,300 employees at the end of last year. This is the second round of layoffs, as it also let go of about 6% of its workforce — or 800 employees — in February as part of efforts to streamline operations.

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