After Electronic Arts (EA) was acquired by a Saudi Arabia-led investment group for US$55 billion and completed privatization, EA developers who were already uneasy about layoffs now seem to be even more nervous. According to anonymous EA employees interviewed by Game Developer, there is an atmosphere within the company that “may be laid off at any time.” Some employees even bluntly said that everyone now assumes that they are always under the threat of layoffs.
Instead of large-scale layoffs, cut them slowly in waves?
What makes employees even more worried is that some people think that EA may not take the approach of cutting off a large number of employees again, but may change to batches and small-scale layoffs to reduce the possibility of triggering the notification requirements related to the US WARN Act. These statements currently come from anonymous employees. EA has not yet responded to GamesRadar’s concerns about layoffs, so it cannot be regarded as an official layoff plan. But from the perspective of employees, the most terrifying thing now seems to be not “whether they will be laid off”, but “when will it be their turn next?”
The $55 billion acquisition also carries a large amount of debt
The reason why this acquisition makes employees so nervous is also related to the financial structure of the transaction itself. After EA completes the acquisition, it will need to assume about $22 billion in debt, and the company reportedly plans to cut costs by about $700 million per year, of which about $170 million will come from so-called “organizational efficiency” measures. For developers, this statement is naturally not reassuring, especially since EA just laid off employees at multiple studios that worked on “Battlefield 6” this spring.
Could the entire team disappear together?
An EA employee said more directly that it is difficult to believe that teams or games that do not perform well will not be disbanded or sold in the end. The problem has therefore changed from simply “layoffs” to developers’ concerns about the entire game ecosystem, because under the pressure of high debt, if any game does not perform as expected, it may become a reason for management to recalculate costs. The $55 billion deal sounds luxurious, but for EA employees, what they are most concerned about now may not be how rich the new boss is, but that they will not be EA people tomorrow.