John-ShepardNot long after Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello resigned and only a few days after The Consumerist named EA the "Worst Company in America," the publisher has announced a round of layoffs.
EA has laid off an "unspecified number of employees" as part of a "streamlining" effort. They want to ensure their company is in a solid position when it's time to usher in a new generation later this year. Said EA in a statement:
"EA is sharpening its focus to provide games for new platforms and mobile. In some cases, this involves reducing team sizes as we evolve into a more efficient organization. These are difficult decisions to let go of good people who have made important contributions to EA, and whenever possible we retrain or relocate employees to new roles. Streamlining our operations will help ensure EA is bringing the best next-generation games to players around the world."
There's no doubt that every publisher wants to be well-positioned for the new generation, which should get into full swing towards the latter end of the year. The PlayStation 4 is slated to arrive this holiday season and rumors persist that Microsoft's new Xbox will also launch in 2013.
That works out well because I plan to give them less money next generation.
I wish I could but they're the publisher for a couple of my favourite game developers: Criterion and DICE.
Hmm… leave it to EA to make people lose jobs. Streamlining or not, that company has tons of money. Are layoffs really necessary? Agreed with you World, I definitely plan on supporting EA much less next gen.