EA Laying Off Hundreds

Startup Grind, which first reported the layoffs, said between 500 and 1,000 employees will be affected, representing between 5 percent and 10 percent of the game-publisher’s workforce.

Still, the Redwood City, Calif., company has aggressive hiring plans. Previously, it disclosed it wants to hire 5,000 engineers by the end of the decade to help build a platform, crossing all of its labels, including mobile, social and console. In particular, CTO Rajat Taneja has been bulking up his team since joining EA in October and now has 600 people on staff.

Publishing giant Electronic Arts has denied rumours that it would be laying off between 500 and 1000 staff, stating that in fact the company was growing, taking on new projects and people all the time.

The original report this morning came from Startup Grind, claiming to have confirmation that thanks to underwhelming sales of Star Wars: The Old Republic and Battlefield 3, many staffers would be let go. This in itself seems a little fishy since both games did and are doing very well - Star Wars being one of the fastest growing subscription MMOs in the past few years.

However, now EA has called these statements unsubstantiated, commenting to MCVUK that: "There are no lay-offs as such, we always have projects growing and morphing. At any given time there are new people coming in and others leaving. EA is growing and hiring and building teams to support the growing demand for digital games and services."

There is a little leeway in that release however. The use of "as-such" wording perhaps means that there are a few people being moved around instead of being fired.

Whether you believe EA's hardly watertight statement or the original report, a layoff of 500 to 1000 people would not go unnoticed, so we'll likely hear about it soon enough if there is any truth to the matter.