EA’s Apex Legends Development Team Hit with Layoffs
A fresh wave of layoffs has impacted the development team of Apex Legends, a popular esports game by EA. While the exact number of people affected remains undisclosed, employees have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the matter.
According to PC Mag, employees such as Apex Legends security analyst Conor Ford expressed their frustration on X (formerly Twitter), referring to the layoffs as “so messed up” and expressing their weariness with the continuous job cuts.
Other employees, including Respawn build engineer Tyler Owens and level designer Aaron Stump, also voiced their disappointment at seeing their colleagues lose their jobs.
While Ford, Owens, and Stump have apparently retained their positions, global social media lead Alex Ackerman shared that she had been laid off. Ackerman thanked the Apex Legends community for her memorable experience working on the game. Another employee described the experience as being “tossed out like trash,” according to alphaIntel.
This is not the first time EA’s layoffs have impacted Respawn. In addition to the recent cutbacks, the development of a first-person shooter Star Wars game, potentially centered around The Mandalorian, was canceled. In February, over 100 Apex Legends testers were laid off via a Zoom call.
These layoffs are part of a daunting start to 2024 for the video game industry, as over 8,000 job losses have been reported in just two and a half months. The projected number of layoffs for the entire year is expected to surpass 10,000, based on the figures from 2023, which includes various layoffs from EA, affecting Codemasters in December and around 800 employees in March.
In addition to layoffs, the video game industry faces the potential impact of strike action by SAG-AFTRA due to concerns about the use of AI and its potential to replace human workers.
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