A disappointing 2011 at video game publisher Electronic Arts may be leading the company to lay off anywhere from 500-1000 employees. The rough year was headlined by declining subscriber numbers to their flagship Star Wars: The Old Republic massively-multiplayer online game, the departure of their CFO, and the expensive acquisition of PopCap games. To cap it all off, gamers angry with the ending of Mass Effect 3 flooded Consumerist’s March Madness style tournament to name EA the Worst Company in America.
Even for a company the size of Electronic Arts, those kinds of layoff numbers would be a rather eye-opening five to eleven percent of their workforce. A few years ago it was Activision that couldn’t seem to escape bad press and bad news. These days, EA seems to be the company in the industry that can’t escape the negative publicity.
Electronic Arts has somewhat denied that there are layoffs upcoming: “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.”
Not exactly the most confidence-inspiring statement for those working at the publisher. News outlets covering the industry expect something definitive to happen within the next week or so.