EA staff describe secrecy and low morale after 400 layoffs and BioWare closure

Electronic Arts cut roughly 400 jobs last week, closed BioWare and ended early development on the next Mass Effect game. Employees now describe an internal mood that is, in the plainest terms, low.

The studio closure and job cuts were announced October 21. The cuts include around 50 people at BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. ¹ EA’s leadership said the company is concentrating its teams and money behind three strategic priorities, and described BioWare as “a legendary studio” whose closure was not taken lightly. ¹

Staff tell a different story about how the cuts were carried out. Several current and former employees spoke to the outlet Vertical Slice, as relayed by Eurogamer, about a culture of secrecy. ²

One former employee said colleagues who worked with her directly learned she had been laid off through LinkedIn. ² That, the report says, reflects an EA policy to “protect the privacy of anybody impacted.” ² Workers read it otherwise. “My suspicion is that it is done to isolate the people laid off,” one source said. ²

The effects reach the work itself. Projects in progress pass to the people who remain, and sources say it can take a week or two, sometimes longer, for teams to regain their footing. ² Another source said it can take weeks for EA to tell remaining staff what is changing and how to proceed. ²

The method of notification drew its own complaints. Multiple sources say affected employees are invited to a Zoom call with chat disabled and the other participants hidden. ² They are told they are being laid off, with no chance to ask questions or say goodbye. ² “You’re just numbers on a list,” one source said. ²

The financial backdrop is the $55 billion take-private deal, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, which closed in August. ¹ Sources told Vertical Slice that EA is now carrying $20 billion in debt it must recoup, and that profit is being put ahead of employee wellbeing. ²

AI came up as well. One source said management was “very excited about Claude and the possibilities of [generative] AI,” to the chagrin of that person’s team. ² The same source described the internal slogan as “do less, better,” which in practice felt like “the same amount with less people.” ²

EA’s own memo points toward fewer, larger projects. It names Marvel’s Iron Man and a new Star Wars Jedi game as upcoming launches, pauses Sims “Project Lotus,” and says the skate. team will be made smaller. ¹ The company said impacted employees would be supported in exploring other roles within EA. ¹ The employees quoted say the experience on the ground has not matched that language.

EA has a Global Town Hall scheduled for November, where leadership said it would discuss direction and the work ahead. ¹

Our read: Layoff totals are easy to report; the weeks afterward are harder to see. Staff accounts suggest the cost of a cut is not only the jobs removed but the time remaining teams spend working out what they now own. The November town hall is the next scheduled chance for EA to answer that. These are the accounts of unnamed sources relayed by one outlet, and EA has not responded to them in the material available.

Footnotes

1. The Verge, “EA is shutting down BioWare”. Retrieved October 29, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Eurogamer, ““A cold dead place that’s slowly decaying” - EA employees reveal a culture of secrecy and terrible morale following layoffs”. Retrieved October 29, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²