‘FIFA’ publisher EA to cut 6% of workforce, reduce office space By Reuters

(This March 29 story has been corrected to say ‘newest main videogame writer’ as an alternative of first in paragraph 1)

(Reuters) – Digital Arts Inc (NASDAQ:) stated on Wednesday it will lay off about 6% of its workforce and scale back workplace house, making it the newest main videogame writer to announce job cuts.

Know-how companies have led the newest spherical of layoffs as U.S. corporations brace for a possible financial downturn amid rising rates of interest world wide.

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:) introduced a second spherical of job cuts this month. Tech layoffs hit 63,000 within the first two months of the yr, in line with knowledge from Challenger, Grey & Christmas Inc.

EA, which had about 12,900 workers on the finish of March final yr, expects to incur between $170 million and $200 million in fees associated to the restructuring.

“As we drive better focus throughout our portfolio, we’re transferring away from initiatives that don’t contribute to our technique, reviewing our actual property footprint, and restructuring a few of our groups,” CEO Andrew Wilson stated in a weblog submit.

EA, behind the “FIFA” soccer videogame franchise and “The Sims”, will present alternatives for workers to maneuver to different initiatives and the place that’s not attainable will present severance pay and extra advantages, Wilson stated.

Online game publishers are additionally scuffling with a slowdown in participant spending within the face of decades-high inflation, a change in fortunes from the meteoric progress witnessed through the pandemic.

Online game gross sales thus far this yr have been flat and spending on online game content material throughout platforms is down 2%, in line with analytics agency Circana.

Digital Arts lowered its annual bookings forecast in January after it delayed the discharge of a recreation primarily based on the “Star Wars” franchise.

Newly launched “Hogwarts Legacy” recreation from Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:) topped the videogame gross sales charts in February, in line with Circana.