This afternoon we saw the industry message boards ablaze with rumors that EA had laid off 1,000 people, that EA Redwood Shores was closing, and that The Godfather was cancelled.
Okay, so the rumor raced a little out of control. However, EA is "realigning resources" to meet the "transition of the industry," according to a spokesperson for the publisher. Approximately 5% of EA staff worldwide will be affected - and considering EA has about 6500 employees, that means in spite of the positive spin on things there will still be around 325 people without jobs. But EA assures us that no announced games will be affected.

EA tells us that this is a good thing, a trimming of the fat in order to pursue future priorities: next-gen games, new markets in Asia, online games, new IPs, and the mobile sector.

An EA insider also tells us that although the Redwood Shores studio was particularly hard-hit by the layoffs, this is a pretty standard end-of-the-year move, and not an indication of how well -- or poorly -- EA is doing, although exacerbated a bit this year because of the rigors of a new hardware cycle. Sales are slightly down, and that means harder times for developers. But EA is known for laying off developers after projects wrap up, and with The Godfather and Battle for Middle-Earth wrapping up, there will be some developers looking for new jobs.

Che Chou contributed to this report.
via: 1up.com

Dam.. I just found out they have an office about 5 minutes from my house... I was going to apply...

BLAME OUR STUPID CANADIAN PM. HARPER!

lol rvdthps..

it probably is his fault, lol.

i hope everything goes well for EA.

I think EA puts out great product... I would hate to see them have serious problems

I don't like EA. They buy every small developing company out and then milk the series. They barely update their yearly versions of games and they rip you off. NBA street was developed by an outside company, but they bought them out. Now, 3 sports have 7 games with the street name. Need for Speed used to be a respectable series, but EA bought them out and it all went downhill since Underground. Madden rarely ever has new gameplay features and really only has updated rosters; selling the same game for an extra $50. Plus, games from EA are always full price, never lower like a starting price of $40. If the next-next-next-next-next-next-gen has a price of $300 per game, and almost all games sold for $150, EA would still put a price of $300. I also hate how they bought out the NFL license. I hate EA and it would be nice if all those small developing companies develop quality games and EA wouldn't try to monopolize the industry (ends rant).

EA does have good games, it's just that the changes EA do to games (after buying the company out) suck; let alone have any change at all and they use the same game for yearly editions.

i am not a big ea fan... i think they went the right way with NFS-MW but other than that they are sub par on my standards most of the time.

it sucks when large companies decide tot hrow there employees in the trash based on charts and reports and not how each individual person is working.

penny arcade made fun of it today on their site.