{"id":1614841,"date":"2026-06-23T14:47:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/VrimB63wdxXcumqNBRyZ6G"},"modified":"2026-06-23T14:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:47:06","slug":"the-grim-industry-summer-continues-as-ea-lays-off-staff-ahead-of-55-billion-sale-to-saudi-arabia-likely-to-soothe-the-sting-of-its-20-billion-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-grim-industry-summer-continues-as-ea-lays-off-staff-ahead-of-55-billion-sale-to-saudi-arabia-likely-to-soothe-the-sting-of-its-20-billion-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"The grim industry summer continues as EA lays off staff ahead of $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia, likely to soothe the sting of its $20 billion debt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s looking like another grim summer for the videogame industry. Microsoft is eyeing up several studios to shutter<\/a>, and the CEO of Epic Games says there’s a tidal wave sweeping over the AAA business<\/a>, which I’m sure is fine. <\/p>\n

The next step in this macabre march comes from EA, which will reportedly be laying off an unknown number of staff ahead of its $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund<\/a>, which is set to have a whopping 93.4% stake when all is said and done. This comes courtesy of Kotaku<\/a>, which claims it’s spoken with sources inside the publisher, and shared an email sent to EA’s customer support team.<\/p>\n

EA claims it’s axing these roles to “adapt how we work to better meet fans\u2019 changing needs \u2026 As part of this evolution, we are making or proposing to make changes to some roles, creating new roles, and moving certain work to different teams, locations, or service partners.”<\/p>\n

Which is likely a bunch of business waffle. Layoffs after large acquisitions like this aren’t at all uncommon\u2014take Microsoft, which laid off 1,900 people<\/a> after purchasing Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. As a matter of fact, the Saudi Arabia investment fund was also reported to be tightening its purse strings<\/a> late last year. <\/p>\n

The note here is that the trimming’s happening before the acquisition, rather than afterwards\u2014most likely due to the eye-watering $20 billion in loan debt EA has taken on to close the deal. But hey, the shareholders are in favour<\/a>, and we wouldn’t want to upset the shareholders, would we?<\/p>\n

The incoming layoffs at EA include members across “recruitment, customer support, trust and safety, and IT teams”, Kotaku reports, and will be a continuation of last year’s rash of layoffs, which included:<\/p>\n