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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Game Over Zone   >   Electronic Arts cuts forecasts, cuts 6% of workforce

Electronic Arts cuts forecasts, cuts 6% of workforce

By on October 30, 2008

Citing the “uncertain economic climate”, John Riccitiello, CEO of EA, today announced that EA will be reducing headcount by approximately 6% (600 people by our estimates) by the end of March 2009. The redundancies are expected to cost approximately $10 million in EA’s fiscal third quarter (ended Dec 08) and to save $50 million per annum.

The company also reduced guidance for year ending March 2009 to revenue of $5.0 billion – $5.3 billion.

Key elements of the cost reduction plan include:

  • reducing workforce by 6%
  • moving more employees to low-cost locations
  • releasing fewer titles

The shift to low-cost locations is interesting. Does it risk development talent migrating away from LA, San Francisco and the UK?

Redunancies added to the GameOverZone.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com