The Developers Union of Australia is sounding the alarm. Electronic Arts has reduced the staff of Firemonkeys, the country’s largest game development studio.
According to Game Workers Unite, from 40 to 50 people could be fired, and this is 5% of the employees of the Australian game dev.
According to unofficial data, the Firemonkeys staff reached 200 people. Employees were informed of future layoffs earlier this week. The remaining staff will be transferred to games services. According to the official position, the dismissals are associated with a change in the internal policy of the studio.
Recently, we decided to reorient the teams in order to pay more attention to our games-services. We are conducting consultations, as a result of which some positions in the studio may change.
However, Kotaku sources in Firemonkeys admit that the story will not end there. According to them, the management dismissed a number of key employees. How to maintain and develop games without them is unclear. It is possible that Electronic Arts plans to cover up the asset altogether.
In the Australian trade union Game Workers Unite, EA’s actions are called “incredibly disappointing”.
This is a huge blow to the local game dev — a decision that will affect the already crowded freelance and indie developer markets, as well as the student game dev community.
Firemonkeys Studio was created in 2012 as a result of the merger of two EA studios: FireMint and IronMonkey. The company deals exclusively with mobile titles. Her portfolio includes Real Racing 3, The Sims: FreePlay and Need for Speed: No Limits.
This is the fourth major reduction in game development over the past few weeks. The staff of Activision Blizzard and Next Games has been reduced, and just today it became known about the upcoming layoffs at ArenaNet.
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- There will be mass layoffs at ArenaNetThe creators of Mass Effect Infiltrator and Real Racing were united into one studio