EA has laid off an unknown variety of people from throughout its Battlefield groups, together with staff at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios, IGN understands.
Individuals are being knowledgeable that the layoffs are happening as a part of a “realignment” throughout the Battlefield studios, because the group continues its ongoing, dwell service help for Battlefield 6 following launch. All 4 studios will stay operational, although the layoffs appear to be impacting quite a lot of groups throughout a number of studios and workplaces.
IGN requested EA for touch upon whole quantity and kinds of roles impacted, in addition to for the precise causes for the layoffs. An EA spokesperson advised IGN: “We’ve made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we’re continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs.”
Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of 2025 in the United States. It bought a “record shattering” 7 million copies in three days and was the best launch ever for a game in the franchise. While its campaign received a bit of a mixed response from critics including us, we gave its multiplayer an 8/10 at launch.
However, the months since Battlefield 6’s launch have seen the sport start to battle from patch to patch. Fans have criticized plenty of updates attributable to causes starting from cosmetics to motion, and three months in, Steam critiques have fallen to “Mixed” from a “Mostly Positive” begin. Major points reported embody criticism of heavy monetization, use of generative AI for in-game cosmetics, and fewer content material updates than anticipated. The criticism was heavy sufficient that the groups delayed the start of Season 2 to permit extra time to implement neighborhood suggestions. EA recently published a three-month roadmap for its anticipated updates.
Steam concurrents have additionally dropped considerably following Battlefield 6’s huge launch, when it hit an enormous 747,440 peak. Steam concurrents at the moment are, sometimes, within the tens of hundreds. For instance, Battlefield 6 hit 67,000 peak concurrent gamers on Valve’s platform yesterday. Of course, Steam numbers don’t paint the entire image of a recreation’s reputation or success, given Battlefield 6 can be out there on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. But they do give us a way of the place a recreation is at, and in Battlefield 6’s case the drop-off could have been extra dramatic than EA had anticipated. Meanwhile, the free-to-play Battlefield battle royale, Redsec, has had issues of its personal, with a ‘Mostly Negative’ Steam consumer assessment ranking for latest posts.
These layoffs come just months after the unexpected death of Battlefield franchise head Vince Zampella in a automobile accident. They additionally come as EA is preparing to be acquired by an investor group composed of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for about $55 billion. However, the acquisition has not but closed (it is anticipated to shut within the first quarter of the 2027 monetary 12 months, or April, May, and June of this 12 months). IGN understands internally, EA is stating that the layoffs are unrelated to the acquisition.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a narrative tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
