EA Reportedly Lays Off Up to 100 Employees After FIFA Split

Electronic Arts has reportedly laid off as many as 100 employees after the decision to break away from the FIFA license. For years, EA had the rights to make games based on the FIFA license. This helped give EA a sports empire with Madden, FIFA, PGA, UFC, and at one point, even NBA and college baseball. It has been a massive part of the publisher's business, even giving them the opportunity to render competitors like Konami useless with their rival titles. The tides are turning as EA has decided to make its own soccer IP, independent of FIFA, leaving the license up for grabs.

Nevertheless, Kotaku is reporting that EA has chosen to fire as many as 100 employees at its Austin offices following the split from FIFA. The staff most impacted by this are related to customer service reps who assist with email, phone, and chat support for games like FIFA 22. The work will reportedly now be outsourced to an undisclosed group, but a Kotaku source stated that the choice comes after "repeated complaints by EA Austin and Galway staff of insufficient annual raises consisting of as little as $0.10 hourly". An EA spokesperson stated this was done to help create a better customer service experience for its users. The spokesperson also noted that this will result in roles being changed, others being "closed", and new ones being created. Another EA rep told Kotaku that this choice was not made as a direct result of the change in future soccer games from EA.

"The changes in our customer support function are not tied to any one gaming franchise, nor are they connected to our EA SPORTS FC announcement last week," an EA rep told Kotaku. "The customer support function support a wide range of player questions pertaining to our gaming titles, technology, including Origin or our EA Play subscription service."

As of right now, it's unclear how this will impact the players' experience with customer service. There's no word on when any of this will begin to take effect, if it hasn't already. EA is expected to release one more FIFA game this year before pivoting to EA Sports FC in 2023.