EA is firing employees for giving up the FIFA license

EA not only kicks balls, but also kicks staff.

last week was officially That EA Sports and FIFA are going their separate ways after 30 years of collaboration. Unfortunately, the impact of this decision also appears to be affecting EA’s workforce. About a hundred people who worked in support of the FIFA franchise have been evicted from their offices in Austin.

According to Kotaku, internal emails indicate that the dismissals are largely due to the split between EA and FIFA. With EA from 2023 rebranding the Football Series to EA Sports FC, they will be outsourcing the support work rather than sourcing it internally.

Joel Knutson wrote this one of the leaked emails.

“We are constantly evolving to provide better experiences for our fans and are working to improve our support model. In order to reduce complexity and increase our efficiency, the roles of flexibility and scalability will be eliminated in Austin.”

Kotaku asked the EA about the reason for the cuts and they replied:

“We are always thinking about how we can improve our player experience, and this includes reviewing how best we can provide the support they may need to fully enjoy them. With this in mind, we have suggested some changes to our customer support function to provide more flexibility and allow us to help players. When they need it most. As part of this process, we are considering changing a number of roles within the team, closing some roles and creating new ones as well. We work closely with our employees through this process and provide support to anyone whose role is affected.”

It’s not uncommon for companies to bother with reorganization when there’s a big change, but it’s always sad when people lose their jobs.