Electronic Arts has put a focus on firing their employees lately. Now, they decided to close The Sims Franchise future development in EA Salt Lake.
IGN got some answers from EA on why did they decide to make EA Salt Lake a Mobile development studio.
Electronic Arts has laid off numerous employees at its Salt Lake City, Utah office today, affecting both the Maxis and All Play divisions.
According to an IGN source close to EA, “all of Maxis is gone” in Utah, with approximately 40 former employees migrating to Maxis in California. Around 35 other Salt Lake employees have been laid off, including an estimated 20 at EA All Play.
EA Salt Lake was working on The Sims on mobile, which it will continue to do, and assisting on The Sims 4.
EA declined to verify the specific number of affected employees.
An EA representative told IGN, “EA Salt Lake is becoming largely focused on mobile development, including The Sims and other projects. Recent shifts unfortunately resulted in the reduction of a few teams. As we look to match skills with opportunities, some staff will be offered other positions at EA, while others will leave the company.”
EA Salt Lake opened in 2010, and has developed numerous console, Facebook, and mobile games, including Risk Factions, Littlest Pet Shop, Monopoly, and a still-ongoing undisclosed project. The studio also assisted on The Simpsons: Tapped Out.
Earlier this week, EA detailed the strength of its growing digital business, but expects a net loss of $130 million for the full fiscal year, which runs through March 31, 2014.
IGN wishes the best of luck to anyone affected by today’s news.
What the f***
I feel bad for the Employees that work on The Sims games that have been fired
[…] working at EA. They didn’t mention the reason why, but we presume that it’s because EA Salt Lake is now focused on Mobile games and not on The Sims […]