Electronic Arts is laying off roughly 400 workers and shutting down BioWare — the legendary studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age — just months after a $55 billion buyout involving Jared Kushner's private equity firm and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. Ordinary employees are paying the price while executives praise their own "deliberate choices."
The restructuring matters because it exposes the same pattern playing out across corporate America: workers get pink slips, executives get memos full of buzzwords, and the money men behind the curtain never miss a beat. EA went private this summer after Affinity Partners, Silver Lake, and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund completed their acquisition. Now the cuts come down.
EA's president and chief studios officer Cam Weber and president and COO David Tinson delivered the news in a memo Wednesday. "Over the past several months, we've taken a hard look at our business, how we operate, and what it will take to lead in this next era of interactive entertainment," they wrote, adding that the company had "challenged assumptions, confronted hard realities, imagined new possibilities, and made deliberate choices."
Translation: 400 people are losing their jobs.
BioWare's Edmonton office is closing, ending a 31-year run. The studio confirmed the shutdown in a social media post: "Now, after more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending." The studio had been responsible for Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Anthem.
Variety reported that EA last counted 14,500 employees, putting the 3% workforce reduction at approximately 400 staffers. The New York Post noted the buyout details — Kushner's Affinity Partners, Silver Lake, and the Saudi PIF completed the deal in August.
Follow the money: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has been on a gaming and entertainment buying spree, and the Kushner connection raises its own questions. When foreign sovereign wealth and politically connected private equity take ownership, the restructuring that follows is never about the workers.
Meanwhile, EA's executives touted the future: Battlefield 6 is "a great success," Respawn and DICE are collaborating on Star Wars: Battlefront 3, and EA Sports is developing "Project Gridiron" — described as a "social-first open-world experience" for American football — plus bringing back Fight Night after 15 years. The company is also investing in Apex Legends, Marvel's Iron Man, the next Star Wars Jedi game, and The Sims.
All those projects require developers. Just not the 400 who were shown the door.
The New York Post also reported that eBay is cutting about 1,000 jobs — 9% of its workforce — in its second round of layoffs this year. CEO Jamie Iannone told staff the strategy is "working" even as he axed a tenth of the company.
BioWare's farewell post captured what the executives' memo couldn't: "Our focus right now is on our incredibly talented team who put their hearts into these games, and supporting one another through this transition." The people who built the games millions loved are now looking for work. The executives who made the cuts are focused on "sustained growth."
The open question: when a company owned by Saudi wealth and Kushner-linked private equity talks about "transforming the business," who exactly is being transformed — and who pays the price?
