Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com March 30 news, Electronic Arts (EA) CEO Andrew Wilson (Andrew Wilson) announced that the company will lay off about 6% and reduce office space. It also means that EA has become the first major game publisher to disclose large-scale layoffs.

Although Wilson did not specify how many employees the job cuts would affect, the company said in a 2022 filing that it had close to 13000 employees. Wilson noted that EA had told about 800 employees that they would lose their jobs. It is said that the layoffs will continue until the beginning of the next fiscal year.

He explained that the layoffs were due to the company's decision to abandon projects that were no longer in line with its goals, review its properties and restructure some of its teams. In some cases, EA will provide internal transfer opportunities for affected employees, but those who do not get an internal offer or are unwilling to continue working at EA will receive severance pay and the company will pay for health insurance and employment transition services.

In fact, the entire gaming industry has been grappling with declining revenues since 2022, and the growth caused by the epidemic in previous years has become a burden on companies. EA has taken some cost-cutting measures before, such as canceling programs such as "Apex Hero Mobile Games" and "Battle Mobile Games".

The company also reportedly cancelled a single-player game with Titan falling and Apex Hero as the backdrop. In May 2022, Puck News reported that EA was actively looking for a buyer or a company willing to merge with it, and approached Disney and Comcast, but the negotiations broke down.

Overall revenue and profit levels for the third quarter of EA's fiscal 2023 fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 were lower than analysts had expected. Revenue for the quarter was $1.88 billion, up from $1.79 billion a year earlier, according to earnings data, while analysts generally expected it to be $2.5 billion. Diluted earnings per share were $0.73, up from $0.23 a year earlier, and analysts expected $0.50.

"although our production team has contributed to our player experience, the current macro environment has affected fiscal third quarter results," CEO Andrew Wilson said in a prepared statement. "

"as market uncertainty intensifies this quarter, we have taken steps to protect potential profitability," said Chris Suh, chief financial officer. "We give priority to players' gaming experience and direct investment to the areas that have the most positive impact on our players and performance growth."

The video game maker said it expected fourth-quarter earnings per share of $.05 to $0.20 on revenue of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion. Analysts expect earnings per share of 74 cents, while analysts generally expect revenue of $2.24 billion.

The company now expects net bookings for the fourth quarter to be about $1.68 billion to $1.78 billion, compared with analysts' consensus of $2.23 billion; it now expects annual net bookings for the next fiscal year to be between $7.07 billion and $7.17 billion, compared with the company's previous expectations of $7.65 billion to $7.85 billion.

As of CTOnews.com, EA shares were down 0.12% before trading, closing yesterday at $119.19, with a market capitalization of $32.685 billion.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.