FIFA 22 & Co.: Will the separation of FIFA and EA lead to layoffs?
According to a report by Kotaku magazine, EA is said to have laid off more than 100 employees who took care of FIFA 22. The publisher recently announced that it would not renew the license agreement with FIFA.
Since 1993, the US games manufacturer Electronic Arts has had a license agreement with the worldwide football association FIFA and is allowed to offer football games with the FIFA name. Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA officially confirms that there will be no new FIFA games from 2023. In the summer of 2023 there will be more information about the new football game called EA Sports FC. As the game magazine Kotaku reports, the separation from the long-standing name should have far-reaching consequences. Supposed to be laid off more than 100 employees.
Which employees will soon have to look for a new job?
The employees are customer support employees at EA Austin. VP of Customer Experience Joel Knutson explained in an email that EA Austin is redundant and that going forward customer support for European players will be handled by EA Galway in Ireland. As a result, over 100 employees are said to lose their jobs, with most workers engaged in FIFA 22 chat support. According to Kotaku’s source, EA made the decision after employees at EA Austin and Galway repeatedly complained about insufficient annual wage increases of just $0.10 an hour.
Before EA Sports FC takes to the field next year, FIFA will take to the stage again in fall 2022. FIFA 23 will be the successor to FIFA 22 and will be the last FIFA game. At EA Sports FC, little should change for football fans. The successor to FIFA 23 will also offer over 30 licensed leagues with 700 licensed teams and 100 different stadiums. There are license agreements with more than 300 individual partners.
Also worth reading: Final whistle after FIFA 23: EA renames football games – what changes?
Collection on alleged employee layoffs at EA:
- As Kotaku writes, the separation from the world football association FIFA and game publisher EA should have far-reaching consequences. More than 100 employees are said to lose their jobs.
- The staff are customer support employees at EA Austin who primarily run chat support for FIFA 22. In the future, customer support will be taken over by EA Galway in Ireland. EA is said to have made this decision after employees at EA Austin and Galway had repeatedly complained about inadequate annual wage increases of just $0.10 an hour.
- Next year there will be no new FIFA game, but instead the video game EA Sports FC.
Source: kotaku
Reference-www.pcgameshardware.de