Electronic Arts has announced their new “restructuring plan” to cut costs during these tough economic times, and that has amounted to firing 1,000 employees (up from 600 that they previously announced) and the closing of their EA Black Box studio who was responsible for the Need for Speed and Skate franchises.
In addition to this, EA will be either closing or consolidating at least nine other studio and publishing locations. This will reportedly save the company $120 million bucks annually, although it will cost them between $55-65 million in the short term that they will need to absorb over the next several quarters until the end of March, when these new moves should be completed.
And even though they are closing Black Box, that doesn’t mean they will stop making Skate and Need for Speed games, even though the past few Need for Speed games have performed poorly sales-wise when compared to past games in the series.
EA will also be moving some employees from EA Black Box into their Burnaby, British Columbia studio. And EA has scrapped any plans that they had to open another EA studio in Vancouver, something they were planning to do before the latest financial troubles.