Electronic Arts has reportedly laid off the entire testing staff of over 100 quality assurance testers who were predominantly working on Apex Legends at EA’s Baton Rouge office—and did so via an unscheduled Zoom call in the early morning today.
As first reported by Kotaku, the staff of over 100 contracted testers was brought into a surprise Zoom call this morning and let go. The sources that reportedly spoke to Kotaku said that the full-time supervisors at the studio “were not told in advance or given time to prepare.” They also said the workers would be provided two months’ severance but were forced to empty their desks under security supervision.
The sources that spoke to Kotaku expressed concern for the quality of testing due to this sudden and abrupt decision, and the effect it could thus have on the game itself. Bugs and glitches have always been a constant plague on Apex, with some of the more recent examples including a significant exploit bug in Seer’s Heart Seeker ability and a strange and annoying bug that has been demoting ranked players.
This month of February has already been a rough one for the Apex franchise. Earlier this month, EA and Respawn reportedly quietly scrapped a single-player game set in the Apex universe and also announced they were shutting down the Apex Legends mobile game after less than a year.
These layoffs in the Apex quality assurance departments are the latest in what feels like a never-ending wave of layoffs, cancelations, and downsizing across the gaming and esports industries as a result of the economic crunch. This year already, Microsoft and Riot Games have made substantial layoffs that have affected their gaming developers, and companies like Take-Two and Ubisoft are expected to do the same.
Update Feb. 28 3:05pm CT: Kotaku has updated its report, claiming that “the total number of people affected is closer to 300.”
