By all visible metrics, Battlefield 6 had a wildly successful launch far exceeding any previous entry in the venerable FPS series – a fact which EA was keen to brag about last year. But that hasn't saved the devs who worked on it from wide-ranging layoffs, according to a new report.
EA has laid off workers at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive, according to a new report from IGN. All four offices are part of what EA calls "Battlefield Studios," and collaborated on Battlefield 6. Employees were reportedly told that this was part of a "realignment" effort across the studios, and one not connected to the company's impending $55 billion buyout, though specific numbers and more detailed reasoning for the layoffs have not yet been made public.
Shortly after the game's release in October, EA called Battlefield 6 "the biggest launch in franchise history," with over 7 million units sold in the first three days alone. In December, analysis firm Alinea estimated that the game had sold over 20 million copies, with a total of 26 million players once you figure in the free-to-play Redsec battle royale.
It was even the best-selling game in the US last year, beating the new Call of Duty release for the first time in the 23 years that the two military FPS franchises had been going head-to-head. But success has never offered much insulation from layoffs in the game industry, especially with pre-release reports suggesting that EA had poured $400 million into Battlefield 6 and expected the game to reach more than 100 million players.
While the game was well-received at launch – Joel called it "deep enough to be tactical and simple enough to be accessible" in our four-star Battlefield 6 review – its post-launch content has struggled to keep players coming back for more. The devs have been taking steps to address specific complaints about things like map size as part of Battlefield 6 Season 2, but the 'mixed' recent review on Steam suggest those changes aren't really breaking through.
