EA reportedly lays off "between 300 and 400" people, cancels Titanfall extraction shooter: "We've made select changes within our organization [...] in service of driving future growth"

A new report suggests that EA has laid off "between 300 and 400" people, including around 100 developers at Respawn, and canceling what would've been a Titanfall extraction shooter. The publisher hasn't confirmed the exact details of the report, but it has acknowledged the layoffs as part of an effort that "allocates resources in service of driving future growth."

"Between 300 and 400 positions were eliminated, including around 100 at Respawn," according to a report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (paywalled), citing an anonymous "person familiar" with the company's plans.

Respawn is best known these days for the Star Wars Jedi games and Apex Legends, the latter of which is part of the same universe as the company's older Titanfall games. Bloomberg says that an extraction shooter codenamed R7, which would've also been set in the Titanfall universe, was canceled.

"As part of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities," EA spokesmon Justin Higgs said in a statement to Bloomberg, "we've made select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of driving future growth."

Respawn similarly acknowledged the news, but not the exact details, in a statement to fans on social media.

"As we sharpen our focus for the future," Respawn said, "we've made the decision to step away from two early-stage incubation projects and make some targeted team adjustments across Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi.

"These decisions aren't easy, and we are deeply grateful to every teammate affected – their creativity and contributions have helped build Respawn into what it is today. We're offering meaningful support to those impacted, including exploring new opportunities within EA."

As part of its statement, the studio said that it's "expanding what Apex can be," and "investing in what's next for the franchise," and there's a lot of space to read in between those lines a tease of an all-new game.

Respawn previously teased the development of a third entry in the Jedi series, and the upcoming Star Wars game also got a brief acknowledgment here, with the studio saying that the third game is "aiming to raise the bar again for storytelling and gameplay."

Of course, it's pretty difficult to "raise the bar" in any game series when you're firing the people who make those games by the hundreds for such reasons as "driving future growth." Here's hoping the affected developers are able to find new work soon.

Helldivers 2 CEO says industry layoffs have seen "very little accountability" from executives who "let go of one third of the company because you made stupid decisions."