Battlefield 6 was “the biggest launch in franchise history”, EA told us back in October – indeed, it was the best-selling game in the US in 2025… so now it’s time to lay off an unspecified number of those who made it, with cuts reportedly taking place across Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios, though none of these studios face outright closure.
“We’ve made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community,” a spokesperson has confirmed to IGN, who broke the above story. “Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we’re continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs.” EA have yet to clarify which teams are affected.
Battlefield 6 may have had a good launch, racking up 700,000+ concurrent user figures on Steam, but it is also one of the most expensive games ever made, with an alleged budget of around $400 million. EA’s hopes for the game appear to have been feverish, even by Big Public Company standards – according to one lengthy investigation, the aim before launch was to attract 100 million players.
Since launch, Battlefield 6 has also met with setbacks in the form of a delayed start for its second season of additions, and mixed reactions to its long-rumoured free-to-play battle royale offshoot, Redsec. As of writing, there are about 44,000 players in-game on Steam.
All that notwithstanding, you’d think that shipping the year’s best-selling game in the USA would be grounds for keeping people on. Who knows, they might do it again!
EA management are in the process of selling the company to a consortium of investors who want to saddle it with a preposterous amount of debt, which seems very likely to lead to further job losses. I wonder how much of today’s news is about trimming the books in advance – according to IGN, EA management are telling staff that the layoffs are unrelated to the acquisition.
