Electronic Arts lays off hundreds of employees and cancels 2 'incubation projects' including a new Titanfall game

Electronic Arts has reportedly laid off 300 and 400 people, according to a new Bloomberg report, including roughly 100 at Apex Legends studio Respawn Entertainment. Respawn has also cancelled at least two early-in-development projects, one of which was reportedly a Titanfall-based extraction shooter.

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

Respawn separately confirmed its own layoffs and cancellations in a carefully massaged statement on X that, just like EA's, manages to avoid the words "cancelled" and "layoffs" entirely.

"As we sharpen our focus for the future, 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," the studio said. People being out of work by the cuts will be "offered meaningful support," Respawn said, "including exploring new opportunities within EA."

The Bloomberg report says one of the cancelled projects, code named R7, was an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe. The other game was apparently cancelled earlier this year.

Respawn made a point of noting that while the news is bad, everything is also fine, because "our commitment to player-first experiences remains unchanged."

For Apex Legends, that means "expanding what Apex can be," and "investing in what's next for the franchise—exploring bold experiences that push the boundaries of competitive play while staying true to the spirit of competition, creativity, and integrity that our community expects." As far as Star Wars Jedi goes, well, yes, there's going to be another Star Wars Jedi game—no real surprise there.

Apex Legends remains big but it has been faltering somewhat. In EA's most recent quarterly financial call, CEO Andrew Wilson alluded to "Apex 2.0," describing it as "a more meaningful update of Apex as a broad game experience," although he added that it wouldn't drop until sometime after the next Battlefield game, which is currently expected sometime before April 2026. In light of these cuts, however, I do wonder if we might be hearing more about it sooner than expected. Perhaps very soon: EA's next quarterly financial report is set for May 6.