Battlefield 6 broke records for the franchise, yet Electronic Arts has carried out mass layoffs across the studios involved in its development. Staff at Criterion, DICE, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios have been let go with immediate effect, as the company’s acquisition by Saudi Arabia is expected to be finalized this summer.

Battlefield 6 had an enormously successful launch: seven million units sold in three days, and 2025 became the first year in franchise history in which the Electronic Arts war shooter commercially outperformed Call of Duty. Just a few months later, however, the studios involved in the game’s development are being subjected to a mass layoff campaign. Staff at Criterion, DICE, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios have been dismissed with immediate effect. The layoffs were revealed by IGN, and an official statement from Electronic Arts has yet to be issued explaining what may have motivated such a drastic decision.

The Problems Facing Battlefield 6

Several factors may lie behind the layoffs. Battlefield 6 itself has struggled to stay relevant over time: player numbers have fallen on both Steam and consoles, with seasonal updates failing to stem the decline. On top of that, the free-to-play Redsec mode never performed at the level its developers had hoped. In this regard, it is likely that the game is not meeting its targets in the live-service model that EA itself was pursuing.

It also has to be taken into account that the ambitions for Battlefield 6 were outsized, with Electronic Arts hoping to reach 100 million unique players, and that EA itself is in a period of transition. Saudi Arabia is expected to certify the purchase this coming summer. When it does, the company will take on a debt of more than 20 billion euros, which the Riyadh regime hopes to manage by minimizing costs and betting on artificial intelligence. Given that salaries represent the largest cost in game development, it is not hard to see how these layoffs, whether influenced by the new ownership or not, align with that vision.

As for the effects on players, this does not appear to be great news, particularly given that the developers were already having difficulty reacting quickly to community feedback. There is no need to be catastrophic or think that the game will stop receiving content overnight. Despite not meeting Electronic Arts‘ ambitious expectations, it still has a large number of players and is far from being abandoned. That said, having fewer resources will make it harder to deliver an adequate response to all of the players’ requests.

Source: 3DJuegos