EA has reportedly laid off over 200 QA testers, essentially its entire Baton Rouge studio, which was the entire fleet of Apex Legends testers.
Spotted first by Kotaku, some developers began revealing the news through Twitter, with user TopMarx420 saying “EA just fired its entire Baton Rouge studio, which is essentially their entire Apex Legends QA staff.”
What’s more is that it was done entirely through a Zoom call, with seemingly no warning to anyone, even management.
TopMarx420 also added that EA had been hiring QA staff for other studios elsewhere, and points out that these new testers have no experience with the game.
It’s unclear as to whether management at Baton Rouge has been laid off as well, though if the plan truly is to lay off the full studio and move the responsibility of QA testing Apex Legends across other studios, then it is likely management were either laid off or even potentially offered new positions.
This all comes on the heels of EA sunsetting its mobile offerings, most notably Apex Legends Mobile, and while the main Apex Legends game is enjoying a huge new boost in player engagement with its newly launched Season 16.
In fact, its hit new player count peaks surpassing even its most historic moments. Season 16 really has been a new lease on life for the game.
Layoffs are always awful to see, and it’ll be interesting to see how players react, and how it potentially effects the game, during the transition.
Source – [Kotaku]
