John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 03.01.2023 02:Mar AM EST

Over 200 Apex Legends Playtesters Laid Off During EA Zoom Call

Apex Legends' fourth anniversary just became not-so-jolly for some.

Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) recently sacked many of the game's playtesters with little to no warning over an online conference call, per Kotaku's sources.

EA has yet to officially address the layoffs to the public, but it may be undergoing a restructuring much like Elon Musk is doing with Twitter, per Gamespot.

Apex Legends Playtester Layoffs Details

Some of EA's current and former testers shared news of the layoff on Twitter, revealing that the company fired its entire Baton Rouge Studio - the people responsible for playtesting Apex Legends. Sources mentioned that EA's Baton Rouge Studio consists of more than 200 QA staffers, meaning that EA unceremoniously fired more than 200 Apex Legends playtesters over the Zoom call it made on Feb. 28.

The sources wished to remain anonymous as EA didn't authorize them to speak to the press.

Speaking of the Zoom call, sources revealed that it was a surprise call to the company's employees due to them having only just finished their night shifts earlier in the day since the call happened at 8 AM. This "surprise call" meant that the playtesters had no time to prepare for the layoffs; those affected were only permitted to clean their desks and collect personal belongings under the direct supervision of EA security personnel, allegedly.

They were reportedly given 60 days of severance pay - far less time than most employees still had on their employment contracts.

The sources are concerned about the ramifications of the layoffs would be on Apex legends itself since the game runs on a heavily modified version of Source Engine and is no stranger to bugs that sometimes go unaddressed for months.

Having fewer playtesters, despite the presence of volunteers, meant that troubleshooting the game is now more difficult going forward. However, EA doesn't believe this would be the case, as the responsibility of playtesting the game will now be spread out to teams located elsewhere.

An EA spokesperson told Kotaku that it is expanding the distribution of the game's testing team as part of its ongoing global strategy, which meant "ending testing execution that's been concentrated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, impacting services provided by [its] third-party provider."

It should be noted that the layoffs happened after a month EA canceled Apex Legends' mobile spin-off, Apex Legends Mobile. Whether the sackings had something to do with the mobile spinoff's cancelation is still unclear.

Apex Legends Mobile Cancelation

EA mentioned in a statement to Apex Legends Mobile players that it is shutting the game down on May 1 at 4 PM PDT due to the game's content pipeline beginning to fall short of expectations for quality, quantity, and cadence after months of working with its development partner, Lightspeed Studios.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson revealed more information during a recent earnings call, saying that Apex Legends' verticality of gameplay and team-based play didn't translate to mobile devices as EA had hoped. Additionally, the game didn't retain the more casual user at the rate EA needed to sustain itself and grow.