EA confirms Salt Lake layoffs

An unknown number of employees at EA Salt Lake are being laid off as the studio shifts focus to mobile development.

The publisher confirmed the layoffs to Game Informer and, while it didn’t give any indication of the scale of the cuts, promised that the Utah studio would remain open.

“EA Salt Lake is becoming largely focused on mobile development, including The Sims and other projects,” an EA representative said.

“Recent shifts unfortunately resulted in the reduction of a few teams. As we look to match skills with opportunities, some staff will be offered other positions at EA, while others will leave the company.”

The new generation of consoles hasn’t yet paid dividends for the publisher, which reported a net loss of $308 million for the third quarter of 2013.

While sales figures actually beat forecasts for the period and digital sales were up 27 per cent, retail sales were down by $200 million.

EA’s mobile business has been one of its top performers for the past several quarters and grew to $125 million during the latest period, better than the previous year by 26 per cent.

EA Salt Lake developed Monopoly Streets, Risk: Factions, and a number of expansions for the Sims franchise.