Layoffs ‘significant’ at Electronic Arts Burnaby campus

For the second time in a year, local video-games giant Electronic Arts has laid off employees in the Lower Mainland.

EA Canada spokesman Colin Macrae wouldn’t say how many of the 1,500 employees at its Burnaby facility were given pink slips Monday.

"We can characterize the reductions at our Burnaby campus as significant," Macrae told The Province.

"Many will have been informed."

The U.S. parent announced 1,500 layoffs, 16 per cent of the global workforce, and the closure of several facilities Monday, as it grapples with an 11th straight quarterly loss.

Last December, EA closed the Black Box Studio in downtown Vancouver and made "significant" cuts to jobs a year ago.

Macrae said more video-gamers are doing their gaming online and downloading games from the Internet, rather than buying packaged games from stores.

"Our business is going through a transformation," he said.

"The changes that we’re making across EA are very much to accelerate our growth in online and direct-to-consumer, and recognizing the changing dynamic in the packaged-goods business."

Meanwhile, EA also bought online games-maker Playfish Inc. Monday for $275 million US.

Victor Lucas, TV video-game host and producer of the online site The Electric Playground, said the economic slowdown also hurt sales.

"Consumers are finding ways to download their games directly to their machines," said Lucas.

"I am shocked, not surprised.

"I definitely feel a great deal of empathy for these folks."

Lucas predicted that most of the games developers losing their jobs at EA will quickly find new jobs in the city’s video-gaming industry, or start their own companies.