It is understood that EA have been laying off employees around the company, with estimates of up to 10% of the workforce being affected by this. EA posted an official statement:

In recent weeks, EA has aligned all elements of its organizational structure behind priorities in new technologies and mobile.  This has led to some difficult decisions to reduce the workforce in some locations.  We are extremely grateful for the contributions made by each of our employees – those that are leaving EA will be missed by their colleagues and friends.

These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us.

It has also been rumoured since last night that EA will be closing their EA Partners program, which has published games from companies such as Valve and Epic. I also presume that jobs at Playfish in the UK are being cut following the closures of their Facebook games.

This all comes following the departure of EA’s CEO John Riccitiello last month. Larry Probst, who served as EA’s CEO for many years prior to Riccitiello, is currently executive chairman while the hunt for a new CEO continues.

We can only hope that employees affected by this are okay, as this must be a very hard time for them, and we wish them the very best of luck in the future.