EA has laid off hundreds of employees—reportedly around 300 to 400—across its studios, including around 100 at Respawn Entertainment, developers of Titanfall and Apex Legends. Among the many developers left scrambling in an industry where this has become shockingly routine, one in particular leapt out.
Heather Woodward, a now-former narrative designer at Respawn, was laid off a literal day after the character she'd spent a whole year writing debuted. On April 28, Apex Legends introduced a new character by the name of Sparrow:
"My first born is finally here," Woodward posted to Bluesky. "I’ve been working on this sweet ragazzo for well over a year. Writing a music video style trailer was a tough but rewarding challenge and I can’t believe I get to see my work animated by the incredible team at Sun Creature."
Then, on April 29, the layoffs hit and Woodward discovered she'd been caught in the wave of sacrifices to the altar of growth: "Well, this is awkward but… I was just mass-downsized at Respawn. These things happen and my time with Apex has been a top to bottom blast, my favorite job I’ve ever had. It’s been a true joy to write Sparrow, I’ll continue to be insufferable about him for weeks to come."
As if to properly hammer a final, capricious nail into a coffin, Woodward was then sent a promotional email for the character she wrote before she was promptly shown the door.
Woodward appears to be taking this on the chin in a way that's downright enviable—but it really does feel like a perfect nutshell of how messed up and unsustainable this industry has become. There's just zero guarantee of anything, anymore. Let's take a look at the reasons why you might get laid off while working on a game, shall we?
- Your game doesn't do well, which, sure. Harsh, but understandable.
- Your game is called a success by Microsoft. Microsoft then lays you off.
- You help make a game as successful as Marvel Rivals. You are then laid off.
- Your studio gets acquired for over $60 billion dollars. You are then laid off.
- You endure executive pressure that forces you into making games your studio isn't good at making. It doesn't go well. You are then laid off.
- Someone decides your portfolio needs to be aligned/reorganised/restructured to become more flexible/agile/versatile under economic/industry conditions. Meanwhile, your CEO might've spent $2 million on vintage cars. You are then laid off.
Now we can add "You dared to work on a videogame" to that list, I guess. Woodward's work on Sparrow could be either good or bad and it clearly doesn't matter—make a good game, make a bad game, make a game at all, and your job's at risk. But maybe I'm being too up-in-arms about it. We could just go to the beach, after all.
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