EA Employees Describe AI Pressure and BioWare’s Mismanagement
Anonymous EA employees described opaque layoff notices, work left without clear owners, and pressure to use generative AI, while BioWare workers recounted years of changing priorities and risk aversion.
EA employees say managers promoted Claude and other generative AI tools without a formal requirement, while layoffs left some teams unsure who remained and work without clear owners. Interviews with Chris Kerr for Vertical Slice also trace BioWare’s difficulties to years of management decisions that pulled the studio away from its RPG strengths.
Vertical Slice: EA employees speak on mismanagement. Claude and GenAI tech pushed heavily. BioWares demise discussed.
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Layoff notices left teams without answers
Employees said internal emails periodically announce layoffs without naming affected people or roles. Some managers only learned who remained on their teams when former coworkers posted about their departures on LinkedIn. EA cited privacy as the reason for withholding those details, though one worker said the approach further isolated people losing their jobs.
A laid-off employee described a Zoom meeting where other participants were hidden and chat was disabled, leaving no way to ask questions or make a case to stay. Departures also left duties and projects without assigned owners, sometimes without anyone realizing the work had effectively stopped. Some employees were offered transfers to other roles, but one declined after the way the layoff was handled.
AI tools add pressure to smaller teams
One employee described poor morale under the instruction to do “less, better,” even though the team faced roughly the same workload with fewer people. The worker also recalled upper management’s enthusiasm for Claude frustrating their team. Other employees said managers described AI as the future and told staff to get on board. The tools were not formally mandatory, but some workers worried it was becoming difficult to do their jobs without them. Others viewed the push as a test of how much work fewer employees could carry while still producing profitable games.
Andrew Wilson praised generative AI during a 2024 investor presentation, a point covered in Game Developer’s account. Employees also criticized EA’s move of a large part of its Seattle workforce to a smaller, more expensive, less accessible office.
One worker argued that EA Sports FC’s sales helped executives finance unsuccessful bets while employees faced the consequences. PC Gamer calculated Wilson’s 2025 pay at roughly 305 median salaries at EA studios, and reported that EA paid him $38 million after Battlefield 6’s success.
BioWare workers describe years of changing priorities
BioWare employees described repeated pressure to move away from choice, consequence, and companions in favor of live-service and multiplayer elements. The shifting direction included the live-service push around Anthem, followed by a move away from that approach during the messy development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. One source said money was spent pursuing directions that led nowhere. EA said in an email last week that it had not taken the decision to close BioWare lightly.
People familiar with the studio said they were not surprised by its closure, describing BioWare as struggling for years and its leadership as increasingly afraid to take creative risks. One recalled decisions being steered by findings from 14 user-experience research (UXR) studies. They also stressed that talented people remained at the studio. Vertical Slice said EA had not responded to its request for comment by publication.
How should studios communicate layoffs and introduce AI tools without leaving teams to absorb more work with less support? Follow coverage of how staffing decisions and AI affect game development through X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
