EA should know a thing or two about the importance of a good quality assurance team. The company received tremendous backlash when it released Battlefield 2042 with a ton of bugs.
However, sources report that EA has unexpectedly laid off the entire quality assurance team from its office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana office. Most of those affected are contractors working on testing related functions for Respawn's battle royale game Apex Legends.
Three sources shared with Kotaku that 200 contractors were given the sad news during an unscheduled but mandatory Zoom meeting at 8 am today. The affected employees will receive 60 days of severance pay, which is less than the length of many of the contracts.
EA released an official statement regarding the mass layoff.
"Testing games is an integral part of delivering the best experiences for our players," a spokesperson for EA said. "As part of our ongoing global strategy, we are expanding the distribution of our Apex Legends testing team and ending testing execution that's been concentrated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, impacting services provided by our third-party provider."