skate. Studio Full Circle Also Hit by EA Layoffs

EA's wave of cuts isn't over with BioWare. Full Circle, the studio behind the live-service title skate., has also lost employees. This is reported by IGN. The exact number of people affected is not yet known.

Who is affected at Full Circle?

Several developers have confirmed their departure on LinkedIn themselves. Seasonal Creative Director John Epler wrote that his role had been eliminated. He had been in the industry for almost 19 years, all of it at EA. He wasn't sad, rather a bit nervous, but he was looking forward to something new.

Senior Game Designer Adam Martinazzi also had to leave. Part of him was sad and frustrated, the other part accepted that this is just how the industry works. Senior Designer David Milne wrote that he loved working on skate. and with the team. Milne wrote that he was now moving on to the next thing.

This isn't the first round for the studio: Full Circle was already affected in February. Back then, the team spoke of talented colleagues and friends who had built the foundation of skate.

What does EA say about the future of skate.?

In the memo to the staff, skate. is still referred to as an ongoing project. EA wrote that they had brought many players into the game but needed to retain them long-term. Therefore, the studio would be restructured into a „more focused, smaller team“ tasked with delivering a „very clear roadmap“ for the community. The goal was a healthier and more sustainable business.

According to Bloomberg (as quoted by IGN), a total of 400 jobs are being cut at EA, roughly 3 percent of the workforce. 50 of these worked on the next Mass Effect before BioWare was closed. You can find everything about this in our report on the BioWare closure.

What does this mean for mods and the community?

The timing is critical. Just two weeks ago, Full Circle commented on mods after the fan platform ReSkate went viral. It allows offline play, private servers, and custom maps. The studio opposed mods that circumvent paid cosmetics or monetize new features. At the same time, it announced „official, secure access tools“ for broader community creation.

From our perspective, this is the crucial point for players: A smaller team must manage a roadmap and additionally build official mod tools. Whether both can be accomplished simultaneously is uncertain. EA has made no commitments regarding this, and we don't want to sugarcoat anything here. We're familiar with the pattern by now: even a record launch like Battlefield 6, according to IGN, didn't prevent layoffs at the Battlefield Studios. Success, apparently, does not protect against cuts at EA.

Source: IGN

What do you expect from skate. after this wave of layoffs? Let us know in the comments!