EA confirms layoffs at Codemasters, rally game development now paused

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It was announced earlier in the week that Electronic Arts (EA) was laying off as many as 300 to 400 people in an effort to reduce running costs due to the current economic climate. Now, EA-owned developer Codemasters has confirmed it has been hit with layoffs and that development on future rally titles has been paused.

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Earlier this week, EA announced it was ending its partnership with the World Rally Championship (WRC) and has now confirmed in a new statement to VideoGamesChronicle that it has "reduced some roles" at Codemasters, the rally games developer. EA didn't state how many people were let go from the developer, but did say that some roles are going to be redeployed as many as possible, "against our strategic priorities," which appears to be different areas of EA Sports.

It was only a day before this announcement that EA confirmed it reduced running costs affecting as many as 400 employees, including 100 employees at Respawn, the developers of Apex Legends and Titanfall. As for Codemasters, the exit of the developer in creating rally games marks the end of a more than 20-year-long run, which began all the way back in 1998. EA initially purchased Codemasters for $1.2 billion in early 2021, earning the publisher the rights to F1 and FIA World Rally Championship licenses, along with owned IP such as Grid, Dirt, and Project Cars.

"As a business, we are constantly evolving to meet the growing needs of our players and driving greater focus across our portfolio," a spokesperson said. "This has led us to look at reducing some roles, while we redeploy as many as possible against our strategic priorities."

The idea was to combine the aforementioned titles with EA's iconic racers such as Need for Speed and Burnout, bringing all of the racing games under the one banner, making the publisher the "a global leader in racing entertainment" and enabling it to "release new racing experiences annually" - what the company said at the time.