Apex Legends’ entire QA testing team gets laid off over Zoom

According to reports, Electronic Arts has laid off hundreds of Apex Legends QA testers from a Baton Rouge-based office.

Unfortunately, rampant layoffs have swept the industry for the last couple of months. League of Legends developer Riot Games let go of more than 40 employees earlier this year, for example.

In January, Microsoft cut 10,000 jobs across various divisions, with some of those headcount reductions impacting gaming verticals like 343 Industries, Bethesda Softworks, and The Coalition.

Analysts posit the layoffs constitute an act of public companies adjusting course following years of aggressive expansion. Sadly, it looks like layoffs have hit yet another team.

EA reportedly lays off 200 Apex Legends QA testers

Kotaku reported earlier today that EA terminated 200-plus quality assurance testers at a Baton Rouge studio during an emergency Zoom call.

Insider Gaming corroborated the details with sources of its own, which confirmed the entire Baton Rouge QA crew had been laid off. Apparently, not even studio management knew what to expect upon receiving an email that read, “SITE CLOSED – Please join Zoom Meeting at 8 am CST.”

The meeting that followed resulted in former Battlefield 2042 testers, who’d since moved on to Apex Legends, suddenly losing their jobs.

Without specifying the number of affected staff members, EA spokesperson Lisa Campbell (via WAFB) noted the publisher would no longer conduct testing at the Baton Rouge firm.

Campbell added, “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.”

Turning Apex Legends’ QA efforts into a global operation will allow EA to increase the hours per week dedicated to testing and optimizing the live-service experience.