EA owned developer FireMonkeys suffers layoffs

It seems that February has been a horrible year for the games industry, and it's gotten even worse with reports from Kotaku that EA has laid off a large number of their staff from their Melbourne-based studio FireMonkeys.

Founded in 2012 through the merger of IronMonkey studios and Firemint, FireMonkeys has grown to be one the largest developers in Australia. They were until recently working on Real Racing 4, before the reorganisation of staff within the company was conducted by EA executives.

According to estimates from Game Workers Unite Australia, roughly 40-50 developers from FireMonkeys have been affected by these layoffs. According to an anonymous source who spoke to Kotaku, those who are still working at FireMonkeys are uncertain of the future there. "No idea how certain tasks will be done at all if I look at who got let go."

Game Workers Unite Australia estimated that these layoffs account for almost 10% of the Australian games industry, and described the layoffs as "a devastating blow to local development".

In a statement made to Kotaku, EA replied: "The FireMonkeys studio is working on some of our most popular mobile games. We recently made a decision to shift teams to focus more on our live services, and have entered into a consultation period that may impact some roles in the studio. We're working to match skills with opportunities as we go through this period, identifying other opportunities at EA, and providing as much help to our employees as we possibly can."

What are your thoughts on these recent layoffs?