200 Apex Legends testers reportedly fired in abrupt Zoom call

Baton Rouge studio decimated in shock announcement

Electronic Arts has reportedly fired the testing team for its blockbuster hero shooter Apex Legends — , the publisher released the entirety of its Baton Rouge-based testing team — believed to be some 200 workers — in an ‘out of the blue’ Zoom call held yesterday.

News of the layoffs came suddenly when affected employees took to social media, understandably stunned and upset at the event. According to other former workers, speaking anonymously with Kotaku, the team was called to an urgent, mandatory call with contracting agency Magnit Global at 08:00 on Tuesday morning, where they were informed that the entire Baton Rogue Apex Legends QAꦿ team was being disbanded, effective immediately.

The bullshit made up reason EA is telling folks on zoom is that QA doesn't currently reflect their demographics, which is a completely insane thing to tell staff from a majority-black city that likely has more black workers than anywhere else in the entire corporation???

— Ben (@TopMarx420)

Reportedly, QA team management was unaware of the coming events, and thus no preparations had been put in place for the handling of the announcement or the termination of the employees. It is claimed that affected staff were then ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚasked to collect their belongings under security supervision and leave the office. Full-time supervisors on the team will ജbe afforded a 60-day severance.

In an email♕ to Kotaku, EA was typically mechanical when referencing the sudden layoffs.

“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,” wrote the publisher. “Our global team, inclusive of remote playtesters across the U.S., enables us to increase the hours per week we’re able to test and optimize the game and reflects a commitment to understand and better serve our growing community around the world.”

“Testing games is an integral part of delivering the best experiences for our players.”

[Kotaku]