EA previously said 400 jobs to be cut.

EA announced overnight it's closing Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio BioWare in a new round of cuts that include the elimination of 400 roles across the publisher. But while it confirmed BioWare's 50 workers are affected, and that Skate studio Ripple Effect was being downsized, it did not say where the other 350 job cuts would come from.

Now, however, new information has emerged revealing The Sims studio Maxis, Battlefield support studio Ripple Effect, and EA Motive are all impacted by layoffs, alongside Full Circle and BioWare. That's according to Vertical Slice, citing an "anonymous source" supported by corroborating information on LinkedIn.

Maxis senior director Anna Huerta and three Ripple Effect artists - Brandon Garcia, Corey Thomas, and Turner Spring - confirmed their departure from EA on LinkedIn. Catheryn Grant, operations product manager at both Ripple Effect and Respawn, also revealed she was among those impacted, as was EA Motive's senior gameplay designer Jamieson Shearer. Full Circle's senior designer David Milne and seasonal creative director John Epler are affected too.

In a memo to staff shared overnight, EA said it had paused development of an unannounced Sims project called Project Lotus in order to focus on a different title dubbed Project Evergreen. The company also said it was downsizing Full Circle to "create an experience that keeps [players] engaged over the long-term", so there was already some suggestion those studios would face job cuts.

More surprising, though, are the cuts at Respawn, a studio EA said it would be investing "heavily" in to support the growth of free-to-play shooter Apex Legends. Respawn is also co-developing a new project alongside DICE, which is reportedly Star Wars: Battlefront 3. By the same token, EA said it's throwing its "full weight behind" Motive Studio's Iron Man game and Respawn's Star Wars Jedi sequel, its only two action-adventure projects currently in the works.

This is the first round of layoffs at EA since the company was fully acquired by a consortium made up of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, investment firm Silver Lake, and private equity company Affinity Partners earlier this year. The trio acquired EA in the summer for $55bn in one of the largest leveraged buyout deals ever.

When the deal closed, EA told debt investors it would cut $700m in annual costs, including $170m in "organisational efficiencies". At the time, many feared that would translate to major layoffs.

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