Electronic Arts Fires Over 200 Apex Legends Testers In A Zoom Call

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is seemingly taking a page out of Better.com's playbook.

The video game company just laid off more than 200 quality assurance (QA) testers via Zoom, as reported by Kotaku.
The affected testers mainly worked from Baton Rouge, Louisiana on “Apex Legends,” the publisher's successful battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment.

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It is worth noting that, less than a month ago, the video game company with headquarters in Redwood City, California, announced that both “Apex Legends Mobile” and “Battlefield Mobile” were shutting down, as well as the studio behind the games, Industrial Toys.

Thus, the entire QA team was unexpectedly disbanded during a mandatory Zoom meeting. The meeting was organized by Magnit Global, the agency responsible for contracting the QA testers, and held at 8 a.m. CT.
EA said the cuts were part of its "ongoing global strategy."

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“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,” the company told Kotaku.

Even though the workers will be provided 60 days' severance, in many cases that won’t be enough to cover the length of their contracts.

Moreover, current and former testers have expressed apprehension about the effects of this abrupt operational transition on testing quality in the coming months, as the Baton Rouge team had accumulated expertise and training in the past years.

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Image Credits: Apex Legends via Twitter.