Gaming giant EA shutters Seattle-area studio launched by Halo co-creator

Electronic Arts-owned Seattle video game studio Ridgeline Games will close following layoffs across EA and the departure of Ridgeline’s leader. The company declined to disclose when the studio will shut down.

On Wednesday, Redwood City, Calif.-based EA announced it was laying off 5% of its workforce, or approximately 670 workers. CEO Andrew Wilson said then that the company is reacting to “accelerating industry transformation” with different player motivations and needs.

“We are continuing to optimize our global real estate footprint to best support our business,” Wilson said in a statement. “We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed [intellectual property] that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry.”

EA is the developer of blockbuster games that include popular franchises The Sims, Madden NFL and FIFA, which was rebranded this year as FC 24.

As of Friday, EA had not filed a layoff or closure notice with Washington’s Employment Security Department, which employers must notify when a significant number of workers are about to lose their jobs.

Some Ridgeline employees will be moved to Los Angeles-based studio Ripple Effect, where they will continue to work on the next Battlefield game, said Laura Miele, EA president of entertainment and technology.

Ridgeline, which opened in 2022, worked on Battlefield, a first-person-shooter game series. The studio was led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, who announced on Tuesday he was leaving Ridgeline and EA of his own accord.

EA leased office space in a 53,000-square-foot building in Kirkland to house Ridgeline in August 2022. At the time, EA listed nearly 230 job openings in Seattle, according to a Puget Sound Business Journal report.

The gaming giant has other studios in Seattle. Last year, it opened Cliffhanger Games to work on a third-person, single-player Black Panther game. It also owns the PopCap Games studio, which makes Plants vs. Zombies, in the Belltown neighborhood, and an EA Digital Platform studio.

EA is the latest company with a Seattle presence to announce layoffs in the video game industry. 

In January, Microsoft announced it was cutting about 1,900 jobs in its gaming division, including Xbox, ZeniMax and recently acquired Activision Blizzard. The announced cuts affected 8.6% of employees who work in gaming. The Redmond-based giant declined to disclose how many Seattle area-based employees would be out of work.