Report: EA Austin customer service workers are being laid off

A number of customer service employees at EA's office in Austin, Texas, are being laid off by the U.S. publisher.

According to a report from Kotaku, which has seen internal emails detailing the decision, as many as 100 workers could be affected by the cuts.

Many of those affected supported live operations on FIFA 22. The news comes shortly after EA chose to end its licensing deal with FIFA to take its popular soccer sim in a new direction under the EA Sports FC banner.

Sources familiar with the situation explained that EA now intends to outsource live operations support.

“We continuously evolve to deliver better experiences for our fans and are improving our support model," wrote Joel Knutson, VP of customer experience at EA, in the email seen by Kotaku.

Knutson added the layoffs have been sanctioned "in order to reduce complexity and increase our efficiency, flexibility and scalability," and noted the company will also be “proposing redundancy” for similar roles at EA’s Galway office in Ireland.

In a follow-up email sent to Kotaku, an EA spokesperson said the "changes" to its customer support units are "not tied to any one gaming franchise, nor are they connected to our EA Sports FC announcement last week."

"The customer support function support a wide range of player questions pertaining to our gaming titles, technology, including Origin or our EA Play subscription service," added the rep.

EA also noted it has created 10 additional customer service support roles within its mobile game segment.