These salary cuts can be explained by the very mixed launch of F1 23, whose European sales are almost 50% lower than the scores of F1 22 in the first month. A fatal slowdown. Whatever the reason, Electronic Arts would rather tighten its belt than reinvest. “Our market is constantly evolving, and we’re always looking to deliver fantastic games and services that can inspire, connect and excite our players“, commented a spokesperson at IGN. “Sometimes this requires making small organizational changes to realign our teams and resources to respond to changes in the market and our priorities. We will continue to work with those affected and support them through the process.“
Leaving the road
Electronic Arts bought Codemasters in 2021 for the tidy sum of $1.2 billion in order to become a leader in motorsport. As a result, last year, the Cheshire branch was swallowed up by Criterion to support Need for Speed Unbound. Codemasters recently released EA Sports WRC under the new autonomous structure EA Sports, especially designed to promote the locomotive EA Sports FC, let’s not hide our faces. The big boss Andrew Wilson had noted that this autonomy had to be accompanied by “financial responsibility” increased.
These layoffs come in a difficult context for racing games not branded Gran Turismo or Forza. Californian publisher Motorsport Games recently had to lay off 38 employees and resell the BTCC and Nascar licenses. Within Codemasters itself, the Project CARS franchise was euthanized by Electronic Arts to reduce costs. Its designer Ian Bell left to sign with Plaion to found a new studio, Straight4, which is already working on its own automotive license. Here’s hoping the studio revitalizes the market and doesn’t also have to lay off people.
Moreover, by coincidence of the calendar, Straight4’s first project is progressing rather well. It doesn’t have a name yet, but there is already a first unlisted gameplay video showing the first drafts of the graphics and physics engines. If you’re curious, you can find a link in the tweet below (embedding doesn’t work with unlisted videos).
Well we’ve just hit a milestone. Our new physics in early form, with our new graphics engine in early form and our (from the start) Physics guru Doug Arnao testing the 296.
You asked for early moving footage. What’s missing? Tons! Head physics movement, some audio, some lots……— Ian Bell (@bell_sms) December 4, 2023