US video games giant Electronic Arts (EA) this morning informed employees at its Israel development center in Caesarea that they were being laid off and the center is being closed down. The company has confirmed the closure and says that it follows its decision to close its internal cloud development activities that were being carried out in Israel.
EA's Israel development center was based on the 1998 acquisition of the cloud gaming team of GameFly, which had developed technology for streaming video games in the cloud. The technology developed by GameFly has never been transferred to EA although similar technologies were developed, probably from scratch. When GameFly was acquired in 2018 it had 50 employees and according to LinkedIn the company currently has 63 employees. "Globes" has been told that most of them will be laid off.
Several EA Israel employees reported that the parent company was concerned about the economic instability in Israel due to the planned judicial overhaul although the global crisis in tech investment, inflation and a drop in sales also contributed to the decision.
EAs is a profitable company whose best-selling games include FIFA, the Sims, Madden NFL, Battlefield and Need for Speed.
EA said, "We periodically review our plans, to ensure that we are focused on the right strategies and provide the best experiences for our players. Therefore, we have decided to close our internal cloud development activities, and to close EA's offices in Israel, where the teams in this area are located. We work closely with each and every employee and offer support to everyone who will be affected by the move."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 19, 2023.
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