Further Job Losses at EA's Global Studios

50 employees at EA Hydrabad's studio in India have been let go today following the redundancies of 20 staff at a call service support center in Galway, Ireland and an unspecified number of job loses in development studios in Canada, Brazil and the UK last week.

"EA is sharpening its focus to provide games for new platforms and mobile. In some cases, this involves reducting team sizes as we evolved into a more efficient organisation," the publisher told MCV India.

"These are difficult decisions to let go of good people who have made important contribustion to EA, and whenever possible we retrain or relocate employees to new roles. Streamlining our operations will help ensure EA is bringing the best next-generation games to players around the world," the company's statement added.

This was the exact same statement issued to The Journa l in relation to last week's Irish job cuts. Last year EA announced that they intended to employ 300 staff at the call center facility.

Word of the Hydrabad job losses came via NASSCOM, an Indian software trade organisation. Prior to these redundancies EA cut additional roles and shuttered EA Mobile Montreal studio Joystiq reported last week.

The Indian redundancies are a direct result of EA's decision to discontinue PlayFish's titles including The Sims: Social and come just months after the company closed Gameloft Hydrabad with the loss of 200 jobs.

EA's social games will now be overseen by Popcap which shut studios in Dublin, Ireland and Seattle last year when it was downsized.