EA Japan president Shaun Noguchi has criticized Microsoft after the company recently completed a massive round of layoffs. EA’s Noguchi claims to “feel a deep sense of pain from this decision,” which recently sent shockwaves through the gaming community.
A few days ago, an initial report confirmed that Microsoft was planning to lay off 4% of its 228,000-strong workforce, potentially affecting up to 9,000 employees. In the days since, the scale of the layoffs has been confirmed, affecting many teams and projects. Rare’s Everwild has reportedly been canceled as a result, as has the iconic Forza Motorsport series. Romero Games has allegedly shut down after funding for its project was pulled, and even Halo Studios has seemingly been affected. It has been a devastating period for Microsoft.
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Now, in a post on X, EA Japan president Shaun Noguchi has criticised Microsoft’s widespread layoffs, stating, “In recent years, foreign-affiliated companies have become more inclined to seek short-term results from large-scale investments, and there are many cases where they change direction to meet shareholders’ expectations before enough time has passed. We believe this incident is a result of such a structure.”
EA Japan President Criticizes Microsoft For Looking to “Seek Short-Term Results”
Noguchi also pointed out that the cancellation of several projects after the Microsoft layoffs will be bad for developers and gamers alike, and the sadness from both about the world never getting to see projects that people have poured time and effort into, saying, “What supports the game industry are the creators and staff who have been working sincerely on development. As someone in the same industry, I feel a deep sense of pain from this decision. The regret that something built over a long period of time will not be released to the world, and the reality that gamers who were looking forward to it will never even have the chance to experience it.”
The last couple of years have been extremely challenging for the video game industry in terms of layoffs. It seems that there’s always another round of layoffs around the corner somewhere, leading to instability for developers. Even EA has seen layoffs at various studios this year. In 2025 alone, EA studios Codemasters, Respawn Entertainment, and BioWare have all laid off staff.
- Date Founded
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May 27, 1982
- Headquarters
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Redwood City, California, United States
- CEO
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Andrew Wilson