Yesterday, Electronic Arts (EA) announced the closure of Cliffhanger Games, a Seattle-based studio founded six years ago by Kevin Stephens, who previously worked as Vice President and Studio Head on Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Cliffhanger Games was working on an original Black Panther game.
Exactly a month ago, EA laid off around 300–400 employees at Respawn Entertainment, too, and it may not be over yet. According to the Spanish insider eXtas1s, the publisher could be preparing to shut down Codemasters' central headquarters, removing another 400 developers or so.
I have learned that around 400 more layoffs are coming at EA, the total closure of Codemasters' headquarters, and that those developers will be integrated into EA Sports (F1) and a new Need For Speed that is already in development.
This would be another major blow to the games industry, which has suffered many closures and layoff rounds in the first half of 2025 after a couple of tough years.
EA surpassed Take-Two as the buyer of Codemasters on the finishing line. Take-Two had offered nearly a billion dollars, but Electronic Arts closed the deal at $1.2 billion. After the acquisition, Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier claimed Electronic Arts was a perfect fit.
However, Codemasters suffered major restructuring in the last four years at the hands of its new owner. Three years ago, the Cheshire-based team was merged with Criterion to work on Need for Speed. In late 2023, EA performed a first round of layoffs at Codemasters. Just a few weeks, we also learned that the studio won't be making any more WRC games, as the license was reacquired by Nacon.
It appears that EA is positioning Codemasters to be solely focused on making new Formula 1 games. On that note, F1 25 was just released, and you can read Chris Wray's take on it here:
F1 25 is a good game, make no mistake about that. With a near-flawless presentation, improved my team mode, and additional features, there's a lot to do. There are a few pitfalls here and there, but nothing that takes away from what is another genuinely good release by Codemasters.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
