Summary
Codemastersplans to lay off some employees in the immediate future, marking its second round of downsizing in less than two years, the company has announced. This is the secondElectronic Artssubsidiary to have confirmed layoffs in the last few days.
In late April 2025,Codemasters announced that it wouldn’t be renewing its World Rally Championship license, which was used as the basis for its successfulWRCseries. While a limited version of the company’s license runs until 2027, work on its latest rally game—EA Sports WRC, released in 2023—has already ceased.
This new reality of no longer having a WRC license will lead to some near-future layoffs, with Codemasters confirming as much toVGC. While the studio is still coy with details, a company representative said that the group started looking at “reducing some roles” lately. Not all of the planned role reductions will necessarily lead to layoffs, as Codemasters has noted it is also exploring opportunities for affected employees elsewhere under theEA corporate umbrella.
Codemasters Layoffs Are Part of EA’s Wider Downsizing
Codemasters is far from the only EA subsidiary to have downsized recently—or to be planning similar moves moving forward.Respawn Entertainment canceled two games and laid off dozensof staffers this spring. According to an April 29 Bloomberg report, EA is planning to cut between 200 and 300 additional roles beyond those affected at Respawn in the near future.
The current troubles can be traced back to EA’s January 2025 financial report, when the publisher admitted that several of its big-budget projects have underperformed.Dragon Age: The Veilguardwas among the games that failed to meet EA’s sales expectations, as was its latest annual soccer sim,FC 25. EA shares nosedived roughly 20% on the back of the late January earnings report. However, they have since completely recovered, and even gained around four points since the news of EA’s group-wide layoffs broke out.
The scope of the upcoming layoffs at Codemasters has yet to be determined. In addition to ending support forEA Sports WRC, the loss of the World Rally Championship license has also led the company to pause all other rally-related video game projects. These developments mark a true end-of-an-era moment, as Codemasters' rally games have been a reliable source of entertainment for WRC fans since the early 2000s. “Every great journey eventually finds its finish line,” a studio representative said of the changes. This turn of events may lead to Codemasters growing even more focused on Formula One, its one remaining sports license.
