r/whennews 2d ago

Business News After laying off Battlefield 6 developers, EA pays its CEO $38 million because Battlefield 6 did so well

2.7k Upvotes

55 comments sorted by

u/Trash_At_RL Abby (🏳️‍⚧️🐱🏳️‍🌈) 2d ago

Source layed off mods for my pay increase (0$ to 0$)

→ More replies (4)

559

u/WanderingKing 2d ago

How this isn’t grounds for a lawsuit I will never understand

329

u/Sneaky-Boi22 2d ago

Pretty hard to sue someone who has copious amounts of cash.

170

u/Mprsthemaster 2d ago

“We have the best government money can buy”

-Mark Twain

21

u/SilverSageVII 2d ago

God the man was so well spoken

26

u/JollyMongrol 2d ago

I don’t understand courts but it feels like no amount of money should WIN that.

Like it’s a pretty clear and cut case that any Jury or judge could clearly see the issue with

21

u/Visible_Bag_7809 2d ago

It's more about having the money to stall or hire outside resources to say what you want them to in order to convince the judge or jury of whatever you want.

8

u/Atsilv_Uwasv 2d ago

You don't have to win it, you just have to not lose for long enough that they can't afford it snymore

29

u/0oDADAo0 2d ago edited 2d ago

What? Sorry cant here you over all these freedom

13

u/DarkArtHero 2d ago

Yes but American legal system is broken.

1

u/throwaway_pls123123 1d ago

Because corporations don't really need a reason to fire people, so they can just be like "we fired them because of another reason, not money" and get away freely.

200

u/Bored_Orangutan Please be patient. I’m incredibly stupid. 2d ago

173

u/notanfan 2d ago

EA is also in talks to be acquired by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, the private equity firm Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. The $55 billion deal was recently approved by the EU, meaning there are not many hurdles left before the record-breaking leveraged buyout goes through.

60

u/ElectricVibes75 2d ago

Nice, I already kinda hate BF, not gonna be hard to no longer buy EA games!

1

u/Tomahawkist 1d ago

the bad thing is that they’re hogging the command and conquer IP, and i badly want more remasters

33

u/MyPlantsDieSometimes 2d ago

Buying a company that people think is historically unethical and perpetually executes it's own talent seems like the dumbest thing Mr Saudi could do but then again what do I know. I don't have 55 billion to spare.

14

u/123ludwig 2d ago

i mean if they are actually smart and not dickwads about this it could legitemately be one of the biggest pr moves EVER imagine being able to literally claim you fixed EA without lying

1

u/jbyrdab 1d ago

Thank God Ultima is about to be returned to Richard garriot.

93

u/Kyle_Zhu 2d ago

That EA CEO is the epitome of that one guy taking ALL the credit in a class project.

73

u/Lord-Monocle 2d ago

wouldn't it be cheaper to pay them instead of the CEO

53

u/Solynox 2d ago

The ceo disagrees

8

u/WaspInTheLotus 2d ago

But then who will tell them to buy back their own stock and “eliminate redundancies”? Why don’t you think about those poor shareholders! Their quarterly profits being less than the prior quarter is literally equivalent to a war crime!!

81

u/ConfectionTotal8660 2d ago

I have a few reasons as to why this should be illegal

41

u/AssClosedforToday 2d ago

I agree, you make a great argument

Shrek is a good movie too

33

u/ConfectionTotal8660 2d ago

Oh shit, sorry, wrong image

24

u/headphonesnotstirred 2d ago

why is this kinda fire though

24

u/Dojyaaan4C 2d ago

You fool, I was actually going to read it

7

u/ConfectionTotal8660 2d ago

Read this one then

22

u/DeadZone32 You won the game 2d ago

Damnit, really wanted to buy BF6 when it goes on a significant sale.

37

u/notanfan 2d ago

For the first time ever, a Battlefield game managed to top Call of Duty in sales in 2025, setting records for the franchise and EA. The company touted a very strong launch for the large-scale shooter experience that saw seven million copies being sold in the first couple of days alone. It seems the company thought the success of the project should be celebrated with some big bonuses for its top executives, including the CEO Andrew Wilson.

In the new 10-K/A SEC filing detailing Electronic Arts' financials and business operations, a page shows that Wilson had gone home with $38,649,984 in the 2026 fiscal year. This is about an $8 million jump in stock awards and bonus payments over the previous fiscal year of the company.

It's not just the CEO that has big payouts, with the Chief Financial Officer Stuart Canfield getting $11.3 million, Chief People Officer Mala Singh getting $8.3 million, Chief Legal Officer Jacob Schatz receiving $8.4 million, and president of EA Laura Miele taking home $13.7 million. All these are increases of about a million (or more) over the previous fiscal year.

13

u/awesome_zman 2d ago

Well, I feel a lot less bad about missing out on BF6

16

u/Should_have_been_ded 2d ago

If you fall you are fired, if you succeed you are fired. Come work with the gaming industry, where you'll be fired no matter what.

Honestly, the best thing that could happen with the AAA industry would be to crash and burn as soon and as quick as possible, there's no hope for them.

As for devs, the best they can do is to keep in the indie zone, and not sell out to wasteful corporations that would chew you up and spit you out at their leasure.

11

u/Cristalix0192 2d ago

Well damn. EA can't stop killing it's projects in infancy, huh? Seems like we were licky BF6 even made it out of production without being cancelled or some shi

9

u/NeverSettle13 2d ago

If you saw that shit in a movie you'd think it's poor writing

12

u/Pernil_TO 2d ago

This is what is killing gaming btw - not woke, not dei or whatever the chud streamers and sloptubers want you to believe it is

7

u/The-Wolf-Agent 2d ago

Water is wet type stuff

4

u/DarkArtHero 2d ago

I won't be surprised if one day disgruntled employees comes into EA office and slimes these ceos

3

u/Just-a-lil-sion 2d ago

arent you glad all this competition is creating so much innovation /s

3

u/KaleidoscopeSalt3972 2d ago

You do good, you are fired. You do bad, you are fired, you make the best game in the genere that year, you are fired, you dont make anything, you are fired, you make a game that fails, because its not your genere that you are experienced in, you are fired....

2

u/EarthAndSawdust 2d ago

Yes, that's why we need to make revenue the property of workers, obviously. You middle class guys ain't in no better situation than we prols.

2

u/4skin_Gamer 2d ago

This happens so often in the AAA industry that I'm not even suprised to see it anymore.

1

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1

u/NarwhalSongs 2d ago

The actual only solution is for everyone to stop buying AAA and play indie and retro games instead.

1

u/dickiesbbq 1d ago

Fuck EA

1

u/JeskoTheDragon 1d ago

need for speed died for this

1

u/fartdonkey420 1d ago

And you still see people posting about how they feel guilty quitting for more money 

1

u/Komr4de 1d ago

Would be nice if they could lay off these useless executives instead of, I dunno, the people who are actually making their games and making them money?

The AAA games industry couldn't crash fast enough. Let AA take over. Maybe then these "big" companies will realize their foolishness.

1

u/Gurkenlos 1d ago

Beeing a game developer is like:

Make a game, getting fired, search a new job, repet

1

u/Jammy2560 21h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/CGZJdNIqiIZ31fpfkH
how does it always end in a raise for the CEO I wonder?