BioWare Was 50 of EA's 400 Cuts. Source the 350 at Maxis and Full Circle

Almost every headline about EA's October 2026 layoffs was about BioWare closing, but Bloomberg's source put only about 50 of the roughly 400 cuts there. The other 350 or so worked at Maxis, Full Circle and Ripple Effect, EA hasn't named them, and you have a few weeks to find them before EA's internal job board does.

The cuts came to about 3% of EA's staff. If you want to hire laid off game developers from this round, the people worth finding are mostly mid-level, mostly not in Edmonton, and only visible through their own LinkedIn posts.

Who did EA actually cut in the 2026 layoffs?

About 350 of EA's roughly 400 October 2026 cuts (87.5%) were outside BioWare, at Maxis, Full Circle and Ripple Effect. EA's internal email confirmed only that BioWare was closing. The other studios were named by an anonymous source who spoke to Vertical Slice, and laid-off staff posting on LinkedIn have backed that up.

87.5%

GamesBeat says EA reported 14,500 employees in its most recent quarter, so 400 cuts works out to about 2.8% of headcount. Here is what's known about each studio:

• BioWare (Edmonton): about 50 people. The studio is closing.
• Maxis: Project Lotus, the next Sims project, is "paused" according to EA's memo. Variety, Gematsu and Insider Gaming reported it as canceled.
• Full Circle (Burnaby): designers and creative leads, including the seasonal creative director.
• Ripple Effect: artists and technical artists.

These people have confirmed on LinkedIn that they were let go:

• Anna Huerta, senior creative director, Maxis (5 years on The Sims)
• John Epler, seasonal creative director, Full Circle
• David Milne, senior designer, Full Circle
• Adam Martinazzi, senior game designer, Full Circle
• Corey Thomas, character artist, Ripple Effect
• Brandon Garcia, outsourcing artist, Ripple Effect
• Turner Spring, technical artist, Ripple Effect

Look at who's on that list. They're senior individual contributors and creative leads, not executives. People at that level don't get press coverage, so LinkedIn is the only public record of who left.

Why hasn't EA published a list, and how long do you have?

EA hasn't published a list because its memo was built around internal redeployment, and that gives outside recruiters roughly 2 to 4 weeks. The memo gave no job count, said EA would help affected staff look for other roles inside the company, and said EA would discuss its plans at a Global Town Hall in November.

The memo was signed by EA executives Cam Weber and David Tinson. Internal redeployment makes sense for EA, because a known employee with no relocation cost is the cheapest hire there is. The catch is who goes first. Hiring managers inside EA will compete for the people they already know are good, and those are exactly the people you want too. Every week you wait, the remaining pool gets a little weaker.

This also isn't a one-off. The buyout left EA with $20B of debt, and GamesBeat says cutting costs is key to paying it down. Expect more rounds. A list of EA game developers in Burnaby, Montreal and Québec City that you build now will still be useful next quarter.

Why is Edmonton a poor place to source BioWare talent?

Because Edmonton has almost no other game employers. In a 25-profile Canadian sample from Refolk's index of games-industry C++ programmers, Quebec makes up 12 of the top-region profiles and Vancouver about 6. Calgary has 1, and Edmonton doesn't show up at all.

The Quebec figure breaks down as Montreal (6), Québec City (3), and single profiles in Sherbrooke, Capitale-Nationale and Brossard. Edmonton had BioWare and very little else.

That leaves the roughly 50 people let go in Edmonton with three realistic options:

1. Move to Montreal or Vancouver to stay in games.
2. Find a remote games job.
3. Leave games for a job they can do from Edmonton.

That third option makes them unusually open to non-gaming offers, especially remote ones or ones based in Alberta. A remote pitch for a real-time 3D or C++ systems role is a stronger offer to someone in Edmonton than the same pitch to someone in Montreal, who has a dozen studios nearby.

BioWare talent also isn't only in Edmonton. Some BioWare veterans had already moved to other EA studios before this round, and tenure at EA runs long: John Epler has spent close to 19 years in the industry, all of it at EA. If you want BioWare experience, search past employers across all EA studios, not just people whose current location is Edmonton.

Why the Canadian mid-level pool is the real story

Canada's pool of games C++ programmers is small, so a few dozen exits from Full Circle and Maxis are a meaningful share of everyone in the country with that profile. Refolk's index has 266 games-industry C++ programmers in Canada with software, gameplay, engine or tools titles, against 658 in the US.

Full Circle's LinkedIn page listed it at 51 to 200 employees, and the studio had already been cut once, on Feb 25, 2026, without saying how many people were affected. Two rounds in eight months at a studio that size means a large share of the team is now looking. In the Canadian sample, Maxis Studios (EA) shows up twice and Ripple Effect Studios once among the top employers. DraftKings also shows up twice, so at least one non-game company is already hiring game-tagged C++ engineers in Canada.

These people are hard to see because nobody announces mid-level departures. They're also hard to search for because of the studio names. "Full Circle" and "Ripple Effect" are common phrases. A keyword search for either one brings back marketing agencies, coaches, and every headline about something "coming full circle." This is the gap Refolk is built for. You describe the person in plain English, for example a gameplay engineer recently at Full Circle in Burnaby, and you get back a ranked list of real profiles instead of a page of idioms.

October's leavers already survived two earlier rounds

Many of the people EA let go in October had already made it through earlier cuts. That makes them a better bet than a typical layoff pool, and more likely to consider leaving games.

Here is the timeline:

• April 2025: 300 to 400 layoffs, and the Titanfall project "R7" was canceled.
• Feb 25, 2026: Full Circle cut, number undisclosed.
• March 2026: cuts at DICE, Ripple Effect, Criterion and Motive.
• October 2026: about 400 cuts, BioWare closed, Project Lotus paused.

Here's why that sequence matters. Earlier rounds usually trim the people a studio rates lowest. The October round was mostly about projects: Lotus paused, BioWare shut down. Someone at Ripple Effect who got through March and was then let go in October was most likely cut because their project was cut, not because of their own work.

A developer who survived March and lost their job in October lost a project, not a performance review.

There's a second effect too. Being laid off twice in a year by the same company changes how people feel about the whole industry. Asking "do you want to keep doing this in games?" is a reasonable opening question now, where six months ago it would have come across as an insult.

Which game-dev skills transfer to non-gaming roles?

Three skill sets carry over cleanly: C++ systems programming, Unreal technical art, and live-service operations. Non-game companies already hire for the first two in volume. Creative direction and senior design are also valuable, but they need more work to translate into other titles.

48%

Refolk's index has 286 technical artists with Unreal Engine skills in the US and Canada. A technical artist connects art and engineering: they build shaders, tools and pipelines so artwork runs in real time. Among the top employers in the sample, Meta has 5, Kinetic Vision 3, and NVIDIA, Apple, Google and Illuminex AI 1 each. Riot, High Moon and Infinity Ward are the only game studios on the list.

The reason is that real-time 3D is used well beyond games now. XR, digital twins and simulation all run on the same engines and need the same performance work. Turner Spring's technical artist role at Ripple Effect fits what Meta and NVIDIA already hire for.

Live-service experience is easy to undervalue. John Epler's title was "seasonal creative director," a role built around a recurring content schedule. Any consumer app that ships updates on a schedule and watches retention has the same job, even if it's called something else.

If you're recruiting this talent for a non-game company, describe the role as real-time 3D, XR or simulation in your first message. Don't describe it as "a bit like games."

How to source EA's laid-off staff before the November town hall

Search LinkedIn posts and headlines for the three studio names combined with layoff phrases, then sort the results by city and skill. Speed matters more than having a complete list, because EA's internal redeployment works on the same timeline you do.

1. Search posts and headlines, not current employers. Look for "Full Circle," "Maxis" or "Ripple Effect" together with "role eliminated," "open to work" or "impacted." Many people won't have updated their employer field yet.
2. Filter out phrase collisions. Add "EA," "skate," "The Sims" or "Burnaby" to separate studio mentions from figures of speech.
3. Search past experience for BioWare. Some BioWare veterans were already working at other EA studios when this round hit.
4. Segment by location. Edmonton gets the remote or no-relocation pitch. Burnaby and Vancouver get local offers. Montreal and Québec City are the densest Canadian pool, so expect more competition there.
5. Lead with the transferable skill. "Your Unreal shader work maps to our digital twin pipeline" will get a reply. "We love games too" won't.
6. Reach out before mid-November. After the Global Town Hall, the people EA wants to keep will already be in internal interviews.

Steps 1 through 4 are the slow part, because you're searching for people by a past project and a city when no clean field exists for either.

FAQ

How many people did EA lay off in October 2026?

About 400, or roughly 3% of the company. Against the 14,500 employees EA reported in its most recent quarter, that's about 2.8%. Bloomberg's source put about 50 of the cuts at BioWare, which leaves roughly 350 at other studios. EA's memo didn't give an official count.

Which EA studios were hit besides BioWare?

Maxis, Full Circle and Ripple Effect, based on an anonymous source who spoke to Vertical Slice and on laid-off staff posting on LinkedIn. EA's internal email confirmed only that BioWare was closing. Full Circle and Ripple Effect had both been cut earlier in 2026, in February and March.

Was Project Lotus canceled?

EA's memo says Project Lotus is "paused." Variety, Gematsu and Insider Gaming reported it as canceled. Either way, Maxis was affected, and staff such as senior creative director Anna Huerta have confirmed they were let go.

Can laid-off game developers move into non-gaming roles?

Yes, especially C++ engineers and Unreal technical artists. In Refolk's index, 48% of the top employers among sampled Unreal technical artists are non-game companies such as Meta, NVIDIA, Apple, Google and Kinetic Vision. DraftKings already hires game-tagged C++ engineers in Canada. Creative directors and senior designers can move too, but their titles usually need translating into product terms.