EA makes 5% of its workforce an offer they can't refuse

Our anonymous tipster was on the money when he notified us earlier today that EA was planning to lay off workers. According to a GameSpot story published after the rumor got around, an EA official admitted that the company planned to reduce its workforce by 5 percent (meaning around 350 employees will get the axe, according to GameSpot estimates). The spokesperson blamed the console transition now underway for forcing EA to undergo "resource evaluation" (that's corporatespeak for "lay off people until business picks up again").

So far, no word from other major publishers. Take-Two, as we reported earlier, is already on the rocks. But THQ and Activision are silent... for now. It'll be months before the next-gen consoles have achieved total installed bases of anywhere near 100 million consoles, so developers are going to be cash-starved for quite some time before the situation gets markedly better.