EA reduces staff

We spoke to Electronic Arts today about the recent layoffs that have taken place at the company. According to EA, the layoffs are a reduction in its online and related departments following the recent acquisition of Pogo.com, an online game company. The layoffs affected less than 200 employees, and the company plans to continue to recruit and finish the year with approximately the same headcount as it had before the layoffs. The layoffs came from the company's Redwood Shores and Virginia offices, as well as the Origin Systems office in Texas.

The only game cancellation the company would confirm is that of Ultima Worlds Online: Origin, the sequel to Origin's popular online role-playing game Ultima Online. The remaining staff at Origin Systems will focus its efforts on improving the original Ultima Online game, and the company plans to release additional enhancements to the game after the upcoming release of Ultima Online: Third Dawn. According to EA, the Harry Potter game is still alive, although the project is still in the early planning stages and very little actual development has taken place.