EA layoffs in Los Angeles and Montreal studios part of 'transition'

Electronic Arts is laying off staff in its Los Angeles and Montreal studios as part of a "console transition," according to a statement released by EA president of labels, Frank Gibeau.

In the statement released today, Gibeau says "console transitions are a complex and challenging experience," and the decision to let staff go is part of that experience.

"Thousands of our existing employees have been retrained and redeployed to work on the new platforms and initiatives," he writes. "But when it is not possible to redeploy a team, we soften the tough decisions with assistance. This week we let some people go in Los Angeles, Montreal as well as in some smaller locations. These are good people and we have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease their transition to a new job."

The full statement can be read here.

EA Montreal has been working on Army of Two: Devil's Cartel, which is due to release March 26 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

On Twitter, rumors are swirling that EA Montreal/Visceral Games Montreal are being shut down entirely. We have reached out to EA for comment.

Confirmed by lots of sources. EA Montreal / Visceral Games Mtl shutting down, effective immediately. Much <3 your way my friends.

— Stephanie Harvey (@missharvey) February 21, 2013

Update: We received the following statement from EA.

Today EA internally announced some adjustments to select development teams to align staff and skills against priority growth areas, including new technologies and mobile. Many employees are being retrained for new positions; however a small number will be released. These are great, talented people and we wish them well. EA is growing globally, and we expect our headcount to increase this year.

EA Montreal is a key development studio where our long-term plan is to sharpen our teams' focus on console and mobile games.