Full Circle Developers Report Layoffs as EA Restructures Skate Team

Developers at Full Circle, the EA studio behind Skate, have said they have lost their jobs amid a broader round of cuts at the publisher. The reports arrive shortly after EA confirmed the closure of BioWare and outlined a company-wide restructuring that is expected to affect hundreds of positions.

EA has indicated that Skate remains an active project, but its comments make clear that Full Circle is being reshaped. The publisher says it intends to operate the game with a smaller, more concentrated team and a defined roadmap aimed at sustaining player engagement over the long term. For the people leaving the studio, however, that strategic language represents the end of years spent building one of EA's most visible ongoing projects.

Multiple Full Circle developers confirm departures

Several Full Circle employees publicly shared that their positions had been eliminated. Seasonal creative director John Epler said his role had been cut after nearly 19 years in the games industry, all of them spent at EA. While acknowledging understandable anxiety about what comes next, Epler framed the moment as an opportunity to pursue a new chapter.

Senior game designer Adam Martinazzi also confirmed that he was among the staff affected. He described mixed emotions: disappointment and frustration at losing the role, balanced by appreciation for the opportunity to work on a game and alongside colleagues he admired. Martinazzi added that, however painful, layoffs have become an all-too-familiar reality across the industry.

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Senior designer David Milne likewise said that his job at Full Circle had been eliminated. Milne wrote that he had enjoyed his time on Skate and valued the people on the team, but would now move forward to whatever comes next.

The total number of affected Full Circle staff has not been disclosed. The confirmed accounts nevertheless show that the reductions reached experienced developers in creative and design roles, rather than representing a minor adjustment isolated from the game's production staff.

EA says Skate will continue with a smaller team

In its internal communication about the larger cuts, EA listed Skate among its ongoing projects. The company said the game has successfully brought players into its ecosystem, but that the next challenge is building an experience that can retain those players over time.

"For skate., we've had a lot of success in bringing players into the game, and we need to create an experience that keeps them engaged over the long-term," EA said. "To do that, we are making changes to the studio to have a more focused, smaller team to deliver on a very clear roadmap for our community that we believe will build a healthier and more sustainable business."

The statement offers a direct explanation for the restructuring, while raising substantial questions about the practical effect of a reduced team. Live-service games depend on a steady rhythm of updates, fixes, new content, community support, and systems work. A smaller group can sometimes sharpen priorities and cut down on competing ideas, but it also has fewer people available to meet the demands of a continually evolving game.

EA did not detail what the revised roadmap contains, which roles are being retained, or how the cuts will change the pace and scope of future Skate development. The publisher's emphasis on a "healthier and more sustainable business" suggests that retaining and monetarily supporting an active audience is central to the next phase of the project.

This is not Full Circle's first round of reductions

Full Circle had already been affected by layoffs in February. At that time, the studio said the departing employees had helped establish the foundation of Skate, stressing that their work and creativity were embedded in the experience players were already seeing.

The studio also said the earlier decision was not a judgment on the affected workers' contributions and that it would support them through the transition. The latest reports make the February cuts look less like a one-time correction and more like part of a continuing effort to reduce the size of the studio.

That history matters because Skate is still defining its identity as an ongoing game. Development teams are normally expected to grow or stabilize as they respond to player feedback and establish regular production routines. Repeated job losses can complicate that process, particularly when veteran staff who understand the project's creative goals and technical history depart.

Modding questions remain part of Skate's future

The restructuring comes only two weeks after Full Circle addressed the fast-growing conversation around player-made modifications. A fan-created platform called ReSkate gained attention for enabling offline play, private servers, custom maps, and other features outside the official game environment.

Full Circle acknowledged the importance of community-made content and the desire for more player freedom. At the same time, it drew boundaries around modifications that bypass paid cosmetic items or generate money from new features. Those restrictions reflect the tension surrounding modding in a live-service game: players may seek deeper tools and control, while the developer must protect its official economy, security, and service infrastructure.

Importantly, Full Circle said it was working on official and secure access tools that could allow broader, deeper community creation. That promise could become more consequential following the staffing changes. If the studio successfully delivers robust creation tools, players may gain structured ways to build maps and experiences without relying on systems that conflict with the game's commercial model. But the work required to create, maintain, moderate, and secure such tools is considerable, making EA's decision to reduce the team a notable complication.

The cuts are part of a much wider EA overhaul

The Full Circle departures sit within a far larger EA restructuring. Reporting from Bloomberg put the total number of jobs being removed at around 400, or roughly 3% of EA's workforce. Of those roles, 50 were reportedly tied to the next Mass Effect before the BioWare closure.

EA's decisions are especially striking given that the company has recently pointed to strong business performance. CEO Andrew Wilson received a compensation package valued at $38.6 million for EA's 2026 fiscal year. The company's performance was boosted by Battlefield 6, yet even that record-setting launch did not prevent cuts across Battlefield Studios.

The contrast is one familiar to game industry workers: a major release can succeed, a publisher can post encouraging financial results, and teams can still be reduced as leadership pursues a different profit target, organizational structure, or investment plan. For developers, the message can be difficult to reconcile with the long hours and specialist knowledge required to ship and operate major games.

EA also went private earlier in 2026 with Saudi Arabian involvement. At the time, Wilson celebrated the employees whose ambition and creativity had helped establish EA as a major interactive entertainment company. The subsequent closures and layoffs have placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the gap between praise for those employees and the instability many now face.

What players should watch next

For Skate players, the immediate takeaway is that EA has not said the game is being canceled. On the contrary, the company specifically presented it as an active project with a future plan. But continuing support is not the same as unchanged support. Full Circle will be expected to prove that its smaller structure can maintain the game's momentum, respond to community demands, and make progress on official creation tools.

Players should watch for clearer communication on the roadmap, the scale of planned updates, and the studio's approach to custom content and modding. Those details will reveal far more about the game's practical future than the broad promise of continued operations.

For the developers who have left, the near-term situation is more personal and immediate. Their public messages show pride in the work completed at Full Circle, affection for their teammates, and uncertainty about the next step. As EA narrows its teams around a smaller set of priorities, the human cost of that strategy is once again being felt by the people who helped make those projects possible.