Gaming News
Electronic Arts closes Westwood Studios
Studio responsible for COMMAND AND CONQUER will soon be no more
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Dateline: Thursday, January 30, 2003
By: TROY ROBERTS
By: Contributing Editor
As part of its quarterly earnings report, Electronic Arts announced that it will be consolidating its Los Angeles, Irvine and Las Vegas studios.
While the company plans to form a new studio in Los Angeles soon, the the closure in Las Vegas means that Westwood Studios, responsible for the COMMAND AND CONQUER series and the recent EARTH AND BEYOND, is no more. This also means significant layoffs at the Las Vegas studio (which employs over 100 people), although some are eligible for transfer to the new LA studio or EA's main headquarters in Redwood Shores. Westwood's only confirmed member going to the Los Angeles studio right now is Louis Castle, the founder of the studio. The final day for Westwood employees will be this Friday.
Despite the closure of Westwood, EA has announced it will continue to support the online RPG EARTH AND BEYOND and also that we haven't seen the last of the COMMAND AND CONQUER series.
The new Los Angeles studio will open later this summer and will be home to 200 developers.
