EA cuts jobs at customer support center

Less than a year after Electronic Arts announced it would create 300 new jobs at its Galway, Ireland, customer service center, the publisher has cut a number of positions at the outfit, according to a statement provided to Irish news site The Journal.

The exact number of cuts was not divulged, though The Journal said it understands the figure is under 20. A spokesperson for IDA Ireland, the group responsible for attracting foreign investment in the country, told the publication it "has a longstanding relationship with EA--the company continues to employ significant numbers in the Galway area."

EA's customer support center in Galway originally opened in September 2011 with the sole purpose of supporting BioWare's massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic. This changed a year later, when EA said the facility would also provide multilingual support and services for its major games.

EA's Galway outfit is just one of the company's studios to be hit with layoffs of late. Last Thursday, the publisher confirmed cuts as a means to "streamline" its business in preparation for the upcoming console transition. Layoff totals were not officially divulged, though Joystiq reports this figure includes 60 to 70 permanent employees and over 100 contract workers, mostly quality assurance testers.

Layoff news at EA comes a month after former CEO John Riccitiello admitted that EA would miss its financial projections for the full-year ended March 31.

"This is a tough decision, but it all comes down to accountability," Riccitiello said in his resignation letter last month. "The progress EA has made on transitioning to digital games and services is something I'm extremely proud of. However, it currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued in January, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. EA's shareholders and employees expect better and I am accountable for the miss."