US publishing giant Electronic Arts has apparently fired over 200 members of staff at its Baton Rouge studio.

As reported by Kotaku, workers at the Louisiana developer – who primarily do quality assurance for Apex Legends – were abruptly laid off via a surprise Zoom call with their contract partner Magnit Global on Tuesday. Testing for the battle royale hit is now being carried out by other EA studios. 

“Testing games is an integral part of delivering the best experiences for our players. As part of our ongoing global strategy, we are expanding the distribution of our Apex Legends testing team and ending testing execution that’s been concentrated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, impacting services provided by our third-party provider," an EA spokesperson said.

"Our global team, inclusive of remote playtesters across the U.S., enables us to increase the hours per week we’re able to test and optimize the game and reflects a commitment to understand and better serve our growing community around the world."

This news comes after the announcement that Apex Legends Mobile would be shutting on May 1st.

Apex Legends has made over $2 billion for EA to date.