EA’s CEO earns $25 million despite company layoffs
- The company’s second highest earner is Laura Miele who took home $12 million over the past year
- “Imagine what an INVESTMENT such money would’ve been on a next heavy-hitting, trail-blazing game”
Electronic Arts has revealed that over $60 million was paid to its senior executives in FY2024 with CEO Andrew Wilson receiving more than $25 million.
According to Game Developer, this was revealed in a recent financial report and comes not long after the Apex Legends publisher laid off 5% of its global workforce, closed several studios and cancelled projects.
In the 96-page report, EA disclosed compensation details for its senior staff in FY2024 with CEO Wilson taking home the highest pay of $25.6 million in stock awards, salary, and other compensation.
The company’s second highest earner is its president of entertainment, technology and central development Laura Miele who earned $12 million over the past year. The lowest compensated executive was the newly appointed CFO Stuart Canfield who succeeded Chris Suh and took home $6,476,777 including stock awards and other compensation.
Financial success amidst workforce reductions
In FY2024, Electronic Arts reported net bookings totaling $7.43 billion. However, the company’s decision to cut over 10% of its workforce in just over a year has drawn criticism from the community.
In responding to Game Observer’s X (formerly Twitter) post on the CEO’s earnings, one user @eckoxsoldier wrote “corporate greed strikes again” with another user @OwlBasketTeam adding that: “Imagine what an INVESTMENT such money would’ve been on a next heavy-hitting, trail-blazing game.”
The 49-year old CEO has been at EA for over 20 years and has served mostly in executive roles including vice president, SVP, and head of EA sports before helming the role of CEO in 2013.
Recently, Wilson discussed plans to introduce more dynamic ads in games and addressed the increasing role of AI in game development which could see the It Takes Two publisher utilise the nascent technology in some of areas of its game development.
