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Former product manager reporting cuts on the way after expensive Battlefield 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic marketing pushes; EA says overall headcount expected to be up by year's end. 
Hundreds of developers may soon find themselves out of work, as a StartupGrind report claims Electronic Arts is planning to lay off between 500 and 1,000 employees, as much as 11 percent of the company, with cuts coming as soon as this week.
The story is written by former EA employee and Burnout franchise product manager Derek Andersen and cites multiple sources within the company for the news. Andersen pointed to a variety of contributing factors for the cuts, noting that the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic did not meet internal sales estimates and is facing declining subscription numbers. Additionally, he pointed to Battlefield 3's postlaunch marketing campaign, which he reported at an estimated $30 million.
In a comment provided to GameSpot, an EA representative stopped short of confirming the layoffs.
"EA is growing and looking to hire hundreds of people for our digital, console, mobile and social games," the representative said. "Like all game companies, we make occasional adjustments to resize teams as projects are completed and new priorities are established. Overall, we expect that headcount will be up at the end of this year."
Electronic Arts' fiscal year ended on March 31. It has not yet announced a date for the reporting of its full-year fiscal results.
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