Electronic Arts announced big layoffs cutting 400 jobs, and it said it is shutting down the struggling BioWare studio.

It’s a big shoe to drop in the wake of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund-led $55 billion takeover of EA earlier this year. A big part of that money came from JP Morgan in the form of debt, and reducing costs is key to making EA profitable enough to pay off the debt.

However, EA did not bring that up in the announcement, nor did it say how many were laid off. But we heard the number was 400 people, as did Bloomberg. EA said in its most recent quarter that it had 14,500 people.

EA said that, over the past several months, “we’ve taken a hard look at our business, how we operate, and what it will take to lead in this next era of interactive entertainnment.”

In the note from execs Cam Weber and David Tinson, they added, “We’ve challenged assumptions, confronted hard realities, imagined new possibilities, and made deliberate choices in order to deliver exceptional experiences for our players and to drive sustained growth.”

Beyond the Mass Effect and full BioWare studios, there were also big cuts at The Sims and Battlefield studios.

The leaders said, “As we focus on these larger opportunities, we’ve had a small team at BioWare working on early-development for Mass Effect. We’ve made the decision not to move forward with this development, which means we’re closing the studio and our Edmonton workspace.

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