Electronic Arts Layoffs: What Ontario Employees Are Owed in Severance
The deadline on your Electronic Arts letter is the employer's choice, not a legal one. The ESA floor is counted in weeks, and the common law usually adds months on top.
Key takeaways
- Check your years of service against the 5 year line. Below it there is no ESA severance pay, so compare the offer with the common law range for your profile, not with the ESA weeks.
- Check your offer letter and any later contract for a termination clause. If there is none, common law notice applies by default.
- Check the vesting schedule in your equity portal before access ends. Screenshot every grant and vesting date that falls in the months after your last day.
- Check whether your benefits stop on your last day. The ESA requires contributions to continue through the statutory notice period.
- Check the start date the offer uses. One wrong year can cost a week of notice and a week of severance pay.
In this article
- What did Electronic Arts announce?
- What should you do in the first 48 hours?
- Does Ontario law apply if your employer is American?
- What is the ESA minimum for a layoff this size?
- What are you actually owed at common law?
- What do tech severance packages usually get wrong?
- What should you do before you sign?
✅Quick answer. Electronic Arts cut about 400 jobs on October 21, 2026. If you work in Ontario, you are owed ESA notice or pay in lieu, ESA severance pay if you have 5 or more years, and usually much more as common law reasonable notice unless a valid clause in your contract limits it.
What did Electronic Arts announce?
| At a glance | What is known |
|---|---|
| Announced | October 21, 2026, as part of a restructuring of its studios (Variety) |
| Effective | Not disclosed |
| People affected | About 400 roles worldwide, including roughly 50 at BioWare (Bloomberg) |
| Share of workforce | About 3% of the global workforce (Variety), which numbered about 14,500 (WN Hub) |
| Layoff or furlough | Layoff: the company said it "will lay off staff" (Bloomberg), citing a focus on three strategic priorities (GamesBeat) |
| Canadian impact | BioWare and its office in Edmonton, Alberta are closing; roughly 50 of the cut roles were at BioWare (IGN) |
What should you do in the first 48 hours?
- Ask in writing for more time.
- Do not sign the release yet, and do not agree that you resigned.
- Save what you can; ask HR in writing for your contract, plan documents and pay stubs.
- Note the date, who told you, what was said.
- Apply for EI online without waiting for the Record of Employment; if you apply more than 4 weeks after your last day, you can lose benefits.
👥If your colleagues got the same letter. Compare what each person was offered; the offers often differ. Count how many people at your location got a letter in the same 4 weeks, and write down each person's name and letter date. Do not sign together on the employer's timetable. Keep every letter and any notice posted at work.
Does Ontario law apply if your employer is American?
Yes. Under ESA s. 3(1), the Act applies when your work is performed in Ontario, no matter where the parent company is headquartered and no matter which entity, Canadian or American, issues your pay stub. The US WARN Act is a US statute and gives an Ontario employee nothing; what you are owed here is set by the ESA and the Ontario common law of reasonable notice.
What is the ESA minimum for a layoff this size?
Section 57 sets notice, or pay in lieu under s. 61, by service: 1 week from 3 months to a year, 2 weeks from 1 to 3 years, then 1 more week per completed year up to 8 weeks at 8 years.
Under s. 58, if 50 or more people at your location lose their jobs within 4 weeks, the minimum notice rises to between 8 and 16 weeks depending on how many; the count is per location, not global.
Severance pay under s. 64 is owed once you have 5 or more years of service and the employer's payroll is $2.5 million or more, which Electronic Arts meets.
Section 65 sets the amount at 1 week of regular wages per year of service, with partial years counted by completed months, capped at 26 weeks. It is paid "in addition to any other amount to which an employee is entitled under this Act", so it stacks on top of notice.
The mass termination rules explain how the 50 count works, and severance pay in Ontario shows how the pieces fit together.
What are you actually owed at common law?
Common law notice comes from the factors in Bardal v. Globe & Mail Ltd., 1960 CanLII 294 (ON SC): your age, your length of service, the character of your job and how easily you can find comparable work.
How RSUs, options and bonus fit into that number is covered in severance for tech workers.
See your own range
Enter your age, years of service, role and pay to compare your ESA minimum with a common law range.
What do tech severance packages usually get wrong?
- Unvested RSUs and options: in Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd., 2026 ONCA 572, a 2026 Court of Appeal decision, RSUs that would have vested during the notice period were recoverable, and O'Reilly v. IMAX Corporation, 2019 ONCA 991, found that plan wording cancelling them on termination did not remove that right.
- Bonus: a plan that requires you to be actively employed on the payout date does not take away the bonus you would have earned during the notice period (Paquette v. TeraGo Networks Inc., 2016 ONCA 618).
- The termination clause: if one sentence in the termination section breaks the ESA, often the for cause paragraph, the whole clause fails and you are back to common law notice (Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc., 2020 ONCA 391).
What should you do before you sign?
The release is the one thing you cannot undo once it is signed, so get the numbers checked against the ESA minimum, the common law range and your equity before you sign it. A free severance review tells you what you are owed and what to ask for; the firm works on a percentage of what it recovers, and there is no fee if nothing is recovered.
This article is general information about Ontario law. It is not legal advice about your situation.
How we can help
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the deadline passes and I have not signed?
Usually the employer still pays the ESA minimum, because that is owed whether or not you sign. The extra money offered in exchange for the release may be withdrawn, but an expired offer does not end your claim to common law notice.
Can I be asked to keep working through the notice period?
Yes. The ESA lets your employer give working notice instead of pay in lieu. During that notice period it cannot reduce your wage rate or change any other term of your employment, and it must pay you at least your regular wages each week (ESA s. 60).
What happens to RSUs that would have vested after my last day?
If they would have vested inside the notice period you are owed, they may be part of your damages, even where the plan says unvested units are cancelled on termination. Units that vest after the notice period ends are usually lost. Save your grant agreements and vesting schedule now.
What if I am put on a temporary layoff instead?
Under ESA s. 56, a layoff of more than 13 weeks in any 20 consecutive weeks is treated as a termination unless a listed exception applies, such as the employer continuing your benefit plan payments, and those exceptions have their own outer limits. If it becomes a termination, your employment is deemed to have ended on the first day of the layoff.
Daniel Carter
Legal Writer, Mirza Law
Daniel Carter is a legal writer at Mirza Law in Toronto. He writes about layoffs, employment contracts, and the steps to take before you sign anything from your employer.
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