EA’s reputation among players has never been sterling, and recent bits of questionable brand management like calling loot boxes “surprise mechanics” certainly haven’t helped. Yet the publisher was recognised as one of the best companies to work for at the start of 2018, and now it seems that EA’s top executives have diverted their own bonuses to employees.
A report from GameDaily.biz suggests that EA CEO Andrew Wilson and executives working directly under him have declined their annual performance bonuses, and diverted those funds into the broader bonus pool for all employees. We don’t know exactly how much money that entails, but Wilson’s 2018 bonus totalled $2.5 million.
For non-executive employees, EA’s bonus pool is determined by the company’s overall performance, and is distributed to employees based on which departments they work in and their performance, as evaluated by their managers. You can read the SEC filings on the bonus system from fiscal year 2018 for yourself here (via ResetEra).
With all that in mind, it’s still worth noting that Wilson is ranked among the top 100 most overpaid CEOs of 2019, and the company laid off over 350 employees earlier this year.
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By many accounts, EA is one of the better spots in the industry to work – though as a workplace review noted by GamesIndustry.biz says, that’s not true “during layoff season.”