EA planning upcoming layoffs, 'completed by September 30, 2012'

EA today confirmed plans to enact a "restructuring" among its employees, resulting in an unnamed number of layoffs companywide. The restructuring is part of EA CEO John Riccitiello's move toward digital – an initiative that aims to alter the composition of EA's staff from one in eight engineers to one in two.

The California-based publisher will incur a variety of expenses related to its upcoming plans, to the tune of "approximately $40 million in total costs." Ouch! Making things more painful is the fact that $23 million of that total is planned for "severance and other employee-related costs" – a number that'll be (conveniently) reflected in next year's financials.

As recently as a few weeks ago, EA outright denied reports of upcoming layoffs. Those reports put the number at 5 to 10 percent of EA's workforce, or approximately 500 to 1,000 employees. EA corporate rep Jeff Brown told Joystiq that the restructuring "impacts a relatively small number of EA's 9,000 employees." He added, "Most importantly, EA is hiring and we expect to finish the year with more employees, not fewer."

Update: During EA's financial call this afternoon, the company got more specific on restructuring numbers. Regardless of layoffs, EA expects to grow its current headcount of approximately 9,200 employees to 9,700 by the end of fiscal 2013 (ending March 31, 2013).