EA Lays Off Developers From Boom Blox Team

Despite the fact that both of EA's Boom Blox and Boom Blox Bash Party been among the most critically praised third party titles for the Wii (sitting at an 85 and 86 on Metacritic, respectively), tough economic times have hit the EALA studio team that had reportedly been working on a Project Natal game for the franchise. The team's Jeff Dixon, one of the laid off employees, told the website Blue's News that 14 Boom Blox developers had been let go.

While this is troubling news for those of us who love the series, an EA spokesperson told Kotaku that the layoffs were "a routine event and not in any way related to EA's announced restructuring." It was also revealed that a "small project" had been moved from EALA to EA Guildford, the company's UK studio that handles EA's Harry Potter and Hasbro titles. It's not clear whether or not this project is the rumored Boom Blox Natal game is unclear. We asked EA about the matter, but received no response as of this posting.

The Boom Blox franchise was originally created through a much-publicized partnership between EA and famed film director Steven Spielberg.