Update: EA’s Moscow office will now close as well as its residency in Japan, according to Russian media site Kanobu via Google Translate. As part of the office shut down, numerous employees from the branch will now be moved to the company's regional office.

EA ramping down its presence in Russia and Japan became apparent when CEO Andrew Wilson noted the movement alongside the initial layoffs. 

Original Story: EA has closed its Japanese office as part of this week’s mass layoffs.

Regional outlet Famitsu reported that the publisher is closing its office in the country as part of the wider redundancies announced at EA today. The firm is set to lay off 350 employees across marketing, publishing and analytic roles.

EA still insists Japan is an important region and vowed to help newly-redundant employees find work within the country.

"These are important but very hard decisions, and we do not take them lightly," said CEO Andrew Wilson

"We are friends and colleagues at EA, we appreciate and value everyone's contributions, and we are doing everything we can to ensure we are looking after our people to help them through this period to find their next opportunity. This is our top priority."

Redundant

This isn’t EA’s first round of layoffs this year, but it is the largest. In February, redundancies hit the publisher’s Australian EA Firemonkeys studio, jettisoning 50 of the office’s roughly 200-strong staff.

It’s been a rough year for games industry employees so far, with redundancies seeming to crop up every other week. Activision Blizzard cut a whopping eight per cent of its workforce (roughly 800 jobs) in February, despite a record year for revenue.

An internal email announcing the redundancies at EA also mentioned “ramping down” its Russian office, although so far no layoffs or closures in the region have been announced.

Additional reporting by Matthew Forde