EA has announced further layoffs as part of a realignment that will see its focus shift towards mobile and “new technologies”.

The layoffs were significant enough to warrant a statement on EA’s website, although the number of staff laid off is not yet clear.

"These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us," said EA.

Industry tweets reveal that PopCap Vancouver and Quicklime Games have both been closed.

A memo leaked to Kotaku shows that EA is consolidating all marketing functions underneath chief operating officer Peter Moore, and that EA’s Origin service has moved to Frank Gibeau's Labels organisation, which currently includes EA Games, Maxis, BioWare, and EA Sports.

In addition, EA Sports VP Andrew Wilson is the new leader of Origin.

Game Informer and Destructoid sources claim that the cuts are mainly to EA’s Partners program, which provides contract-based publishing services for independent developers.

It published titles such as Crysis and its sequels (Crytek), Syndicate (Starbreeze), Brütal Legend (Double Fine), Bulletstorm (Epic Games), and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (38 Studios).

Two big titles still to come out of the Partners programme are Respawn's first game and Insomniac's Fuse. Sources claim neither will be affected by today’s news.

These layoffs come just after similar cuts at EA Montreal and the resignation of CEO John Riccitiello.

A clearer picture should be available when EA’s fourth-quarter financial results are released on May 8.