EA: What layoffs at Codemasters have to do with "Leisure Suit Larry"

EA is cutting jobs at British racing game developer Codemasters –, which has unexpected consequences for a well-known adventure series: Several games in the point & click series "Leisure Suit Larry" are being removed from Steam because the rights to them were apparently last held by Codemasters.

From the beginning: A few days ago, it was announced that the iconic rally racing game series "WRC" will no longer be developed further. The discontinuation of the project led to speculation that jobs at its developer studio Codemasters could be on the line. And indeed: EA has now confirmed to the games magazine Videogameschronicle that some employees have been fired. Others are to move to other internal EA studios – EA had already taken a similar approach with Bioware. EA bought Codemasters in 2021 for 1.2 billion US dollars.

Bloomberg had previously reported that EA plans to lay off up to 400 employees at Remedy Entertainment, among others. A new Titanfall game is also said to have been scrapped as part of the layoffs.

"Leisure Suit Larry" affected in the process

EA's round of layoffs also has unexpected consequences, as Phil Salvador, Library Director of the Video Game History Foundation, found out: According to Salvador, EA's austerity measures are probably also the reason several games from the Sierra-developed adventure series "Leisure Suit Larry" are being removed from Steam.

The Steam delisting of several titles from the "Leisure Suit Larry" series was announced last week in a Steam post on the pages of the affected titles. A total of seven titles from the point & click series will therefore disappear from the Steam store. Anyone who has them in their library can still play them – but they can no longer be purchased, at least on Steam. The games will remain available on alternative platforms such as GOG.

License confusion

In fact, the license for "Leisure Suit Larry" games is currently held by Codemasters, writes Salvador –, an unlikely address, especially as the British studio is known almost exclusively for racing games. However, Codemasters apparently secured the license years ago. This is evident from a somewhat older Steam post by the studio Assemble Entertainment, which in turn secured the license for Steam distribution of the adventure series from Codemasters.

It therefore stands to reason that EA's layoffs at Codemasters are responsible for the delisting of the "Leisure Suit Larry" games on Steam. Apparently, the parties were unable or unwilling to renew the licensing agreement –, but it remains unclear what exactly happened behind the scenes between EA, Codemasters and Assemble Games.

(dahe)