Electronic Arts issued the following statement:

As part of EA's realignment in recent weeks, we have announced internally a small adjustment to some development staff to better focus our teams against priority growth areas. The decision to let people go is not something we take lightly and we are working to ensure that impacted employees are treated fairly and with respect for their contributions to EA, and with assistance to find other job opportunities. 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.

Phenomic was founded in 1997 by Blue Byte Software's Volker Wertich, who had been heading The Settlers franchise.