At the same time that EA announces it will be fronting up to $400 million USD to buy the phenomonally successful social network  game developer, Playfish, they have also announced 1500 job cuts.

Due to the publishing giant seening its eleventh quarterly loss in a row they have decided to cut 1500 jobs, 900 of which will come from their development staff. 500 will go from their publishing operations and the final 100 from their corporate operations. This comes despite their recent rennaissance which saw great new IPs like Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge as well as revivals for the FIFA and Need for Speed  franchises.

It would appear that it is time for Electronic Arts to pursue other avenues and acquiring Playfish will help them do just that. Playfish are the developers behind the ridiculously popular Facebook games like Pet Society and Restaurant City.