After a fiscal year pockmarked by employee layoffs and project cancellations, new pay data from video game company and generative AI proponent Electronic Arts sheds light on additional internal inequities.
The U.S.-based video game company’s recently released 2025 Proxy Statement reveals EA CEO Andrew Wilson raked in more than $30 million in 2024, a figure comprising his base pay, stock awards, and incentive plan-generated funds, as well as other miscellaneous recompense. Wilson’s sky-high salary solidifies his position as the company’s highest earner, eclipsing his own 2023 earnings by more than $5 million.
Comparatively, Electronic Arts’ median team member received an annual salary of $117,000 in 2024, a figure that Wilson’s pay from the same period surpasses 260 times over. The median EA employee’s pay in 2023, just one year prior, was nearly $150,000.
Overall, as EA increasingly cuts costs, corners, and human creatives from the equation, its remaining non-computerized contributors took significant pay cuts while its lead exec raked in millions more. To effectively illustrate the profound pay discrepancy, Game File reporter Stephen Totilo created a gargantuan graph comparing EA employees’ wages with Wilson’s.
Wilson isn’t the only well-paid EA executive; the proxy statement also disclosed the yearly pay of four other EA figureheads — Stuart Canfield, Laura Miele, Mala Singh, and Jacob Schatz — all of whom took home more than they did in 2023.
Electronic Arts also recently eliminated its remote work policy, rendering some exclusively off-site workers’ employment unsustainable.
As cumulative living costs creep up nationwide, working-class Americans throughout their respective fields are increasingly uneasy. More corporations and big-name brands are putting human employees on the chopping block in favor of cheaper, lower-quality content assembled by generative AI services. Electronic Arts now has an entire portion of its website dedicated to “AI and Machine Learning,” which it says can “power many aspects of game development, from game testing to content creation and customization.”
Despite many a social media feed overrun by unintelligible or uncanny “AI slop,” recent data shows consumers are apprehensive about the technology in some capacity. One new poll from the Digital Currency Group (DCG) and The Harris Poll reveals bilateral support for AI decentralization. While most respondents are optimistic regarding AI’s potential (91%), their biggest beef lies with those behind it. Decentralization would limit tech monopolization in the hands of a few powerful politicians and the seemingly monolithic “Big Tech.”
DCG Senior Vice President of Policy Julie Stitzel summarized the report findings. “This research makes it clear: there’s strong public support for policies that both protect innovation and keep pace with where the world is headed. Three-quarters of Americans agree that the transformative power of AI would benefit more people if it wasn’t consolidated in the hands of a few major players.”
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A lifelong gamer raised on classic titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Croc, Stephanie brings her expertise of gaming and pop culture to deliver unique, refreshing views on the world of video games, complete with references to absurd and obscure media.
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