PopCap has confirmed that it is laying off about 50 workers in North America and possibly looking to shut down its office in Dublin. PopCap co-founder John Vechey took to the company’s blog to put the layoffs in context.

“In the past year, we’ve seen a dramatic change in the way people play and pay for games. Free-to-play, social and mobile games have exploded in popularity. The change in consumer tastes requires us to reorganize our business and invest in new types of games on new platforms. It’s a completely different world from when we started,” he said. “We’re growing quickly into new areas of mobile and social, and are expanding in new markets like Japan and China. And there are many more great games to come from PopCap.”

“The decision to reorganize was 100 percent made by us, with no pressure from EA,” he noted.

Source: Blog.PopCap.com {link no longer active}