More bad news from the additional restructuring plans at EA comes in the form of an additional four percent of employees to be on the chopping block over the next three-month period, as the company continues to refocus its efforts and narrow its product offerings.

The additional headcount reductions will be spread out over the company globally and will not be focused on any specific studio or business unit. The cuts will take place over the next three months and are targeted to be completed before the company begins its next fiscal year on April 1st 2009.

According to our source, Black Box studio, which is based in Vancouver and responsible for the Need for Speed franchise as well as the Skate franchise, will move to the EA studio in Burnaby, British Columbia as part of the latest restructuring moves. Plans to add a third studio in Vancouver have been abandoned for the time being, but that’s not to say that they might not be revisited at some point in the future.

While some had suggested that EA-owned Pandemic and EA Los Angeles would see significant reductions as part of the latest moves, our sources are now telling us that while these studios would see reductions, they would not be any more or any less than other EA studios or facilities.

EA is also looking at the portfolio of gaming offers and while they continue to be committed to taking risks and producing high-quality games, some underperforming titles can be expected to be dropped during this restructuring process. Currently, no specific titles have been mentioned, but it is expected that each and every title will have to justify its profitability in order to continue development.

In addition to the restructuring, EA has also announced that it has joined the Steam digital distribution platform owned by Valve. EA is launching on Steam with Mass Effect, EA Sports FIFA Manager 2009, Need for Speed Undercover, and Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack. In addition, the company will also be adding Spore, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Command & Conquer: Read Alert 3, Mirror’s Edge, and Dead Space, with the majority of these becoming available on Steam in January 2009.

The announcement that EA will become committed to the Steam digital distribution platform is a radical shift for the company. EA has been a holdout on offering games using Steam for the PC; it has instead been attempting to build up its own digital distribution service. As least for the time being, EA will continue to have PC offerings that will be available using its service as well as Steam’s.