EA lays off 1.500

Yup, its pretty fucking gruesome . EA is a very large company, but even then that's a lot of people.

Optimize profits which could be threatened by higher wages and costs, so lay off all those you'd expect to get the least revenue with.

i remember attending a presentation of playfish two years ago where they were looking for people. And I was like: facebook games pffffffff...

now look at them

but but i bought brutal legend ... and henry hatsworth in the puzzeling adventure and last year i bought dead space how could this happen ?

That's what you get for trying out new IP.

Quote from Pampers

i remember attending a presentation of playfish two years ago where they were looking for people. And I was like: facebook games pffffffff...now look at them

Lol ditto

Quote from Warby

but but i bought brutal legend ... and henry hatsworth in the puzzeling adventure and last year i bought dead space how could this happen ?

There aren't enough of you in the world. Gamers are shit.

brutal, man am I glad I decided to go back to school. Especially here in Van....

You guys gotta realize that while 1500 sounds like a big number, perhaps only a 3rd of that are extra casualties of the current market. EA has hired contractors and fired people at the end of certain projects for as long as I can remember.

Omfg! More DLC is coming!

Quote from Thrik

There aren't enough of you in the world. Gamers are shit.

There are definitely too much people who buy games of milked out franchises like COD/MW/Halo/sports games ;D

http://kotaku.com/5401542/rumor-eas-cut ... axis--more

My job search gets more exciting all the time.

Quote from Steppenwolf

Some of these decissions make no sense to me. Why Maxis? Didn't Spore get good scores and a lot of sales? And why don't they sell a studio instead of more or less closing it? To avoidd competition? This company still seems to lack a social awareness towards their employees.

Spore's production was insanely long and expensive. Vgchartz lacks sales numbers but apart from the fact that it broke the 1 million sales barrier quickly I'm not so sure that it met EA's expectations for lifetime sales. Also keep in mind that the brain of Maxis Will Wright has left EA.

On EA's recent cuts and transformation process as a whole I think they made some tough but good calls. When you compare how their strongest brands and new IP have been performing against competitors over the past 2 years, it makes sense to shrink but also to take a leap forward (keyword: social gaming). In a negative light this looks like EA is getting pushed out of their core market (maybe that's why EA stocks dropped after the announcement). For gamers this means that only the least risky titles to develop will see the light of day...

Quote from FrieChamp

In a negative light this looks like EA is getting pushed out of their core market (maybe that's why EA stocks dropped after the announcement). For gamers this means that only the least risky titles to develop will see the light of day...

I don't think your average gamer will be partifucally upset by that, infact I'm sure thats what they want? Sure risky project are going to have a hard time, not just because of the current economic state but the very fact a risky project will and should alway be risky? Where there is risk there will be uncertainty.

Quote from 2d-chris

I don't think your average gamer will be partifucally upset by that, infact I'm sure thats what they want? Sure risky project are going to have a hard time, not just because of the current economic state but the very fact a risky project will and should alway be risky? Where there is risk there will be uncertainty.

This isn't a real justification though :-| EA is betting all on the markets that will surely expand or even just stagnate, not on what is possibly going to fail. It's not in favour of many developer teams who deserve support, but it seems just right for the company.

Quote from 2d-chris

I don't think your average gamer will be partifucally upset by that, infact I'm sure thats what they want? Sure risky project are going to have a hard time, not just because of the current economic state but the very fact a risky project will and should alway be risky? Where there is risk there will be uncertainty.

Games actually do quite well in a recession because people prefer to stay in buy entertainment that will last a relatively longer time. But yes, you’re right, but if everyone makes games for the lowest common denominator because it’s the only way to not haemorrhage money and get fired, it’s going to be pretty boring.

Quote from Taylor

Games actually do quite well in a recession because people prefer to stay in buy entertainment that will last a relatively longer time. But yes, you’re right, but if everyone makes games for the lowest common denominator because it’s the only way to not haemorrhage money and get fired, it’s going to be pretty boring.

I actually tried to make the same point when the economical crisis was hitting Europe the hardest, that surely studios like Grin would easily survive and thrive on the crisis.

But PC games are expensive, in fact, so expensive that it's one of the first things people cut down on when they are running out of cash.