The financial bollocks is cutting deep as publishing giant EA finds itself reeling from a net loss of $310 million in Q3 compared to last year's $195 million. In response to the widening losses, Electronic Arts has announced a six percent staff layoff. Ouch.
With a staff of over 9,000 within EA, it is estimated that around 540 employees are lined up for the chopping block. Although revenues are up by 39.7 percent, EA is buckling down for tough times this Christmas as the wider economic climate remains dire.
"Considering the slow down at retail we’ve seen in October, we are cautious in the short term," explained EA CEO John Riccitiello.
This is pretty bad news of course for the unfortunate employees of Electronic Arts. The last thing you need to hear during a recession and close to Christmas is that you've lost your job.
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Contest:
7:01 PM on 10.30.2008
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...not that I'm bitter about EA, mind you... No, never.
IT'S OVER 9,000!!!
Dear EA,
Fuck. you.
Layoffs are really hard, especially right now, and this time of year - after the 30th of October (at least in the US) it's hard to even find temporary retail work.
Did you ever think that one just might be directly related to the other? Don't you think it's its just slightly possible that if they'd stop being an "evil corporation" and started to treat their paying customers with more respect by coming out with better games and minimal (or no) DRM that they'd have better sales?
The only tragedy with this situation is that it's almost certainly the grunts who are being punished. The management a-holes who are responsible for the corporate direction that EA and taken are probably sitting all comfy in their office, ready to get that bonus because they cut expenditures.
I *know* they're directly related. It's many of you that pretend that they aren't. You can't openly boycott a company and then bitch and moan when they lay people off due to poor sales. I mean, what do you think is going to happen?
I also love pointing out that folks like yourself enjoy picking and choosing which corporations are going to be evil, regardless of the fact that nearly all corporations are headed up by greedy, evil bastards. It's hilarious that gamers don't mind going to Wal-Mart for a good price or buying goods from other companies that take advantage of child labor, but DRM? THAT'S UNETHICAL!
I've been here long enough to know that people will find any reason they can to hate EA, even if it's just plain made up.
But hey, if you want to pretend that EA is the only game publisher or company in general that shits on consumers or (I'm trying not to laugh here) lays off employees, go right ahead. I'm sorry for interrupting the congregation.
And I've been here long enough to know that people will find any reason to defend {enter company or console here} just because they can. :P
"We are not saying the sky is falling," Chief Executive John Riccitiello said in a conference call. "What we are bringing to the table is caution, a recognition that catalog (sales are) weaker, and a commitment to managing our cost...with the specter of a recession over our shoulder."
Protip for EA : During recession don't treat consumers with reduced spending money like criminals.
[/sarcasm]
Sarcasm aside, this is really fucked up since their sales are up and everybody knows that sales go up during the holiday season. Precaution my ass, they just want to pocket the extra profits from the holiday season.
I am guilty of generalizing my comments towards a kind of combined entity consisting of all the attacks I've seen towards EA here. I honestly do not have any kind of loyalty towards EA or anyone else, but the extreme nature of the EA attack comments seems to push me further and further in the other direction.
But hey, at least you don't shop at Wal-Mart, right? I'm bummed that it's the only place to get the AC/DC Rock Band disc...
Spore had to have lost them a ton- commercials were everywhere and there are at least here in the bay area a crapton of billboards and lcd screen ads up and down the freeways- if you put that much out in promo you really need to have the return in sales. If EA thinks that protecting their IP is worth the damage that it is doing to their reputation and company- that is their decision, but in my mind it is not a sound one.
Now everybody quickly think about what would have happened, if EA took over Take Two earlier this year and spending a LOT of money in the process. That would certainly have resulted in a lot more jobs being lost.
Also on a different note: EA is evil.
I enjoyed Dead Space. It was a solid game that had some neat gore and scary things in it. I've had a history with EA starting with BF1942. (They refused me any customer support for the software) to BF2142 (rampant cheating on the servers, people attempt to tell EA about the problem, it falls on deaf ears) To flooding the market with sub-par sports games (madden) that seem to get a "new" version every year... (you can't patch these games?!)
Fuck, EA it's simple math, stop putting so much loot in advertising. It's OK to see an ad once every so often for a new game but EVERY commercial break?! You've sunk your money into something that usually gets spread by word of mouth- If the game rocks, gamers tell each other, it sells well. If the game has flaws that are game breaking.. The gamers know, and they tell each other. no ad campaign will make those flaws go away.
Bah. EA Screws the pooch often don't they?!
I do understand where you're coming from. I've been playing EA games since the Commodore 64 when they were one of the top 3 developers (with Activision and Epyx right next to them).
But lately they've been riding the coattails of their sports series year after year after year and they've taken a very, very negative trend towards their "customers" with their DRM and their rhetoric towards those who don't like their rhetoric. They just had another one where supposedly getting banned from the forums means getting banned from all EA games that require a login!
(I'll confess that I still have never and will never forgive them for what they did to Origin and Bullfrog, but that's another story.)
EA has gone from making brilliant software (Racing Destruction Set, Arctic Fox, Chuck Yeagar's Air Combat, etc.) to making shovelware ({enter sports title and current year here}) and displaying bad attitudes towards the public (draconian DRM). I feel badly for the people who have lost their jobs; but when management acts the way EA's management has been acting as of late you shouldn't be surprised at seeing some kind of a backlash against the company.
What I do not understand is why gamers stand back and allow for corporations to control all the games that we play. If you are really passionate about games, then why not learn to make your own? There is a whole group of gamers that are really good artists and it just takes some elbow grease to learn how to code.
If I've gotten to the intermediate level of programmer, then anyone can get further than me, seriously.
Time and talent don't just appear because of desire. Many of us have families that need our attention as well; many of us have the logic to make a but not the creativity; many of us have the creativity to make a game but not the logic. Very, very few have the ability t mix all three effectively.
Believe me, I wish it was as easy as you make it seem. But if you think that people can just pick up a book, apply some elbow grease, and make a game, then you are sadly in need of a dose of reality. The cliché of "easier said than done" springs to mind.
As sad as this is(I lost my job over a year ago from another developer) for those that lost their jobs, this is better for the game community I would think as the more you pare down your team, the better the code base benefits as usually with too many hands comes too many issues and WAY too much production as they think their staff can pump out a tonne of crap for the masses to consume. It doesn't work that way.
I don't really see the connection. I like watching movies, and I have no interest in directing them myself. Same with games. The whole point of playing a game for me is to relax and enjoy a new experience. Designing or programming my own games would be the opposite of relaxing.
First of all there is still no proof that these layoffs are going to hurt the gaming industry. We have no idea who was laid off. Typically when companies have layoffs they take the oppurtunity to get rid of people they wanted to fire, or people that were in positions that just had no significance to the company. We have no proof that any good hard working people who really contributed were actually laid off.
That being said though am I absolutely NEVER happy to hear that any company out there at all laid people off. Taking a job away from a person, especially when the economy is in bad shape and there are not other jobs out there, is just a horrible thing to have happen to anyone. I'm just hoping that these people are still able to find some type of jobs and provide for their families.
Now if we start hearing about people who really contribute to the gamign insdustry start to get laid off, then I'll start to believe the reteric that the economy is hurting the gaming industry. The interesting thing is though that if a company like EA got rid of someone good, I would hope that other companies like Activision would be out there looking for these people trying to swallow them up. You could get really good labor for really low prices.
My condolences to those who deserve a job and now have none.