EA cancels 12 games, lays off 1500 jobs

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 10th November 2009
Comments (30) Stumble
EA cancels 12 games, lays off 1500 jobs

Ea has announced that more than 1500 staff will be made redundant by April 2010.

Electronic Arts has announced plans to make more than 1500 staff redundant by April 2010, as well as the cancellation of at least 12 games that are currently in development. At the same time, the publisher has just bought out PlayFish, developer of popular social networking games for around $300 million USD, according to Gamasutra.

EA hopes to save $100 million USD annually as a result of the lay-offs and cancellations, with the redundancies spread across all devisions. 900 developers, 500 publishing staff and 100 corporate suits are set to go, according to reports.

The studios which will be most heavily affected are EA Redwood, Tiburon, Mythic and EA Black Box.

The news follows on from EA's recently published financial reports, which revealed a net loss of $391 million across the July - September period, an increase of 26 percent compared to the same period in 2008.

"Laying off employees and closing facilities is never pleasant," said EA Chief John Riccitiello. "We have a lot of compassion for those impacted but these cuts are essential for transforming our company.[/i]"

"Electronic Arts has a core slate of games label and sports franchises that we will iterate on a either annual or bi-annual basis. And I think you know what those major titles are - all of them are selling or have sold in their most recent edition 2 million units or more," he continued.

"After that, we’ve got The Sims and Hasbro, and frankly anything that doesn’t measure up to looking like it can pencil out to be in very high profit contributor and high unit seller got cut from our title slate from this point going forward."

Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Quote steveo_mcg 10th November 2009, 13:59
Quote:
Originally Posted by CardJoe


That's a bit harsh no?

The worst of it is they'll be cancelling anything remotely innovative and ploughing more cash in to ea sports
Quote mi1ez 10th November 2009, 13:59
How pssed off would you be if you were laid off as they bought a flash games studio.

OUCH!
Quote DeathAwaitsU 10th November 2009, 14:00
So what games were cancelled?
Quote Ghys 10th November 2009, 14:01
if they start releasing sport franchise games bi-anually, they better keep updating the roster or else they will hear a crapload of bitching from players
Quote Rkiver 10th November 2009, 14:04
Oh look, Mythic having staff let go, I wonder why? Could it be because Warhammer Online was a dismal failure due to Mark Jacobs complete mismanagement.
Quote Abhorsen 10th November 2009, 14:15
"devisions", Divisions...
Quote Flibblebot 10th November 2009, 14:18
So, EA tried being innovative. It didn't generate huge amounts of money, so they fall back to their old ways?

Look out, Activision - seems like EA might want their crown of crap back :(
Quote NuTech 10th November 2009, 14:26
Anyone else think that EA got a little bit jaded a year or so ago, now only concerning themselves with bottom line sequels?

It was only the beginning on 2008 that EA tried to 'reinvent' itself with a new image, shouting about new IP. They wouldn't stop bragging about Dead Space and Mirror's Edge.

I understand both games underperformed (Dead Space particularly) but they really should of reconsidered their expectations.

While a $391m quarterly loss is not to be sniffed at, I still had (admittedly naive) hopes that EA would ultimately find a good balance between new IP's and annual sequels.
Quote adam_bagpuss 10th November 2009, 14:39
hang on they just bought a company for $300m and made a net loss of $391m !!!!!!!!!!

how about dont buy the company when you dont have the cash you idiots and you would be only $91m down
Quote Nictron 10th November 2009, 14:48
Quote:
Originally Posted by adam_bagpuss
hang on they just bought a company for $300m and made a net loss of $391m !!!!!!!!!!

how about dont buy the company when you dont have the cash you idiots and you would be only $91m down

Even then they would still lay off those individuals as the are only shaving off 100 mil with those 1500 jobs.
Quote adamc 10th November 2009, 14:56
does this mean the Dead Space trilogy is no more?
Quote sear 10th November 2009, 15:48
Quote:
Originally Posted by adamc
does this mean the Dead Space trilogy is no more?
Maybe on the Wii, or something. It's pretty obvious that if they keep going with it (it is a strong name after all), they're going to seek to lower production costs as much as possible. Dead Space Extraction was an attempt to do just that.
Quote lewchenko 10th November 2009, 16:12
They should have made and then erm.. released BF3 in 2009.

That would surely have rejuventated their coffers !
Quote bogie170 10th November 2009, 16:13
If they want to make money they need to look into the Online Multiplayer Market and stop churning out **** like they usually do.
Quote vampalan 10th November 2009, 16:43
Quote:
Originally Posted by adam_bagpuss
hang on they just bought a company for $300m and made a net loss of $391m !!!!!!!!!!

how about dont buy the company when you dont have the cash you idiots and you would be only $91m down

You will find that this happens quite a lot, as companies dont pay taxes on loses, and aquiring more asserts. Also makes a good excuse to not pay staff so much.
Quote Ghys 10th November 2009, 16:51
Quote:
Originally Posted by adam_bagpuss
hang on they just bought a company for $300m and made a net loss of $391m !!!!!!!!!!

how about dont buy the company when you dont have the cash you idiots and you would be only $91m down
I bet you also have no idea how these things work (not that I do) so you should try not to overreact and call anyone idiots
Quote vampalan 10th November 2009, 17:03
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghys
I bet you also have no idea how these things work (not that I do) so you should try not to overreact and call anyone idiots

If I was one of the 1500 employees.. seeing how 300M was spent on buying more, to only to get laid off. Also working on a game isnt easy, it's not a 9 to 5 job, the amount of life, time and missed oppertunities that goes into an AAA game to get told you're being laid off just isnt nice.
Quote Ghys 10th November 2009, 18:33
I'll give you that
Quote SNIPERMikeUK 10th November 2009, 20:20
EA have needed a clean up for a while, they are on top form with their big franchises now, just a shame so many people have to lose their jobs....
Quote talladega 10th November 2009, 22:00
Skate better not be canceled!
Quote Cleggmeister 10th November 2009, 22:20
Although scant comfort to those losing their jobs, we all may well benefit from this action...

A lot of blue-chip/large corporations harbour very capable employees who never get close to realising their potential. When hands are forced, i.e. redundancy, those killing time in the office may be driven to form new partnerships and create new opportunities not possible under the EA umbrella.

I look forward to (I for one welcome...) a slew of new developers, coders, artists and producers, taking things into their own hands, and releasing quality product which would never have been conceived at EA.

Just my 2 cents/pence (worth about the same).

Cleggy.
Quote SMIFFYDUDE 10th November 2009, 22:52
So this is the reason "singleplayer is no longer the future." Nobody left to make them.
Quote DriftCarl 10th November 2009, 23:45
funny how in WAR beta 99% of the community said that EA buying mythic would only lead to bad things. a year later, and oh yes, EA can now sack anyone they want from any studio. Not suprising that the game went to crap once EA got their mits on it.
Quote giantegg 11th November 2009, 03:21
Quote:
Originally Posted by DriftCarl
funny how in WAR beta 99% of the community said that EA buying mythic would only lead to bad things. a year later, and oh yes, EA can now sack anyone they want from any studio. Not suprising that the game went to crap once EA got their mits on it.

MM-HMM.
Quote eek 11th November 2009, 09:24
Wait a second, did I read that right or did they NOT blame piracy?! Very uncool to not jump on the 'piracy is killing the industry' bandwagon

Quote fatty beef 11th November 2009, 14:56
I never even heard of this company. Remember when GM bought Hummer, awesome move.

The market is on a down turn anyways right now. Give it two years and it will be nice and saturated again with so many games - single and multiplayer - that we dont know what to do with ourselves. At least theres some quality titles to look forward to. If not just check for that 4.99/9.99 special on steam.
Quote Unknownsock 11th November 2009, 16:28
Quote:
Originally Posted by NuTech

I understand both games underperformed (Dead Space particularly) but they really should of reconsidered their expectations.
Dead space was a brilliant game..
Quote Rocket_Knight64 11th November 2009, 20:15
I was hoping for more Mirrors Edge. As DICE are the developer I'd hope that they dont bin it (or any DICE or Bioware staff for that matter).

I wonder just what EA think caused this turn of events?
Quote vampalan 12th November 2009, 00:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocket_Knight64
I wonder just what EA think caused this turn of events?

I would guess simple business, too many products over budget and not enough income from most titles. They dont have any problems with finding a publisher, so thats no excuse, or maybe that is the problem.

How about making games to budget that a lot of people actually want to buy?
Quote Slizza 13th November 2009, 00:55
Quote:
Originally Posted by talladega
Skate better not be canceled!

Black box does skate and they were listed in the article as one of the studios worst hit by this.
I really need to find out for sure what games are canceled.
Hope skate3 still on for may :(
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