EA's Profits Up, Workers Get Layoffs 436
Gamespot and GamesIndustry.biz has the news from yesterday's conference call where EA CEO Larry Probst reported higher earnings for his company in Q3, despite a small yearly decline. He also held forth on the future cost of next-gen games, which in his opinion will likely stay as high as $50 and could perhaps fetch more on retail shelves. Just before this story was to be published, Tim Butler wrote in with the news from 1Up.com that EA was laying off members of its LA studio. From the article: "According to sources close to the company, Electronic Arts is currently in the process of laying off between 50-70 team members from its minty-fresh new EA LA office. The teams affected worked on the poorly-recieved GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and the forthcoming Medal of Honor: Dogs of War FPS titles." Update: 01/27 06:34 GMT by Z : Update to the layoff article: "The first step is to rebalance the team. This has required us to let go 60 people -- from many different teams. There is no focus on any one team or any one class of individuals. It's a studio-wide thing to reset the business fundamentals and get the studio to the next level."
Yeah, right (Score:5, Informative)
Hey, what's this? Anonymous Coward? Let's see who's hiding behind that mask!
(removes mask from Anonymous Coward)
*GASP* It's some guy hired by EA!
"Yes, and if you hadn't unmasked me, i'd probably had been successful at shutting up those meddling kids!"
Another case solved!
Re:EA is the Microsoft of the gaming industry. (Score:3, Informative)
EA's The Sims is a Maxis creation. While EA did buy Maxis, The Sims was originally a Will Wright creation, and was not a "star product" like others were. GTA is a Rockstar game also; published by Take-Two (perhaps in the same position as Maxis and EA)..
Don't confuse publisher with developer. While the publisher will often fund the developer's projects (and and own the IP), they are still the creations of the smaller developer.. rarely will you see a blockbuster be developed in-house by the publisher..
Re:the person who should be fired for goldeneye.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oh no! (Score:2, Informative)
Another thing to consider is, that EA LA had the decency to lay off all 60 employees at once, thereby subjecting themselves to California's WARN provisions [ca.gov]. This entitles everyone who was laid off to 60 days of continued salaries and benefits - on top of which they will most likely receive a severance package (as it is the case with most "without-cause" layoffs). EA could have easily weaseled out of this if they would have done smaller layoffs over a certain minimum period of time (they would have avoided bad press too!). Many companies actually do this and truly screw people over in the process.
I get the impression that the majority here likes to believe that companies such as EA are monolithic organizations, run by "the man" or small group of evil individuals who have direct involvement into whatever the company does. This is rather naive.
In most businesses (especially games), it usually it comes down to this: Individuals over commit, meaning they promise things they can't deliver (quality, profit, time). The higher these people happen to be the food chain, increasingly bigger parts of the organization will be affected by their bad judgment. In an attempt to compensate, this usually leads to all kinds of bad stuff, from crunching all the way to lay-offs. And if the individual happens to be the General Manager of a studio, the entire place might pay for it. And last time I checked, EA Los Angeles just got a new one.
Ironic (Score:3, Informative)
ABOUT OUR COMPANY: We're an association of electronic artists who share a common goal. We want to fulfill the potential of personal computing. That's a tall order. But with enough imagination and enthusiasm we thing there's a good chance for success. Our products, like this progra, are evidence of our intent. If you'd like to get involved, please write us at:
Electronic Arts
2755 Campus Drive
San Mateo, CA 94403
It sucks what happens when the f'ing suits take over. Oh how I long for the golden days...