EA Announces More Cuts And Closures

[majorcat]

The bottom line is that watching a game company that employs as many people as EA lose 10% of their workforce is scary and upsetting. I doubt anybody in the game industry is happy that this is happening to EA -- more competition, more games in the market, more jobs. I can't imagine Activision employees giving each other high-fives over such news.

Total Schadenfreude.

 

[SilentHunter7]

Am I the only one here who finds news like this slightly troubling? Not just because of the 1000 people who are going to be out of work (though that really sucks), but because that this might be an indicator of overall industry health. This just smacks of GM and Ford making deep cuts several years back, and we know what's happening now. And EA being one of the largest publishers and developers in North America, can really throw a big wrench into the recovery of the American, and Global-Wide economy should they go under, and have god-knows how many employees (of both EA itself and its daughter companies), making good wages, all of a sudden become unemployed.

 

[Susan Arendt]

So you will have to forgive me for saving my pity for the hundreds of thousands of other unfortunate people who have lost their jobs recently.
Plus if these people are really any good then they will either form new groups of their own or get snapped up by other groups.

I've been laid off twice in my career. One time I saw it coming, the other I was completely blindsided. It was awful both times. The second time I was laid off, it was at a time when several other publishers had also laid off employees, and suddenly there was a glut of extremely qualified, experienced people all vying for the same jobs in a relatively small area and industry. Being good at what you do is no guarantee that you'll be able to find work. The simple truth is that there are more people in the industry than there are jobs right now. That means a lot of people scrambling to find work. It's a horrible, stressful situation, especially if you have a family.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

...Is it wrong I only hope EA stays afloat long enough to publish Brutal Legend then dies?

 

[J-Man]

...Is it wrong I only hope EA stays afloat long enough to publish Brutal Legend then dies?

Nope.

 

[John Funk]

...Is it wrong I only hope EA stays afloat long enough to publish Brutal Legend then dies?

Nope.

Yep.

 

[Andy Chalk]

compare EA no the nazi movement and the employees are soldiers.

I am honestly blown away that you'd seriously compare EA to Nazi Germany. But maybe with all the ill-considered vitriol in this thread toward the company, I shouldn't be.

Is it necessary for EA to shed numbers in order to become viable? Yes. Is it truly unfortunate for those who find themselves out of work because of it? Definitely. Is this some kind of just karmic punishment for EA's long history of "evil" behaviour? Absolutely fucking not.

What we should all be hoping for here is a best-case scenario in which these cuts are enough to return EA to profitability. Wishing for the complete collapse of EA simply because they don't happen to care for the company's decisions over the years demonstrates remarkable ignorance and immaturity.

 

[Knight Templar]

...Is it wrong I only hope EA stays afloat long enough to publish Brutal Legend then dies?

A little. Remember EA is evil and only wants your money/soul, but its workers are just people.

 

[Jared Rea]

I'm sorry, but you lost all credibility when you said this.

I wonder sometimes. I really do.

 

[Novajam]

Well this is a real shame for the people losing their jobs. Hopefully with their experience they'll be able to find work elsewhere.

I think it's good that Electronic Arts are going into some new IPs and pushing the barrel in that regard, but the economic climate doesn't allow for that too much at this point in time. Hopefully, when the economic crisis has stabilised itself somewhat EA will continue to put out new and original properties. It wouldn't be a good thing for them slide into obscurity.

 

[shatnershaman]

Terrible that people are losing there jobs. Gaming recession proof my ass. Well at least according to Harper those out of work Canadian EA employees will have great buying opportunities in the stock market.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Bai bai EA. *waves happily*

These people will find work elsewhere, I still say burn the other 90% to the ground.

Oh thank god, I frickin' hate EA. Hopefully Valve will profit from reduced competition.

There are hundreds of people out there (including good friends of mine) who are being laid off right before the most stressful Holiday season, during the most depressing of economic times, after working endlessly throughout the year and all you can say is, "Thank god! I sure do hate copyright protection!"

That's extremely disgusting and way out of touch with the reality of the situation.

I didn't say anything about copy protection

-and sorry, they'll find another job, it sucks but they will move on (of course it's not going to be easy,) - they have no choice. Sorry about your friends but what am I gonna do for them? What's stopping them from say, running to activision, or ubisoft? We can't keep our jobs forever. They just got booted out of EA's offices, how are they going to go back?

They've been through the hard part of going to universities and such. This capitalism and social darwinisim is so cut-throat that the only way to prevent things like this is to go socialist - this is the way it all works, it's just part of a cycle - no need to mope around and cry.

If it's unstable, it buckles under - then we rebuild. Businesses close, then we open new ones. People lose or quit jobs, then they get hired somewhere else. Isn't it all just designed to work itself out? It looks like everyone (including me) is just blowing this out of proportion. Times are bad but not hopeless. Nothing is easy when it comes to economics. EA was getting too big for it's own good too.

 

[aussiesniper]

It's a shame that there are so many sackings, but hopefully most of them will be able to find new jobs relatively soon. I know that the chances of this happening are relatively low, but they're skilled workers with a good deal of experience. Even if they don't get jobs with a game developer, the programmers, texture artists and web designers could all be employed by several companies in other computer-related markets.

 

[stompy]

What I'm worried about is that, due to some unfortunate timing and some tanked investments, the case of EA losing money 'because it tried to fund some new IPs' could scare away other big publishers away from taking risks, and thus, furthering the industry.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

What I'm worried about is that, due to some unfortunate timing and some tanked investments, the case of EA losing money 'because it tried to fund some new IPs' could scare away other big publishers away from taking risks, and thus, furthering the industry.

Heck, I even bought a copy of Dead Space. What else is there to do? Donate? Buy two copies?

There are people that, believe it or not, disagree with penny arcade! "Dead Space is an unoriginal piece of trash" - or "Mirror's Edge is just another 'style over substance' game with a gimmick" - so lets say these layoffs managed to give EA profit since they are having such a hard time upkeeping their empire, are they still going to get their jobs back? Will the people (and Jared Rae's friends) have moved on to different jobs?

 

[stompy]

Heck, I even bought a copy of Dead Space. What else is there to do? Donate? Buy two copies?

There are people that, believe it or not, disagree with penny arcade! "Dead Space is an unoriginal piece of trash" - or "Mirror's Edge is just another 'style over substance' game with a gimmick" - so lets say these layoffs managed to give EA profit since they are having such a hard time upkeeping their empire, are they still going to get their jobs back? Will the people (and Jared Rae's friends) have moved on to different jobs?

I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I'm leaning towards the side of 'EA will go back to producing their sport games year after year', because that's what's profitable, and EA stockholders want their money.

As for the people being laid off, I can't say if they'll get another job, with EA or elsewhere. Again, I'm leaning towards the negative, since, like I said, EA wants profitability, so they'll want the lowest number of salaries to pay. Even for prospects in other developers/publishers, if we take what Susan Arendt said:

... several other publishers had also laid off employees, and suddenly there was a glut of extremely qualified, experienced people all vying for the same jobs in a relatively small area and industry. Being good at what you do is no guarantee that you'll be able to find work. The simple truth is that there are more people in the industry than there are jobs right now. That means a lot of people scrambling to find work...

then things aren't looking so good for these people, for those getting laid off, nor those in other companies.

Overall, this shows that the video games industry isn't recession-proof... that is, if people needed proof.