EA Layoffs Hurt Partnership Deals

[Logan Frederick]

EA Layoffs Hurt Partnership Deals

The layoffs and budget shrinking at Electronic Arts are forcing partner Arkane Studios to look for another publisher for its projects.

The economic downturn seems to have struck EA, which recently announced [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87130] the firing of six percent of its staff and a $310 million dollar loss in the second quarter.

Independent developer Arkane Studios has, by association, had to rework its strategy for dealing with the loss of support from EA, its partner in the development of an upcoming, big-budget project.

"I need to find a deal as soon as possible to reassign the team affected by this event," said Arkane CEO Raphael Colantonio, who has to act fast to retain his own employees.

Word of EA's financial trouble came as a surprise to Colantonio, who was under the impression that everything was running smoothly. "The next morning the team on EA's side was greatly downsized and we were told about the strategic decision and its unfortunate consequence on our collaboration," he commented.

Aside from the business problems, the company is creatively intact. "Long term, our strategy is the same," explained Colantonio. "We want to work with strong partners on RPGs or first-person games with depth. Ideally both. That's our mission in life...the thing we're most passionate about."

The official status of the unknown Arkane/EA deal isn't known, but at this point it is clearly under stress if not canceled.

Source: GameDaily [http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/ea-cuts-put-independent-developer-arkane-studios-in-a-tough-spot/?biz=1]

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[Flying-Emu]

"Long term, our strategy is the same," explained Colantonio.

Strategy: Buy out every possible up and coming studio and rigorously decide what they get to do

 

[TsunamiWombat]

"Long term, our strategy is the same," explained Colantonio.

Strategy: Buy out every possible up and coming studio and rigorously decide what they get to do

No, thats EA. This is Arkane.

I just wish I knew who the hell Arkane Studios was now.

 

[Flying-Emu]

No, thats EA. This is Arkane.

Bah, I need to learn how to read.

And I need to figure out who the hell Arkane is too XD

 

[Doug]

As bad as this seems, it might signal a sharp further fall in EA's profits. After all, if companies who work with EA suddenly find contracts being broken, they might stop trading with them as a method of self-defense.

And given EA's lifeforce sucker pulls out any and all creativity from the companies they capture acquire, the company will soon run out of steam.

I do feel for the people losing jobs though, especially with this current economic climate making job finding hard.

 

[Azeban]

I really hope EA goes out of business. They've become too big, and it's hurting the consumer.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

This really annoys the hell out of me. People who are telling EA to shut down, you should be ashamed. In the past few months EA has turned around a lot and started bringing out games we're actually interested in, instead of bringing out the same old crap over and over.

We've had Spore, which, while it wasn't a good game was the first step towards a future of games completely player made.

They brought out Dead Space, a game that many people have said is one of the scariest they've ever played.

There also bringing out Mirrors Edge, and Left 4 Dead, 2 games I know a lot of people care about.

And they're loosing money for it. This is proof that the game industry is fucked, and making games that innavate just doesn't cut it.

 

[AceDiamond]

This really annoys the hell out of me. People who are telling EA to shut down, you should be ashamed. In the past few months EA has turned around a lot and started bringing out games we're actually interested in, instead of bringing out the same old crap over and over.

We've had Spore, which, while it wasn't a good game was the first step towards a future of games completely player made.

They brought out Dead Space, a game that many people have said is one of the scariest they've ever played.

There also bringing out Mirrors Edge, and Left 4 Dead, 2 games I know a lot of people care about.

And they're loosing money for it. This is proof that the game industry is fucked, and making games that innavate just doesn't cut it.

This would be like saying that just because Nixon opened up relations with China it excuses him from being a shifty asshole who broke laws to make sure he stayed in office.

The point is that it is most likely too little and too late for EA. Nobody's going to give a flying fuck about their innovative games if they have to deal with Orwellian DRM and completely lasy-assed business practices (see, screwed up C&C RA3 Manuals)

 

[Elurindel]

Wow, EA really can't do anything right at all, can they? How long until the rats start fleeing the sinking ship?

 

[ward.]

This really annoys the hell out of me. People who are telling EA to shut down, you should be ashamed. In the past few months EA has turned around a lot and started bringing out games we're actually interested in, instead of bringing out the same old crap over and over.

We've had Spore, which, while it wasn't a good game was the first step towards a future of games completely player made.

They brought out Dead Space, a game that many people have said is one of the scariest they've ever played.

There also bringing out Mirrors Edge, and Left 4 Dead, 2 games I know a lot of people care about.

And they're loosing money for it. This is proof that the game industry is fucked, and making games that innavate just doesn't cut it.

This would be like saying that just because Nixon opened up relations with China it excuses him from being a shifty asshole who broke laws to make sure he stayed in office.

The point is that it is most likely too little and too late for EA. Nobody's going to give a flying fuck about their innovative games if they have to deal with Orwellian DRM and completely lasy-assed business practices (see, screwed up C&C RA3 Manuals)

I thought nixon was now considered one of the better presidents in Americas history?

I saw this happening, the only games that sell are the bad ones, nobody buys good games, they steal them.

 

[Doug]

This really annoys the hell out of me. People who are telling EA to shut down, you should be ashamed. In the past few months EA has turned around a lot and started bringing out games we're actually interested in, instead of bringing out the same old crap over and over.

We've had Spore, which, while it wasn't a good game was the first step towards a future of games completely player made.

They brought out Dead Space, a game that many people have said is one of the scariest they've ever played.

There also bringing out Mirrors Edge, and Left 4 Dead, 2 games I know a lot of people care about.

And they're loosing money for it. This is proof that the game industry is fucked, and making games that innavate just doesn't cut it.

1) EA haven't stopped their crappy practises. DRM have angered alot of people, and their technical support is still poor.

2) Left 4 Dead is a Valve product, which EA is doing the boxed version.

3) EA have been so bad for so long its like an oil tanker trying to do a U-turn.

4) Mirrors Edge and Spore are the only really original game idea's they've brought out lately, I believe. Spore was badly nurfed though.

5) Have you ever used 'EA Store'? I did, once. My pre-order arrived after everyone else's, I payed more for it, and I had the 'joy' of using EA downloader.

6) EA want everyone to use EA Downloader to get patchs. Thankfully, they don't force that yet, as EADM is the worst downloader I've encountered to date. Even small time online retailers have better.

7) EA treat the customer as an out and out criminal, even when they voilate national laws (DRM with limited activations is illegal under UK law).

8) EA continue to buy out small companies and destroy them in effect. Red Alert 3, whilst enjoyable, makes me feel a tad embarassed watching the cutscenes where usually 1 or 2 women are threating to 'fall out'.

Bluntly, I've not seen the change, aside from their own press releases. "We've changed" along side "DRM FOREVER!"

 

[EnglishMuffin]

It would be the best thing to hit gaming in a long time if EA went the way of Interplay.

 

[Doug]

It would be the best thing to hit gaming in a long time if EA went the way of Interplay.

Actually... it'd be interesting if EA went this way and where bought out by someone like Valve I'd smile, at least.

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

Wait let me just check my 360 collection.

Yep I was right none of them are by EA, phew crisis averted.

 

[Killerbunny001]

Correction 1 : Mirrors Edge is done by Dice.

Correction 2 : Spore was made by Maxis.

Correction 3 and probably most important : EA DIDN`T make any of the games above. They just PUBLISHED them. How it works:
X small third party has cool game ideea but doesn`t have the money to make the game
Big publisher (EA in this case) can see potential and budgets the production.
Game comes out. Third party games get`s shit% amount of profit, big publisher gets the rest.


Back on the subject: Arkane made Arx Fatalis (PC) and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (PC). In my opinion not a good studio, don`t really care about what`s going to happen to them.

 

[AceDiamond]

Correction 1 : Mirrors Edge is done by Dice.

Hate to say it but DICE might as well be EA because of how long they've been under their banner.

Plus the fact that they acquired DICE by buying all outstanding shares to the point that DICE is a wholly owned subsidiary of EA.

Plus the other fact that the full title is now technically EA Digital Illusions CE

 

[flyingwind66]

Arkane studios is a France based company that started 1999 (wow all I did was look up their company name on the internet!)

It really hits me hard that EA cut 6% of their staff because I'm one of those people who are currently looking for a job as a 3D artist (me and all my graduate buddies) and now the market is flooded because of lay-offs...

I shouldn't be complaining so much though, the economy is affecting everyone but this sort of thing makes my future look a bit bleak...