Exclusive: EA Shutters North Carolina Studio

IanDavis

Blue Blaze Irregular 1st Class
Aug 18, 2012
1,152
0
0
Exclusive: EA Shutters North Carolina Studio



The studio mainly worked on mobile freemium games.

The gaming industry is a volatile one, with closures and layoffs a regular hazard of the business. Still, it's never a happy thing to see a team canned. Now, it seems that the latest closure is EA's North Carolina studio, a smaller team that focused primarily on mobile titles. According to an inside anonymous source, "EA has decided to close up the NC studio". While there has yet to be any official word from EA on the matter, [a href=https://careers.ea.com/locations/usa/eanc/]the link[/a] to the NC studio is 404'd, suggesting that the page has been removed.

"As part of the EA All Play label, EA North Carolina develops cutting edge freemium games for mobile and tablet platforms with our staff of talented video game professionals," says a [a href=http://tinyurl.com/ntlax9s]cached copy[/a] of the website. "Our last hit is MONOPOLY Hotels for iOS which we have been operating as an ongoing business since its launch in late 2011."

Thankfully, our source says that "most of the team will be relocating before the 5th," which is a hopeful thing to hear. We here at The Escapist wish good luck to the members of EA NC as they get back on their feet again.

Permalink
 

Sight Unseen

The North Remembers
Nov 18, 2009
1,064
0
0
A wise man once said the following quote and I've lived with his knowledge for a long time: "Only two things in life are certain: death and EA closing down studios"

So this is not the least bit surprising to me.
 

CrazyCapnMorgan

Is not insane, just crazy >:)
Jan 5, 2011
2,742
0
0
I wondered what the loud evil guttural "om nom nom nom" echo was.

Welp, now I know. Back to playing Final Fantasy 14 for me!
 

Ed130 The Vanguard

(Insert witty quote here)
Sep 10, 2008
3,782
0
0
Time to reset the counter!

It has been 0 days since EA has shut down a studio.

At this point the devs have no-one to blame but themselves, if your studio is a part of EA its only a matter of when, not if they close it down.
 

oldtaku

New member
Jan 7, 2011
639
0
0
I do appreciate that you have the exclusive news of a studio shutting down.

On the other hand, as soon as I read 'As part of the EA All Play label, EA North Carolina develops cutting edge freemium games' I was quite pleased that they were shutting down.
 

Teoes

Poof, poof, sparkles!
Jun 1, 2010
5,174
0
0
Always a shame to see folks lose their jobs but it also comes with the temptation to make a snide comment about the fact that mobile freemium is supposed to be the way to the future..
 

CriticalMiss

New member
Jan 18, 2013
2,024
0
0
EA have a funny way of embracing the mobile free-to-play market considering they keep shutting down their mobile free-to-play studios. Maybe I just don't understand 'the future'?
 

shrekfan246

Not actually a Japanese pop star
May 26, 2011
6,374
0
0
oldtaku said:
I do appreciate that you have the exclusive news of a studio shutting down.

On the other hand, as soon as I read 'As part of the EA All Play label, EA North Carolina develops cutting edge freemium games' I was quite pleased that they were shutting down.
I wonder how many people won't read that far and will just make snarky comments about how EA does nothing but devour other studios.

OT: I'm left wondering what "relocated" really means in this context. If they still have jobs, then awesome. If they're still working on mobile games, then I'm left with a net absolute zero change in how I felt before I read this article, because... well, quite frankly, I've never heard of this particular branch of EA and don't have any mobile phones for gaming.
 

Sargonas42

The Doctor
Mar 25, 2010
124
0
0
shrekfan246 said:
oldtaku said:
I do appreciate that you have the exclusive news of a studio shutting down.

On the other hand, as soon as I read 'As part of the EA All Play label, EA North Carolina develops cutting edge freemium games' I was quite pleased that they were shutting down.
I wonder how many people won't read that far and will just make snarky comments about how EA does nothing but devour other studios.

OT: I'm left wondering what "relocated" really means in this context. If they still have jobs, then awesome. If they're still working on mobile games, then I'm left with a net absolute zero change in how I felt before I read this article, because... well, quite frankly, I've never heard of this particular branch of EA and don't have any mobile phones for gaming.
Indeed... I mean in all honesty, I worked at EA for 6 years, at the corporate studio and interfaced with groups all over the company.... and even *I* had no idea that studio even existed. I can honestly see WHY it was closed and can't see why it would be a bad idea to shut em down. Obviously they weren't making waves and possibly wasting money... not that the EA Hate-train will care....

it sucks when good people lose their jobs, but if a studio hasn't released a hit in some time, and more money is spent on them they are currently (or planning to in the future) generate, it's common sense you try something different.