EA-offs

Seems to be the season for it. Much like the announcement from Activision regarding the loss of thirty of their staff, EA have issued a statement that seems to be more significant. Studios in Las Angeles, Montreal and some 'smaller' studios (no specifics as to which yet) have faced lay-offs of their own. For the time being, the honcho's of EA have not issued any firm details, which suggests it to either be a minor footnote, or potentially something more widespread. They have, however, given assurance that everyone was suitably compensated. EA Labels president Frank Gibeau had the following to say:
"Thousands of our existing employees have been retrained and redeployed to work on the new platforms and initiatives. But when it is not possible to redeploy a team, we soften the tough decisions with assistance. This week we let some people go in Los Angeles, Montreal as well as in some smaller locations. These are good people and we have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease their transition to a new job."
But what do y'all make of it? It's no secret EAs profits have been somewhat less than inspiring in recent months, what with them not making any. Could this be the beginning of something big? Leave your theories in the comments below.
Posted 22-02-2013, 18:10
Everything is proceeding as I have forseen
Posted 22-02-2013, 16:29
And now they're suffering for it. Feelsgoodman. Someone bring in emperor palpatine!
Posted 22-02-2013, 16:14
@Jenssen: Short version. EA were dickbags, the consumer fought back, they played nice and lulled us into a false sense of security, re-doubled their dickbaggery.
It's their own damned fault
Posted 22-02-2013, 15:10
haha nice little history of EA. I totally agree with you. Used to love EA but now...
Posted 22-02-2013, 15:00
Let's look at the recent history of EA. A little less than a decade ago, EA were pretty big douchebags. In fact, they were approximately the biggest douchebags in the industry. And they were thriving. Fucking everyone up the ass, left and right, and making a good buck while they did it. But then! Something happened. Their sales started to falter. What, The Sims Expansions 35151324134 which included two new wallpaint-colors priced at $29 didn't blow consumers out of the water? Need for Speed 193 didn't make racing fanatics go wild? Fifa One Million wasn't the biggest success ever? Nope. They were seriously starting to struggle. Customers didn't like how they were being treated like shit, gamers didn't like the constant rehashing of old concepts without innovation... People were pretty much hating EA across the board. So what happened? Profits dwindled, studios closed, people fired.... it called for a new strategy. Suddenly we saw new IP's. Crysis, Mirror's Edge, Spore, Mass Effect. EA started releasing FREE DLCs for their games, franchises like FIFA and The Sims started doing much more for each iteration and less rehashing. EA started actually listening to their customers. Over time, the hatred disappeared, people started trusting EA for their quality games and their good relationship with their audience.... But then, we arrived at 2011. What happened? Hell if I know. But it kinda seems to me that EA had been feeding on all the praise from the recent FIFAs, the Battlefield 3 promotion, the consumer hatred against Activision... Suddenly, EA once again broke out of their shell. The biggest troll in the industry was back! MORE DLCs, DAY-ONE DLCs - but none of it was free anymore. Cancelling of games considered to be too niche - like Mirror's Edge 2. Mainstreamifying of games to compete with Activision's CoD series, which both CryTek's Crysis 2 and Danger Close's MoH 2010 suffered under - not to mention the upcoming Battlefield 3 (but at the time, none of us knew how similar to CoD it would be, thanks to excellent marketing). And of course, the good relationship between EA and the audience was all but gone. Cut off. Not profitable enough in a short-term scope. For years, EA had been playing nice, and Activision had taken over the throne of "biggest shitpile of the industry". But EA would have none of that! They were BACK, BABY! Short-term profits over long-term investments, fuck yeah! That'll last FOREVER! Right! .... Right? G..... Guys?