Electronic Arts Sheds Over 300 Employees

[fitbabits]

Thanks to GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com) for the news (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143510.html).

World's biggest publisher confirms major layoffs as more than 300 employees across three studios see pink.

Following initial reports in several game forums, game publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that it has laid off a sizeable number of its employees. An EA rep confirmed to GameSpot that the company is reducing its total workforce by 5 percent. Because the massive third-party publisher employs 6,500 to 7,000 people worldwide, that means between 325 and 350 people received their notice of termination today.

The spokesperson said that the reductions were made "due to the fact that we are in a transition [period]," adding that "every division is going through this resource evaluation." The rep said some employees affected by the layoff had been offered the option to relocate, though the rep was not sure of an exact number.
Commiserations to those who were let go. I hope y'all land on your feet real soon.

[jeffool]

Best of luck to'em all.

And this just after they were bitching about not being able to poach employees in Montreal. I'm against non-competes, but this is fucking insane.

/edit:
I was a bit curious as to what these studios made. If you are too, here ya go:
EA Redwood Shores Studio (http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/ea-redwood-shores-studio/developed-by/) made Tiger Woods and others.
EA Tiburon (http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/ea-tiburon/developed-by/) (in Orlando) does Madden.
EA Vancouver (http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/electronic-arts-canada/developed-by/) does FIFA, NHL, and others.

[eth3rton]

Note to self : Yet Another Reason to not like EA.....

[Dakar]

This was all piracy's fault.

[DigiWiz]

It's really just hire and fire. finish a game and get fired. Then get rehired if you are lucky for their next project.

Yes, the non compete thing is dirty. They fire these guys and depending on their contract, they can't even get work for another year, making them starving and vulnerable when EA comes knocking on their door the next time around, just to fire them again after they manage to ship their games for christmas after crunch.

Of course this also explains why there are no patches for EA games. Unlike Blizzard (still patching Warcraft 3) or Bioware (still patching NWN), they just fired all the people who worked on the game, archive it and leave customers with half working versions of their crap (madden psp anyone) with the universal solution being to buy game version++ the year after.

Bah.

[Neverborne]

Nuts to EA! I'm never buying another product from those bastards; wrecking the industry with all their shannanigans...

...shit, their the publisher of Black...

...I hate you EA.

[eth3rton]

This was all piracy's fault.

Don't Fool Yourself..... :rolleyes:

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Starforce did it!!!!

[Monroeski]

...Unlike Blizzard (still patching Warcraft 3)...

Try "still patching Starcraft." Those guys are amazing.

[Stooby]

Try "still patching Starcraft." Those guys are amazing.
Try "still adding content" to Diablo 2.

[eth3rton]

Try "still adding content" to Diablo 2.

Try "Upper Management that can actually sleep through the night without the feeling of Guilt for letting good people go for BULLSHIT REASONS !!"..... :mad:

What goes around COMES AROUND....

[DigiWiz]

Or try this
http://nwn.bioware.com/support/winclient_beta.html

Holy *****!

[motor]

It's funny they are cleaning out the Madden guys. Guess that's what happens when you don't need to upgrade your product thanks to no innovation. It will be funny when thanks to EA, console football games become uncool, or worse, something like Blitz becomes the hip football game to play and NFL branded video games are a stigma more then a blessing.

[Jake]

It wasn't 300. More like 900 worldwide.
And I was one of them.
Ah well.

[Borys]

300 isn't the correct number fit.

More like 1000 from what I read (gossip).

[bKangy]

Cripes. Are they their most lucrative franchises? If I'd be dropping any "sandbags" it'd be The Sims Online...

[Jukey]

Strange timing with PS3 on the horizon

[Demize99]

Video game sales last quarter were down, so they are possibly dumping personnel to make their finances look better for investors.

[mister_slim]

Too bad those guys can't work as cheap as Pacific Rim contract labor.

[MajSheppard]

I am happy for those freed. Maybe now they can get a chance to make GOOD games and get paid decent wages for it as well.

[Redline]

Ahh well, look at it this way: A whole bunch of east indians just got employed. Cha-ching!

Okay, probably not a time for jokes.

[DanAmerson]

Well, I can't find any forum rules that let me know if it's inappropriate behavior, so I'll post it anyway.

I'm sorry to hear that EA is laying off employees. If there are any EA programmers that read this board and are looking for a job, my company is hiring. Feel free to PM me about it.

dba

[fitbabits]

Well, I can't find any forum rules that let me know if it's inappropriate behavior, so I'll post it anyway.

I'm sorry to hear that EA is laying off employees. If there are any EA programmers that read this board and are looking for a job, my company is hiring. Feel free to PM me about it.

dba
Lookie.... (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9376)

[CrysDark]

Why do I have this creepy crawley feeling that these are the guys who were complaining about unpaid overtime a year or so back?

[Steele Johnson]

Got to love the vicious cycle: by the time everthing is over, the layoffs, cancelling insurance policies, deleting emails, cleaning out desks, etc, etc, they'll be hiring again.

Duh

[EGO]

I am happy for those freed. Maybe now they can get a chance to make GOOD games and get paid decent wages for it as well.

Look buddy, don't be dullusional, EA pays well, especially to those that negotiate well. Also, EA makes good games. It's total bullshit to think they make crap, because if that's all they did, they'd go the way of Majesco and Acclaim instead of being a TOP 5 publisher for the past 15+ years!

Also, EA carries A LOT of overhead. They often have upwards of 7 Producers on any given title. Most of these guys are just glorified Testers with a bit more attitude and the ability to parlay their way up the ladder. No real skill other than ass kiss and editing of other people's work.

So, I feel incredibly bad for the good people that lost their jobs, but I'm sure a bunch of people who shouldn't have even had the positions they had.

[jwbxx]

Give me back my nfl espn 2k series!