In what will hopefully just be part of this stupid 'fire people, hire people' thing that so many companies are doing just now John Riccitello has defended EA's plans to lay-off around 1,500 staff in order to 'transform' the company.
Quote:
"We have lots of compassion for those affected," Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said today of the publisher's 1,500 planned layoffs, but he added that "these cuts are essential to transforming our company."
Riccitiello commented on the matter in a conference call following EA's latest quarterly earnings, which saw the company's net loss widen to $391 million.
Although the company said it expects to see profitability in its upcoming third and fourth fiscal quarters, the CEO warned that the back half of 2009 might not be as strong for the industry as some expect.
"Retailers remain cautious and report that foot traffic remains slow," he said. "The consumer is not showing up at retail as consistently as we would like."
I reckon retail foot-fall is slow because people have got used to this more thrifty economy. I work near a main street and see fewer people wandering aimlessly than before, less impulse buying probably.
The state of the industry is a mess right now. Our studio closed at the beginning of the year, and almost all of my former coworkers have had a very hard time finding new work in the industry. Good luck to all of those who lost your jobs, try to hang in there.
This is absolutely awful for these people and I really feel for them, but it also hurts my life plans a great deal, though indirectly. I graduated in December with the hopes of entering the game industry and have done so in only the most limited, poorly paying way. . . every interview I go to I seem to be up against people who have previous experience shipping AAA games.
Oh well, I guess if I did get one of these jobs and lost it months later that wouldn't be any better, and I'd particularly hate it if I had worked my way up a company ladder to have it disappear beneath me. . . or perhaps one or more of the games that these people were working on were great works that they believed in and worked hard on to have them scrapped along with their jobs.
This sucks, but at least they have a decent excuse for it. If they don't stop the financial red ink, eventually everyone could lose their jobs. Tough time to be out of work, however, with the real figure for unemployed and underemployed (taking less pay and/or fewer hours than they want) at 17.5%.
Worst since the Great Depression. And no, I didn't pull that number out of my arse.
This blood letting is going to continue I would say at least another year maybe 18 months. I hope the retailers do well on Black Friday or more game companies are gonna put the hammer down on employees.
__________________ Sometimes you just gotta club a baby seal with a kitten. When in doubt, empty the magazine. I like it rough!
This is absolutely awful for these people and I really feel for them, but it also hurts my life plans a great deal, though indirectly. I graduated in December with the hopes of entering the game industry and have done so in only the most limited, poorly paying way. . . every interview I go to I seem to be up against people who have previous experience shipping AAA games.
Time to either become an unpaid intern and become so good they hire you, or start your own company!
Anyway, it's been awhile since EA rose to prominence. Glad Activision got huge on something other than sports games, I can't stand bland yearly incarnations of sports games. Still, sports games will get a huge shot in the arm with wiimote controls becoming ubiquitous across all systems with the next console generation.
The thing that screwed sports games is lack of competition. Remember when there was more then one NFL game? The games were good. Then EA locked in Madden/NFL and it was over. People sued Microsoft over unfair business practices yet EA can do this and its business as usual.
__________________ Sometimes you just gotta club a baby seal with a kitten. When in doubt, empty the magazine. I like it rough!
John Riccitello eats kittens for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
__________________ Now Playing: Modern Warfare 2 (360), Madden NFL 10 (360), Battlefield: Bad Company (360), The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC), The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) Xbox Live: MadBrown
This is absolutely awful for these people and I really feel for them, but it also hurts my life plans a great deal, though indirectly. I graduated in December with the hopes of entering the game industry and have done so in only the most limited, poorly paying way. . . every interview I go to I seem to be up against people who have previous experience shipping AAA games.
Oh well, I guess if I did get one of these jobs and lost it months later that wouldn't be any better, and I'd particularly hate it if I had worked my way up a company ladder to have it disappear beneath me. . . or perhaps one or more of the games that these people were working on were great works that they believed in and worked hard on to have them scrapped along with their jobs.
Just sucks all around.
I hate to tell you this, but if you're worried about company ladders disappearing beneath you, then you've qualified for the wrong industry, because it happens constantly. The games industry is ALWAYS volatile, regardless of the rest of the economy, from the tiniest indie startups, right up to big layoffs in huge companies like this. Those months between getting hired and getting laid off are the currency you use to get a foot in the door of the next company. Many game developers are nomadic - I know experienced industry folks who have worked for as many as half a dozen companies that have folded and left them jobhunting again.
All that said, fuck EA's fake sympathy. It's one thing to leave 1,500 people wondering how they're going to keep a roof over their heads and support their families, but it's quite another to say you feel sorry for them, tough economic climate, yadda yadda, whilst simultaneously buying up other companies to be absorbed into the EA mediocrity machine.
It's one thing to leave 1,500 people wondering how they're going to keep a roof over their heads and support their families, but it's quite another to say you feel sorry for them, tough economic climate, yadda yadda, whilst simultaneously buying up other companies to be absorbed into the EA mediocrity machine.
Thank you, that's all I was trying to say. You just said it better.
B. A shortfall of $400 mill can't be fixed by not spending $100 mill.
Only if you do accounting using real math, silly! If you use Wall Street, or Enron, or Bernie Madoff, or governmental accounting practices, saving that $100 million rather than spending it on purchasing a company can turn your $400 million deficit into a trillion dollar cash-on-hand hoard!
You just need to use some creativity and leverage!
I hate to tell you this, but if you're worried about company ladders disappearing beneath you, then you've qualified for the wrong industry, because it happens constantly. The games industry is ALWAYS volatile, regardless of the rest of the economy, from the tiniest indie startups, right up to big layoffs in huge companies like this. Those months between getting hired and getting laid off are the currency you use to get a foot in the door of the next company. Many game developers are nomadic - I know experienced industry folks who have worked for as many as half a dozen companies that have folded and left them jobhunting again.
Troo dat. Unless you can be one of those that values the (dubious?) honor of working on video games over making a better living (depending on your job function) do not pass go, do not collect $200 bucks. Go directly to a corporate job designing UIs, programming, or being a program manager on utility software.
The games industry only disappoints, particularly before you've got your first 3 or 4 multimillion dollar titles under your belt. And especially in this economy.
Large companies have different constraints than other sized companies; of course they're trend-chasers. What's amazing is they often catch the wave and ride it for quite awhile. Hell, this entire console generation with the console offerings of MS and Sony are nothing more than chased trends within console hardware taken to their logical, inescapable conclusions, $500-600 consoles sporting features no one truly wanted (lookin' at'choo, Blooray).
And, as we've also seen, at some point the trend gets taken too far, another competitor changes tack, is successful, sometimes wildly so ala the Wii. And so MS and Sony have also changed tack now to catch up and eaten their words and come out with their copycat version (ie: Sony said the Wii was a fad that consumers would quickly tire of and that the Wiimote was a gimmick--promptly followed by Sony's own version of the Wiimote being unveiled once Sony's financial advisors broke the news to Sony that Nintendo now had enough cash to buy Sony outright and fire the board of directors if they so chose).
But it's also quite possible, likely even, that MS or Sony's motion control offering will become more popular than the Wii's in the long run during the next console gen. Because by then they will have caught this latest wave and extended it some more themselves.
Then by the time Sony has a Wiimote version of their own with 16 buttons on it they'll go totally hands-free--oh wait, MS already got there and decided to go entirely completely controller free. But, timing is quite important. Controller free input might only work when we all have 3D displays\televisions in our entertainment centers--surely the next evolution of HDTVs. Perhaps head-tracking can be their bridge. Thus, color me skeptical on Natal until I see it work with head-tracking or some other killer-app. And no, nothing by Lionhead qualifies as a 'killer-app' ever.
And all the while this is happening, EA execs will be asking themselves one question: how can we make a sports game with this? :P
