EA layoffs - LA and Monreal

slipsius

grapevine is telling me the Montreal studio just vanished at lunch. completely shut. not just lay offs.... wtf.... Good luck, everyone.


http://kotaku.com/5986029/ea-lays-off-staff-fate-of-visceral-montreal-in-question

Super

With next-gen now right around the corner you'd think that places would be hiring not closing...

ebagg

JacqueChoi

Good people. Hope they land on their feet.

joe gracey

God Dammit.

d1ver

Spent about 5 minutes coming up with a word that express the magnitude of my disappointment without being too profane.
"Fuck" is all I got.

Best of luck in landing a new gig guys.
EA not showing on the press conference yesterday and laying off people today - seems like they might be in a bit of a turmoil.

peanut™

I used to eat/work at that studio, im not sure what is going on but i loved it.

I'll just hope everyone concerned will find a niche somewhere else rapidly.

nathdevlin

I love the Army of Two games not a way to treat awesome Devs

PixelMasher

I nearly joined them last year to work on dead space 3, woulda been an awesome project but also wouldnt have good to been laid off. ubi is almost always hiring so anyone effected feel free to send me a pm with your stuff!

Zepic

So, no more Deadspace?

Justin Meisse

It sucks but that's EA, if you aren't under constant fear of layoffs you haven't been with the company long.

3DKnight

Lot of friends in that building

roosterMAP

too many layoffs these days.

nyx702

Wow. I am kinda shocked.

Closing studios seems to be the hip thing right now...

ae.

nyx702

Is Montreal turning into Vancouver?

This is a serious question. I am not trying to be sarcastic. Being from the US I am not as intimately aware of the changes in Canada. I heard there was some law/tax changes that causes alot of the closures in Vancouver. Is this effecting Montreal now too?

Ace-Angel

I spend a couple of hours looking at reasons for the layoff and am coming short.

Some people are describing it almost like Gameloft 2.0 layoff, only instead of shadily firing everyone, severance packages and such were issued.

Also, this: "Many employees are being retrained for new positions; however a small number will be released. These are great, talented people and we wish them well. EA is growing globally, and we expect our headcount to increase this year."

Doesn't make sense, closing off an entire studio that has Tax benefits, with alot of talent, is the exact opposite of retraining and headcount increase.

Also, the reason they're not releasing the headcount is because they have alot of contractors, to avoid full time benefits?

Again, I'm coming short, everything looks like it was going in their favor.

nyx702 wrote: »

Is Montreal turning into Vancouver?

This is a serious question. I am not trying to be sarcastic. Being from the US I am not as intimately aware of the changes in Canada. I heard there was some law/tax changes that causes alot of the closures in Vancouver. Is this effecting Montreal now too?

This is the first I hear of a major studio outright personally closing in Montreal without pressure of external forces (THQ doesn't count, since they went down with all of their studios sell outs globally and it was barely open for a Year).

So no, I don't think so, which makes it even more bizarre honestly.

crazyfool

Sucks big time, hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

It might just be due to dead space 3 under performing in sales unfortunately

bugo

Companies will shut until PS4 development kicks in (which already have for many studios). It's a bad thing for sure. But since plans changed, I'm sure EA doesn't want to keep spending money with the "old" consoles anymore.

Good luck to all affected.

JacqueChoi

sucks.


Eidos Square Enix is hiring!

chrisradsby

Aw man! =/ I hope everybody lands on their feet!

Wesley

These threads usually seem a bit more active with people wishing good luck, etc. Have I missed something, do we know how many people were let go in the end?

Hope everyone lands ok.

littleclaude

Sorry to hear about this, fantastic games you made as well.

EA EA EA!, up and down like a yo yo! why is this?

Is there a financial motive as to why you chop and change so much?

Don't worry about answering, I just read Ace-Angel's reply

Dataday

Super wrote: »

With next-gen now right around the corner you'd think that places would be hiring not closing...

They are.... In china!

tottot

Well $%*&@! @#$#%^&&! ^**#$! $#%#$%^!!!!

Frump

This always sucks to hear.

I'd be interested to find out what the current proportion of unemployment is within the game industry. There doesn't seem to be many studios in Canada to hold all the people being laid off and coming out of schools all the time. Forming a bunch of startups is great, but how many get off the ground and create jobs?

repete

Weird as EA are growing:shifty: I thought you "expand" with growth.

Good luck to guys who are now jobless, sucks big time again.

3DKnight

yeah it's weird, if they ain't "growing" in Montreal, cheapest place in north America, then most likely in cheaper countries.

slipsius

Apparently EA Montreal houses a few different studios within it. Visceral, Bioware, and something else. "only" the visceral part was shut down. About 60 people?

Hope they have a quick turn around.

d1ver

I heard Visceral Montreal were 180, no?
And yeah they have Bioware and EA Mobile here.

PixelMasher

yea visceral was 2 teams last time i checked, dead space 3 and army of two. bioware and mobile were not effected i dont think.