EA lays off 600 workers.
polycounter lvl 18
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20893
Best of luck to any of those affected by this.
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Best of luck to any of those affected by this.
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Replies
Best of luck finding new work guys!
It's especially interesting that their revenue increased 33% this year yet they still have to do this.
Best of luck to anyone who lost their job. Hopefully after the elections are over and the economy calms down a touch there will be a lot of job opportunities popping up.
www.crypticstudios.com
If this economy continues I'm sure a lot of people will be laid off
I'm sorry for all who lost their job, and hope they land on their feet, but I'm pretty pissed off about this.
It seems EA is treading a fine line right now. I don't think it's farfetched to presume some of their employees possibly opting for collective bargaining, and forming a union to prevent further mistreatment (I know this might be a bigger possibility for EAC in the Union-Happy BC).
I suppose their next mega purge will come sometime in 2012.
wonder how many people actually workign on games got fired.. guess a lot of the layoffs are service and office personal.
Nope, you're crazy. EA has never laid anyone off before. . .
EDIT: Never mind, just finished reading the artcle, hope the 50 mill was worth it.
50 million = 600 employees = $83333 average salary. Man that is a big company.
Especially if...
Not to be mean or cruel, losing a job sucks! But, what if it were 600 janitors? If this were a forum about toilet cleaning, I could see an upheaval. It makes me feel better, knowing it was not employees directly associated with making art. Maybe that money saved in janitors hires a few new artists?
Good luck on your hunt!
I think that was Lucas Arts?
But what EA did was much more strategic. I'm sure there were some game devs who were layed off, some of them unfairly, but I am under the assumption most EA developer layoffs (not all 600 were devs) were from project cancellations. Canceling under-performing projects is, while it is hard to say it is a good thing without sounding like a douche, is not a bad thing. There are some studios (EALA?) that have chronic problems- but sometimes even the best studios have projects that just don't seem to work. Or projects that aren't shaping up to be competitive or high quality. Is it really damnable to cancel these projects? I'm glad a few projects that I know of were cancelled based on what I know and heard of them, because you always have to wonder whether that makes others worse off. Ideally the devs would be mostly redistributed and not have to be laid off, but with the economy how it is, I can't entirely blame the decision. True, EA is in good financial shape and games are growing, and I'm sure the layoffs still haven't fixed some deep problems at some studios, but I'm not surprised to hear any of this either. No studios closing, so that's a good thing.
Now, regarding revenue vs. behavior, an anecdote: EA bonuses are usually decided based on EA performance from the prior year. And even though last fiscal year or half-year when they were last calculated, we had record revenues, because EA spent 800 million on BioWare, profit was down or was a loss, can't remember. But regardless, we (well not me, I was too new to qualify for a bonus) got the shit end of the stick because of that. I find it amazing other EA dev bonuses would be punished because EA acquires a studio, even if they have done a great and improving job- what sort of incentive is that? Seriously, messed up.
Maybe it is because I'm at a newly acquired EA studio, and haven't worked at a 'real' EA studio, or I've only been an EA employee since the 'new' restructuring under John Ricitello and I accept a line of bullshit at truth, or maybe I have my entire head up my ass and I'm completely missing the boat, but out of any major publisher right now, I think I'd still prefer to be working for EA.