EA layoffs - LA and Monreal
mod
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
http://kotaku.com/5986029/ea-lays-off-staff-fate-of-visceral-montreal-in-question
Replies
"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.
I'll just hope everyone concerned will find a niche somewhere else rapidly.
Closing studios seems to be the hip thing right now...
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?
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.
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.
It might just be due to dead space 3 under performing in sales unfortunately
Good luck to all affected.
Eidos Square Enix is hiring!
Hope everyone lands ok.
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
They are.... In china!
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?
Good luck to guys who are now jobless, sucks big time again.
Hope they have a quick turn around.
And yeah they have Bioware and EA Mobile here.