Halloween is a scary time of year, no less when you’re posting a $310 million net loss. EA CEO John Riccitiello sees “weakness” at retail in October and we’re betting this isn’t the end of the road of sorrow for game publishers around the globe.
Electronic Arts isn’t unfamiliar with bad times and we’re sure to see them make constant adjustments to their headcount, game releases and press as the economy goes into a bit of a slump. Although the game industry won’t see as big a hit as the financial market, everyone is going to watch their spending during slower economic times.
That slowness is a red flag for the mega-publisher, which says it’s “proactively making cost adjustments now.” One of those adjustments is the axing of some 600 EA employees across the globe. (Kotaku)
Last year Electronic Arts lost a “small” $195 million during the same time, not exactly a gold star on the financial records but it sure looks better than this loss. A few games may crumble under the economic pressures, Tiberium for example, but let us not forget the good times! EA posted some nice figures for Spore, Madden NFL 09, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
So, they mixed a few sequels with a few new franchise hits and gave gamers some pretty hot titles for the year. Of course, hot titles in our hand do not always translate to positive revenue in theirs.
My roommate has the white PS4 that was bundled with Destiny.
I recall playing DotA when it was new in 2005, but I haven’t played it in years because I disliked teammates “feeding” (dieing a lot) and being killed by multiple opponents because my teammate(s) wouldn’t declare MiA (missing in action) heroes in their lanes.
Regarding why people in RTS and MOBA games click constantly might be to help their reaction time, as I, too, did that; it would let me know relative server latency.
I never played LoL, HotS, or DOTA2, but I have spectated DOTA2 to see my PC’s performance, and DOTA2 got a Vulkan update, so I’m hoping for the next Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, or Valve game to use a good Vulkan implementation.
I enjoy watching Super Mario Maker, “Retro” category games, nostalgic games, and high requirement games because I’m using an old PC until Zen arrives, and I, too, use Twitch to preview games.; it, also, serves as “background noise”.
I watch StarCraft 2 and other RTS games because I’m no good at them anymore.