Electronic Arts is planning to lay off 1,000 employees, approximately 10% of their employees. In this layoff their also consolidating EA Black Box back into EA Canada. EA Black Box was spun off as a studio outside of EA Canada to work on such titles as Need for Speed but, with the layoffs arriving, they’re going to be merging the remainder of EA Black Box into EA Canada by June 2009. The remaining EA Black Box employees will continue working on Skate 2.
The pink slips should be issued by March 31, 2009 and we’re hoping the folks that have lost their jobs will find new jobs as soon as possible. An Electronic Arts representative said:
“This does not mean that the Black Box studio is closing. The studio is moving to our Burnaby campus to share the facility with EAC and other EA teams that operate out of our state-of-the-art facility. We will operate two distinct studios, each with their own distinct culture and teams, out of our Burnaby facility.” (gamespot)
EA hasn’t mentioned any specific franchise cancellation but we’re going to assume something is going to slip, it’s hard to imagine a company can lose 1,000 employees without impacting business operations. If EA was able to layoff 1,000 people without impacting day-to-day business, then they’re definitely hurting in the management department because that would be a ton of waste.
Big companies may cut costs during hard times but they said they’re, “implementing a plan to narrow its product portfolio to focus on hit games with higher margin opportunities. The company remains committed to taking creative risks, investing in new games, leading the industry in the growing mobile and online businesses, and delivering high-quality games to consumers.”
We’re curious just how much EA is willing to risk on “creative” endevours considering publishers are already hesitant to break new ground. The next few years should yield great opportunities for smaller developers to put on their creative hat and open new doors and opportunities for themselves.
Hi guys.
Sorry for not writing a comment for such a long time 🙁 I am listening nearly to every episode, but really forget to write you a line .. sorry for that!
Regarding the topics in this episode:
Best Gamepad for me is the PS4 Gamepad. I have small Hands, so thats fine for me to handle it. The Switch Pro COntroller is nice as well, but after playing some hours, i feel some pain in my hands which i dont have playing with the ps4 Controller. The xbox Controller is a little bit too clunky to play with it for hours imho. The bigger size is not the problem, i think for me its the orientation of the buttons, especially the ones on the backside.
I am playing much WOW right now … i am not able to play Magic with real cards so WOW is a welcome time killer 🙂 In addition i am playing the new Ori Game, the new Doom and i want to start the FF7 Remake.
Regaridng Fall Out New Vegas: cant tell anything about it .. never played it .. should I ?
People are really playing more survival games during this Covid Period? Oh my god 😀 they should watch Walking dead instead .. haha 🙂
Regarding the grinding discussion: i play WOW and i played it 15 years ago so i know grinding very good 🙂 But at least if you are in Discord with some friends, talking and maybe watching som tv shows on a second screen, its not that hard and boring. But sure its sad, that you you have to grind at some points to get some good rewards 🙁
Thanks again for the nice and entertaining episode. Keep on guys and stay healthy 🙂
greetings from germany,
Ralf