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.
@Thief:
If you have Doom 3, and no patience for Thief 4:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod
@Steam forums hacked
Me don’t like this. Normally you would not depend on third party software for modules in your core application. You’d want access to the source code, so that in case a vulnerability is found, you can fix it quicker than the third party.
So, assuming Valve has access to the code powering their forums, and yet somebody managed to hack it, it means that their developers need to better cover their security holes.
No puns intended.
@Xbox 360 failure rate down to 10%
Paul, I think those 10% come from any kind of combination of the following factors: old version of the console and placing it on a rug, with no space for ventilation.
I had no piece of equipment burn out. Those ventilation holes (sorry for getting back to holes) are there for a reason. If you thought of something different than ventilation, shame on you :P.
@Sony revamps< PSN sharing policy
I actually like that kind of sharing policy, and reducing it to just two devices is quite ok.
@cease-and-desist order to NeoGAF over Mass Effect 3 spoilers
Oh man … this is still free advertising. And since the game is not yet released, it can be changed so that the story of the game remains new.
@QOTW:
Yes.
You'll say this is absurd, but think of it: a game is not a novel, that once you read it you've extracted all of it.
A game is story and gameplay. Or just gameplay. The ones that are just story usually turn crap.
My 'Yes' answer is also based on a personal experiment: I watched/listened in background "lets plays" for STALKER Call of Prypiat, and I still love (not loved, love!) playing the game.
Now granted, such a big spoiler does have one effect: instead of buying the game full priced, I wait for a nice discount.
Great… First you say I’m 8 and then you say I could be a girl. Thanks a lot. =P
@Xbox 360 failure rate down to 10%: The biggest reason I didn’t buy an Xbox 360 when I was choosing a console was that it had a very large failure rate. I’m glad that it’s finally at a point where most people can enjoy it without it failing in less than a year.
@QOTW: I like to watch trailers and gameplay footage as much as I can until I see about 1 or 2 demos from gaming conventions such as E3, so that I know the game is worth buying. Otherwise, regarding story, I like to know as least as possible because gameplay is most important to me and the story is just what holds it together.
Regarding what you said about going to a library and learning a programming language: I would like to do that after I do my GCSEs which are only in next May and I need to focus on them as much as possible first. Also, I was unfortunate that my year is the last year that my country has Pascal programming in its Computer Studies syllabus instead of Java programming. Even though I excel at Pascal, I think there’s going to be a big leap for me to write in another language.