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.
@PS4 did have always on DRM, camera, but Sony changed it at E3
😀 If this is true, then damn it, the customer still has some power. I guess not being the first to present the product is not entirely bad.
@ Xbox One’s capabilities
It’s easy to mess up specs. I mean the sales guy don’t know tech mumbo jumbo. So yeah …
Now, I’d go and say that even at the initial estimated bandwidth the difference should not be that big.
Read – write simultaneously? That’s a pretty good thing. In theory that can double the effectiveness of the hardware (at least in some instances), as opposed when having to do them sequentially.
Still … PS4 looks a bit more attractive. Dunno why, maybe because of the initial fiasco of the XBox one.
Now, on compatibility: wasn’t supposed Win 8 to play also XBox 360 games? Does this mean that XBOne will play 360 games?
@Xbox One getting Unity support to aid indie developers
Hmm … interesting. Still, XBLA was not all sunshine and rainbows:
http://www.xblafans.com/jon-blow-and-team-meat-done-with-xbox-64672.html
So what gives? Ok, the link above is from March, but still. If this isn’t confusing, I don’t know what is. Team Meat? Your reply on this recent development?
@Star Citizen asset cost for ships “anywhere from $35,000 to $150,000”
Holly f*ckin’ shit! No, just … no. Jonah has a very good point, it could be that those polygons won’t be visible at lower settings.
Further more, I think that in the heat of the action, you probably won’t notice the extra details anyway.
Hey! I missed last week’s episode so let’s get going now!
First of all, Insomniac did not develop Infamous. It was Sucker Punch and they’re also doing Infamous: Second Son now. They’re still with Sony.
@PS4 DRM – This is highly doubtful to me. Am I supposed to believe that a multi-billion dollar company changes their policy and the entire E3 presentation within a couple of hours because of what the competitor did? No way. Jack Tretton of Sony was a guest on Up At Noon on IGN this week and that’s basically what he said. That the presentation we saw at E3 was what it was always supposed to be. There were no changes made after Microsoft’s conference. The game sharing Youtube video, that’s a different story 😉
@XBone capabilities – that’s a funny mistake to made but still might have happened. I don’t think all the technical stuff really matters to an ordinary customer. I still believe that the price and the unfavorable media coverage that Microsoft got after E3 will be the deciding factor. Those people who show more interest, like you and me, already decided which console they will go with. I’m not starting my Xbox adventure with this one.
@XBone running Win8 apps – I wonder how long this will hold up. I can see people developing apps that somehow hack the console the way people accessed the OS on PS3 in the early days. The more closed the system is, the safer it is. That’s why I’m not a huge fan of all the social interaction that the new generation brings. We’ll see how this develops.
@QWOP – Jonah! Play QWOP now! This game is what hell is all about. This could be an instrument of torture – “if you don’t run at least 10 meters you’re not getting your food!”. Parenting tip #436
@E3 impressions – I’ve been going through the list of games and it’s really hard to choose. I’m going to focus on Sony games, since that’s the console I’m going for. Can I still say The Last of Us? 🙂 Technically, it was release AFTER E3 so it should count. I love this game and I’m afraid to read Jordan’s review… You OBVIOUSLY don’t get it 😛
If I have to choose something in the future, I’m still very intrigued by Beyond: Two Souls. They showed some new stuff about this game and now I have no idea how it will pan out. I’m a little worried that Mr. Cage & co. want to do too much with this title. I loved Heavy Rain and I want to go back to this game some day and if the storytelling is as good in Beyond, it will be amazing.
Most intriguing next-gen game? I think I’ll go for Infamous: Second Son. I really enjoyed the first two games, I platinumed both of them and it’s going to be interesting do see what they do with the franchise post-Cole.
And also, in case you missed it, Jordan especially, since he has a Vita, Dead Nation is coming to the handheld! The game was an amazing PSN title. Sure, it’s another zombie apocalypse game, but it was so much fun. It had a co-op mode and you could go through the whole game in 2-3 hours if you made a speed run. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Now I’m wondering whether I should cash in my Bioshock Infinite contest victory to get a T-shirt or should I wait for some next-gen games since they will be region-free… 😉