Paul returns to the show to drown his sorrows in the discontinuation of a game series he loved, and the podcast ran so long it has to be split into two parts.
The first half of this podcast includes the following news items:
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Episode 425: Paul’s Return Part 1
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Episode 358: ChangesEpisode 358: Changes
The Gaming Podcast is back after three weeks of a forced hiatus as one former host has left the podcast for good. Otherwise, some of the news items are old, some are new, in this long episode.
There’s no Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, but plenty of news, including:
- Activision won’t launch an EA Access-style program anytime soon
- Disney Interactive revenue up 45% in Q3
- Sony agrees to $15M settlement in 2011 data breach class action
- Yogscast: We have ‘no obligation’ to cancelled adventure game Kickstarter
- Warner Bros. nabs Space Invaders film rights
- Report: PC and console market will decline
There’s also some Listener Feedback. The Question of the Week: “Do you think consoles will start doing early access on games?”
Electronic Arts Issues 1,000 Pink SlipsElectronic Arts Issues 1,000 Pink Slips
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.
Episode 462: Nerd RageEpisode 462: Nerd Rage
Jonah discusses his renewed views of Mass Effect: Andromeda after his long, long rant last week. It fits in with the theme of nerd rage in the news items, as well as some new games coming out. TJ and Scott talk about the games they’ve been enjoying in the past week as well, as the latter is burning through Pillars of Eternity so he can play Torment: Tides of Numenera and the eventual Pillars of Eternity II.
This week’s news includes:
- Planescape: Torment 4K remaster comes out April 11
- First Star Wars Battlefront 2 trailer dated for April
- World of Warcraft has changed how enemies scale, and players are very angry
- Destiny 2 officially announced, teasing the fall of The Last City
Let us know what you think.