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.
The World of Warcraft community can be harsh if you don’t know what you’re doing, which is one reason why I haven’t played it for years now; it requires specific actions for certain events during raids for example, and you are often required to watch videos beforehand and have voice chat for choreography among your guild. Another reason for my absence from WoW is addition of unprecedented content requiring time to learn new functions, and it can take away from core gameplay, in my opinion. A lot of people like “Vanilla” WoW.
While all FPS games are point and click based, Counter-Strike for example requires strategies for map positions except pubs. I recall trying to run around maps not obeying orders back when I was in a clan/guild, while the leader was barking at me.
I’m anticipating Doom’s plain Deathmatch mode, unlike Team Deathmatch, so that I can be solo, but we don’t know when it’ll be released…