The bizarre streaming E3 2021 is over, and the guys discuss all of it. Yes, all of it. The conclusion they have is that Microsoft and Nintendo actually had something to say, and everyone else were basically unprepared — for something they should have had months to prepare for.
Apologies for the bad audio.
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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.
This week’s episode is full of rumors, which the crew try to parse.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think as usual at the Facebook page.
This gaming podcast closes out the year of 2009, we’re going to put in our predictions for the year, we’re going to hear a few comments from listeners and flash back to a game that has yet to be (but is old enough to flash back): Duke Nukem Forever. You’ll also, finally, get the first impressions of Assassin’s Creed 2 and some game news including:
We’ll also ask for your predictions on next years gaming excitement. What are your predictions, in the game industry, for “twenty ten”?
