Publisher offers no comment as its disposed workforce appears to be breaking silence
A total of seven EA-owned studios are alleged to be hit by the publisher’s mass-layoff operations.
Pandemic, EALA, Maxis, Rupture Studios, Mythic, Tiburon and Black Box are all thought to be downsized as EA looks to shed 900 developers from its global workforce.
EA has declined to comment on where the layoffs have occurred.
The publisher announced Monday it would axe 1500 jobs over the next five months, as the group posted a net loss for the eleventh successive quarter.
However the publisher only went as far as saying “several facilities” would be affected.
Advertisement
“According to multiple sources, cutbacks include studios like Pandemic, Maxis and nearly the entire Command & Conquer team,” read the website.
“Sources tell Kotaku that the team working on Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight was warned of its fate today, with almost the entire team expected to be let go after the real-time strategy game ships some time in 2010,” it added.
“Also said to be affected heavily is Spore and former-Sims studio EA Maxis, social network gaming acquisition Rupture Studios, and Mercenaries and The Saboteur creators Pandemic Studios LA,” it added.
Rumours of further layoffs had surfaced via social networking sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
Eron Garcia – whose LinkedIn profile puts him as a “senior compliance specialist for Nintendo at Electronic Arts” – wrote on his public Twitter account:
“Who just got laid off: a. Me, b. Most of my department, c. HUGE chunks of EA, d. All of the Above.”
The post has since been removed.
Meanwhile, Katherine Pitta – a purported volunteer for EA studio Mythic who claims to know some of the staff at Mythic – states on her Twitter feed:
“Mythic Entertainment, responsible for Warhammer Online, just laid off 80 people, about 40% of its employees.”
Such claims have not been confirmed by EA.
The same stupid thing year after year, Developers layoff. In my opinion, developers are doing a great job, just take Dead Space Extraction as example - it was great developed, but failed on sales. Why? Wrong direction, I believe. So, who should be fired?
Check what I think here http://www.balder.com.br/site/industry/business/65-ea-acquiring-companies-and-firing-people
If I was working on a game and got told that I'd be 'let go' when it was over, I'd jump before I was pushed, unless the severance pay was REALLY good. It'd be much easier to get a job when you're not in competition with everyone else who's been let go...
And when you jumped that ship Ed, what about the rest of the team you let down?
You might think it would be easier to get a job, until a prospective employer learned that you were the one that jumped ship and let the team down. That would give them the impression that when the going got tough, you couldn't be relied upon.
It's actually much easier to get a job if you can prove that you have more than self-sufficiency at heart. Game development is a team effort and you have to be in it for the whole team, regardless of what your employer intends to do.
@LeeC ...I always see your name pop up defending some of the awful practices of this industry
The rest of the team that you let down? You mean the ones that are also on a death march that should be looking to leave?
I'd be happier to see people do what they have to do to provide for their family in the future. I wouldn't think they are abandoning me. Best of luck to them.
That's an interesting post Thiago.
It's clear overall the system is broken and has been for a long while.
@LeeC ... You are spouting absolute rubbish.
As an employee, you are not responsible for the 'team'
If your management can no longer make adequate provisions for your, and your teammates employment, then you all should be out looking for new work.
Games development tends to operate as a meritocracy, if you're good enough and your attitude doesn't stink, then you will find it easy to get hired, the company you go to will be happy to have you - regardless of whether you walked out on a failing developer or not.
typical surprise behaviour from EA.. buy up all the good studios, then when it looks like profits might not be so great, bin off all the people who are working for them. The first sims games from maxis, sim city 1,2 etc. were great. Ever since EA got its hands on them, they have gone downhill, adding hundreds of pointless features that add nothing to gameplay. And now, all those poor soles at maxis, and other companies bought out by EA, who have been loyally working there for years since the start, and who probably also didn't receive any of the financial benefits from the sell-off to EA, are now going to be binned off because EA itself is just an unstoppable greedy giant.
The game industry is rapidly approaching a parallel to the film industry. Movies are productions where people sign on for the length of the production and at the end of production find a different production to work on, or are out of work. This is the key difference in looking at the games industry as a software industry, versus looking at it as an entertainment industry. As we grow into film industry "best practices" we will see contracts become shorter, but the pay will increase to compensate - unionization or a guild system will be talked about and potentially accepted to provide some of the benefits that traditional employment does. This is a huge positive for balance sheets at publishers/distributors and will be necessary for major blockbuster titles in the future. It's also reality.
Well I guess EA will be annoucing a new Eastern European Studio soon. It seems to be the trend!
