18 replies to this topic

[bp9801]

http://games.ign.com.../1043422p1.html

Seems to be that after EA spent 300 million to buy a social gaming developer, they no longer have enough money to keep a few other studios open. According to the sources, EA Redwood Shores, Tiburon, Mythic, and Black Box have all been affected to some degree. Supposed to be up to 1300 employees laid off by March 2010. Says they are "restructuring" their company and saving money in the long run. Yeah but, with Tiburon being affected, how will they improve Madden each year?

Thoughts on this seemingly recent trend in the games industry?

[suchuwato]

Madden still exists?

[nickosha]

Unless those being laid off are really bad at their jobs, you'd think that taking at least some of those 1,300 employees and having them design some social networking games would make more sense than spending over $400 million to end up with some IP rights and many less employees making games. I guess that they would get the current revenue of the bought company and that the company might have some talent, but it still seems like it would take quite a while to make the decisions worthwhile. I guess that's why I'm not in business, though.

[ScapeGoat]

With an income loss of about 1 billion dollars in the last financial year, 1000 salaries are not going to make any difference.

[hardnrg]

Thoughts on this seemingly recent trend in the games industry?

The games industry has been on the decline (in terms of jobs) for several years now... I know this because I did a M.Sc. in Computer Games Technology, and the games dev job market is more fiercely competitive than ever...

I haven't been able to get a job in the games industry since graduating in Sept 2008 (I followed games industry news since 2004)

[tkrow21]

Well, more competition = better products for less $, no?

[damian]

I haven't been able to get a job in the games industry since graduating in Sept 2008 (I followed games industry news since 2004)

damn that sucks man

Edited by damian, 10 November 2009 - 04:51 PM.

[nickosha]

Well, more competition = better products for less $, no?

Some try to make better games, but some just try to aggressively market to casual gamers.

Edited by nickosha, 10 November 2009 - 05:34 PM.

[suchuwato]

Well, more competition = better products for less $, no?

This is EA... 'Better Products' isn't a concept they understand.

[bp9801]

The games industry has been on the decline (in terms of jobs) for several years now... I know this because I did a M.Sc. in Computer Games Technology, and the games dev job market is more fiercely competitive than ever...

I haven't been able to get a job in the games industry since graduating in Sept 2008 (I followed games industry news since 2004)

Thats exactly why I've switched my degree from animation to history. With animation, you're pretty limited in what you can do, especially in the games market which is what I was aiming for. With history, you can work damn near anywhere and the government is always wanting history majors.. so it was pretty easy to go back to it.

EA bought the social gaming studio to help them get more casual games to the market, its sad to say but casual gaming is becoming more and more popular. There are a ton of puzzle games and quick games that you can play for 15 minutes at a time that don't tax your system worth a dime. Its much easier to build and buy games for the casual market then it is for most others nowadays just because of the trends in the market. Who needs to spend millions of dollars on a big-budget game when it may not sell as well compared to something like Puzzle Quest or any of the Popcap games.

[feetfats]

With an income loss of about 1 billion dollars in the last financial year, 1000 salaries are not going to make any difference.

Ummm,, I'm not too sure about that,,,

I dont know what these people make but if they each take home an average of $30,000 a year then that would be $30,000,000. And don't forget all the extra costs like benefits,, insurance etc.

Now with those people gone they wont need an office for them,, or a computer, or pens, staples,,, if you dig deeper and deeper those people cost way more then just the salary.

Although that is nowhere near a billion it is a huge amount of money and it is a huge step. If they keep finding ways to reduce cost by multiples like that,, and find ways to pull in more money then ya,,, its gonna make a difference.

Edited by feetfats, 10 November 2009 - 07:34 PM.

[nickosha]

The article said that it costs $100 million to $150 million to restructure so that they can save $100 million a year.