EA announces more layoffs rumored to be "in the hundreds"

[Shawn Knight]

Job security has likely been a hot topic around the water cooler as of late if you happen to work at Electronic Arts. Just last month, EA handed out a round of pink slips to roughly 170 employees at the company’s Mobile Montreal studio as well as part-time quality assurance testers.

That isn’t counting the latest wave of layoffs that were recently announced in a statement on EA’s website. In it, the company said they have been aligning all elements of the organizational structure behind priorities in new technologies and mobile. As such, EA had to reduce the workforce in some locations although no specifics were given.

EA did say they were extremely grateful for the contributions made by each employee and that those leaving the company will be missed by colleagues and friends.

Polygon has pegged the number of staffers laid off to be in the hundreds. A source with knowledge of the situation told the publication that the layoffs are affecting a lot of people across nearly every division. Some departments are losing half a dozen people while others are losing dozens.

We have also learned that EA studios PopCap Vancouver and Quicklime Studio have closed down. Employees from Quicklime tweeted that all of the staff members were let go as a result of the closure. Furthermore, the company is reportedly closing its EA Partners label. Kotaku is reporting that an estimated 10 percent of the entire workforce is being let go.

Naturally, a company spokesperson declined to comment any futher.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/52389-ea-announces-more-layoffs-rumored-to-be-in-the-hundreds.html

 

[Littleczr]

I'm glad for EA. But not glad for the employees... WITH their overpriced expansion packs, and subpar sim city. About the only thing they did right was an extra game for the sim city fiasco.

 

[Fbarnett]

Everything they own they ruin.
Need for speed will never be the same
Battlefield is trash and getting worse
Medal of Honor total failure
Sims City is even ruined?
How can a company get this bad?

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

We should remember this next time we have a story about how it's ok to pirate games from those big game companies because they 'have millions of dollars.' The company may survive but it's the employees that get shown the door.

 

[hanlonconnor]

While that is a perfectly valid point, I question how much, or little pirating is involved in these lay offs. I believe gross mismanagement, over saturation of various markets, poor customer relations, decreasing video game sales, rising costs of production and marketing and their decreasing quality of games is much, much more a factor than loss of sales due to pirating.

We should remember this next time we have a story about how it's ok to pirate games from those big game companies because they 'have millions of dollars.' The company may survive but it's the employees that get shown the door.

 

[captaincranky]

We should remember this next time we have a story about how it's ok to pirate games from those big game companies because they 'have millions of dollars.' The company may survive but it's the employees that get shown the door.

EA's white collar staff made decisions as to "digital only", no physical media. And I'm guessing they're also on board with trying to stamp out the sale of used games.

With that said, I wouldn't lay the entire blame on piracy. I've always advocated boycotting corporations when they take anti-consumer courses of action. If boycott or slow sales was a factor at all in these layoffs, you'd have to say the blame rests on management. But, as with all other facets of human endeavour, s*** still rolls downhill.

Sometimes large companies simply get too aggressive with revenue projections, and fall prey to their own hype. There does exist the possibility that some of those employees weren't needed in the first place.

Everybody is usually pissed at Sony if people stop buying their product, they might initiate layoffs. So, the blame and the burden,seem to always fall on different shoulders.

My personal feeling is that consumers with highly developed senses of entitlement, might give us a moment of silence to honor those who no longer have incomes.

All that said, the business behaviour of game publishers is why I avoid gaming altogether. Well that, and I'm all to capable of wasting large amounts of money, and huge chunks of my life without it.

But you know what Mike, I am really, really sick of listening to all the BS and justifications from the "I'm entitled to everything free crowd". And I'm not of a mind to believe they weren't a factor in this also.

 

[SirDigby]

EA I think, is trying to go back to pre-2007, they fired the CEO and brought back the old one, but there are sacrifices that they need to do in order to do that. If you want games that are truly good, like Mirrors Edge, then you'll have to wait, or go somewhere else.

 

[tipstir]

Cut down the company and stop wasting so much money and focus on making better products. Otherwise you'll end up with a sign the reads 'OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT"

 

[Fbarnett]

Something is not right people not paying for games is not the problem

BF3 at over 10 million @ just $10.00 each is $100 million now add FIFA and Madden and so on
Here is a company with billions in revenue and they are failing? and most people buy the games for more money.

 

[Guest]

I feel compassion for the employees that have been impacted by EA. I still think EA is a bad company and they are there own worst enemy. I hope that all these people who leave go to or start a competitor company that makes great games.

 

[davislane1]

Something is not right people not paying for games is not the problem

BF3 at over 10 million @ just $10.00 each is $100 million now add FIFA and Madden and so on
Here is a company with billions in revenue and they are failing? and most people buy the games for more money.

Revenue is only a small part of the equation when it comes to profitability. Much more important are the expenses that reduce the final income. As you can see form their income statements (http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/ea/financials?query=income-statement), everything they're making on sales is going right back out of the door in the form of R&D, sales expenses, and so on. Essentially, they're dumping cash into development and marketing and getting no results.

Piracy has little if anything to do with this. EA is being poorly managed and will continue to lose money until they fix that problem and start putting out decent products.

 

[captaincranky]

I feel compassion for the employees that have been impacted by EA. I still think EA is a bad company and they are there own worst enemy. I hope that all these people who leave go to or start a competitor company that makes great games.

When people respond to issues such as layoffs, the benefit of the doubt is always given to the workers who have lost their jobs.

But in the real world, there are actually people who are overpaid, and unwilling or unable to do the job required, even in the face of realistic expectations.

So, any too many of these employees, can bring the work force down. To wit, "well, he takes 2 hours for lunch and is on Facebook all day, so why shouldn't I"?

Granted those at the top at in large measure useless, uninspired, and untalented parasites, who managed by luck of test score or birth, to graduate from an ivy league university with an MBA. Which face it, isn't really awarded for creativity. Half of them probably did their master's dissertation on, "how to survive, win, and shaft the other guy, in a corporate shake up".

And then there's all the reading of Machiavelli that goes on.

 

[yRaz]

I don't blame piracy at all. I hate the free crowd too, I just think many of these pirates wouldn't play the game at all if they couldn't get it for free. Ea is a horrible company, it pains me to see these people laid off, but this money isn't going back into the company, rather, its executives pockets. These guys lose their jobs because of the executives mismanagement, but the executives get bonuses.

 

[Darkshadoe]

"These guys lose their jobs because of the executives mismanagement,.."

This is the main reason. Piracy has very little or nothing to do with layoffs. EA executives made the decision to release the newest version of Sim City before it was really ready and the backlash blew up in their faces. This and some of the other unpopular choices and ideas they made put them into this situation except for a couple people who actually either were forced or accepted responsibility for EA's business problems are still collecting million dollar salaries and bonuses. This is how it has always been in business. When management screws up, blame the workers.

 

[Guest]

[FONT=verdana]News of EA's CEO giving themselves a huge bonus will be on the tail of these layoffs. Lol, wouldnt be suprised.[/FONT]

 

[DDG4005]

We should remember this next time we have a story about how it's ok to pirate games from those big game companies because they 'have millions of dollars.' The company may survive but it's the employees that get shown the door.

These layoffs are not the result of piracy; they're the consequence of bad decisions made by EA's management.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

These layoffs are not the result of piracy; they're the consequence of bad decisions made by EA's management.

yRaz, Darkshadoe, CaptainCranky... I didn't mean to imply piracy was the cause of their problems, or even significantly contributed to them. What I meant was, we shouldn't use their riches as a means to justify piracy because those riches don't really exist. People think piracy is ok because they're only taking a small crumb from a bank account full of cash. But the fact is, these companies aren't rich, and when they have to take drastic measures to survive, the employees get the short end of it.

I don't know why EA has problems... probably based on the normal things... a mix of the recession, competition and bad choices. Choices which may only be bad in hindsight too.

 

[DDG4005]

yRaz, Darkshadoe, CaptainCranky... I didn't mean to imply piracy was the cause of their problems, or even significantly contributed to them. What I meant was, we shouldn't use their riches as a means to justify piracy because those riches don't really exist. People think piracy is ok because they're only taking a small crumb from a bank account full of cash. But the fact is, these companies aren't rich, and when they have to take drastic measures to survive, the employees get the short end of it.

I don't know why EA has problems... probably based on the normal things... a mix of the recession, competition and bad choices. Choices which may only be bad in hindsight too.

Well for one thing their announcement of wanting to move to an all-digital platform in few years, or largely digital, didn't engender any good will with me. Digital downloads are convenient but I prefer to buy my games on physical media. If anything EA should move to do something different such as putting out collector's editions of games on Blu-ray for those of us that have the drives in our boxes.

 

[yRaz]

These layoffs are not the result of piracy; they're the consequence of bad decisions made by EA's management.

yRaz, Darkshadoe, CaptainCranky... I didn't mean to imply piracy was the cause of their problems, or even significantly contributed to them. What I meant was, we shouldn't use their riches as a means to justify piracy because those riches don't really exist. People think piracy is ok because they're only taking a small crumb from a bank account full of cash. But the fact is, these companies aren't rich, and when they have to take drastic measures to survive, the employees get the short end of it.

I don't know why EA has problems... probably based on the normal things... a mix of the recession, competition and bad choices. Choices which may only be bad in hindsight too.

don't worry, I wasn't addressing you directly. Just giving my two cents