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EA’s just announced plans to lay off an extra 400 staff over and above the 600 redundancies it announced in October.
The sum total of lost EA jobs now planned amounts to 1,000, or 10 percent of the company’s total workforce.
The revised restructuring will result in the consolidation or closure of at least nine studio and publishing locations.
$120 million will be saved annually thanks to the plan, the publisher said today.
EA announced in October it was to shed 600 jobs, or 6 percent of its staff, following the release of Q2 losses.
Viewing 29 responses
Blerk said:
Merry Christmas, Games Industry! Ho ho ho!
patlike said:
At least I don’t have to change over that “recession” image.
GordonR said:
I’m guessing that should read “$120 MILLION will be saved annually.”
Yours, Shatner For A Day
TheDifficult3rdAlbum said:
“$120 will be saved annually thanks to the plan, the publisher said today”
Well worth doing then.
G1GAHURTZ said:
Yeah!
Business as usual in the games industry…
Jobs everywhere…
Oh no, wait a minute!
patlike said:
Added the “million” :$
Hunam said:
Fuck that’s bad news!
Nine studio’s is alot actually. Maybe The Sims 3 will save the day eh?
Truk said:
EA’s business model is broken. Plenty of developers are doing fine with a more sensible model.
Robo_1 said:
Sad, sad news. EA have really turned themselves around, Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge are two of my favourite games this gen, yet they both sold well below expectations.
If they return to milking their annual franchises, there’s nobody to blame but the consumer.
Hunam said:
That, or they paid over the odds for Bioware/Pandemic and the following financial year has just hit them when they were at their cash lowest?
Truk said:
I’m certain EA will be fine. They’ve perhaps realised their change of direction hasn’t worked as they expected, sales estimates were way too optimistic and now they’re reining things back in. Good for them.
G1GAHURTZ said:
@ Truk:
“Plenty of developers are doing fine with a more sensible model.”
Yeah, of course they are.
I suppose these 400 staff will be walking straight into new jobs along with the previous 600 and the 150+ from FRD, eh?
Oh, don’t forget the 25% of Eidos’ staff that just went…
Oh and everyone from the recent Pivotal closure..
I suppose things are fine because your company can hire them all.
airdom said:
Do anything to Skate 2 ea…and your doomed!
Truk said:
Or Frontier
Or Codemasters, or Rebellion, or Blitz, or Bizarre or or or…
You do realise those jobs might not actually be in this country, right?
Psychotext said:
Have yourself a merry little xmas…
airdom said:
mmmm Ea canada studios are hit(in vancouver that is)…wonder if anything will happen to the montreal studios
wickedman said:
Wow !this people need to have a heart,is really sad what’s happening around, people losing their jobs,is a very sad time when you supposed to be more happy.
G1GAHURTZ said:
Yeah, but I know for a fact that many of them are.
Most of the Eidos staff were from London, Pivotal from Bath, FRD from Nottingham. Of course I don’t know where the EA staff are from, but even in Canada, they employ a lot of UK staff, plus the many jobs that they have here.
“or or or…”
Somehow I can’t see the scenario where every studio in the country is suddenly going to soak up former employees of closed studios.
You are clearly a very optimistic guy, but I don’t share your optimism.
Truk said:
I see lots of things to be optimistic about.
airdom said:
”but even in Canada, they employ a lot of UK staff”
where did you get that info? as far as i know, in eastern Canada (most devs are in Montreal and Quebec City now), there really arent many UK people working here…if any.
for the last few years, schools have been making more and more gaming related programs, and they are pumping out more and more devs, but they are mostly all people from around here.
Maybe western canada is different? but i doubt it can be much different.
G1GAHURTZ said:
I know 3 people from the UK who are currently working in Vancouver.
They’re working on FIFA titles anyway, so it makes sense that they be European really, what with you guys and your lack of knowledge of ‘the soccer’. lol.
airdom said:
fuck if i care about soccer lol. Nhl09 is handled by EA Canada also, thank god!
but 3 people? thats a lot to you? hehe. i don’t know the actual numbers, but who cares right? at least those guys still have a job right now!
airdom said:
actually, FIFA games are neat, but i wouldn’t play them for hours like NHL09, and its the complete oposite for you euros hehe.
G1GAHURTZ said:
lol. Nah, those three are just the ones that I know personally who are over there, but from what I understand they do take on a lot of staff from the UK.
I always just assumed that this was because it’s difficult to find people who are passionate about football over in Canada.
airdom said:
well then why the fuck don’t they make FIFA in the UK, or anywhere else in Europe haha.
Though soccer is constantly growing in the americas, its nowhere near you guys.
DarkElfa said:
So, their plan was to buy all the studios and then run them out of business? I think that 10% cut should come from the executive ranks, starting with the CEO and board of directors.
Truk said:
“So, their plan was to buy all the studios and then run them our of business?”
Dude, this is EA.
mattrennie said:
“where did you get that info? as far as i know, in eastern Canada (most devs are in Montreal and Quebec City now), there really arent many UK people working here…if any.”
I work at EA Montreal and I’m English and there are quite a large amount of us here. Not a huge percentage but pretty big considering how far this place is from the UK…
airdom said:
I’m Jealous
but that’s good to know, thanks