Tag Archives: ea tiburon

EA’s confirmed Madden NFL for an August 14 release. That’s the US date. There’s no announcement on a Euro version as yet.

Hit the link for a metric truckload of American football-related information. It’s easier that way.

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Following a rumour of staff cuts at EA Tiburon, company exec Craig Hagen has confirmed redundancies at the headline sports studio are a reality.

He would not say how many employees were laid off, but he said some of the reductions may have been achieved by freezing open positions. He also declined to say if severance packages were offered.

“The economy is affecting every industry including ours and we need to tighten our belts and reduce our operating costs,” Hagen told the Orlando Sentinel.

He added that between 650 and 700 people were still employed at the studio, and that the cuts would not drastically affect ongoing work on the likes of Madden and Tiger Woods.

The losses are the latest in the round of EA lay-offs aimed at cutting costs.

Gamasutra’s rumouring that EA Tiburon in the next EA studio to have suffered redundancies as part of the publisher’s cost-cutting drive.

No details of the extent of any lay-offs are given in the report.

Tiburon, based in FLorida, is one of EA’s main sports studios, developing both Madden and Tiger Woods.

The news is merely the latest in a stream of redundancy reports from EA outfits, those affected now including Mythic, Black Box, Blueprint, Pandemic and EALA.

EA plans to shed 1,000 jobs, 10 percent of its workforce, as part of an effort to shift losses from last year.

It may have “OMG!” scrawled inexplicably on its sidebar, but Gamepro can put together a pretty solid list. Today, the site rattled off its top eight most powerful videogame studios, and we mostly agree. In no particular order, Gamepro gave the nod to:

• Epic Games
• Bungie
• Rockstar North
• Maxis Software
• EA Tiburon
• Sony Computer Entertainment
• Blizzard Entertainment
• Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development

Valve, Infinity Ward, and Harmonix took home runner-up ribbons.

So, can you think of anyone who’s missing? We can’t, but we’ll probably end up face-palming and saying “duh” once you guys get to commenting.

By Nathan Grayson

According to this, lead producer David Ortiz has quit Madden developer EA Tiberon, citing family reasons. The article quotes “inside sources”, however that reckon Ortiz was becoming frustrated with the studio’s internal machinations.

“David’s been a valuable part of our team at EA Tiburon, and we wish him the best,” said EA in a statement. “Dale Jackson, an EA veteran for more than a decade, continues to lead the Madden NFL development team.”

EA Tiburon producer Phil Frazier will take over Ortiz’s role, which was producing the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Madden.