Massive Layoffs Hit Electronic Arts, 1500 Employees To Be Let Go
Sad news out of Electronic Arts, with Gamasutra reporting that from now until April 2010, EA will be laying off 1500 employees. Unconfirmed rumors say that this will hit Mythic the hardest with "80 people [at Mythic] today, which is about 40% of the company and responsible for 90% of the content". The same source has also indicated that Mythic's under-performing MMOG Warhammer Online will be going into "maintenance mode," so only time will tell if that's the case.
Other rumors about this are running rampant, including one that the majority of the staff on Command and Conquer 4 will be laid off after the title is released.
Electronic Arts hasn't said anything specific about what will be affected other than their press release confirming the 1500 number, but other rumors are suggesting that several in-development titles have been canceled as part of "a plan to narrow its product portfolio to provide greater focus on titles with higher margin opportunities." Sadly, this will affect consumer choice as well, as going forward EA only intends to publish games that they expect to push a lot of sales, and, further, 2010 will only have a total of 30 releases, which is a 50% reduction from the number of titles they were responsible for in 2008.
The announcement comes just as Electronic Arts announced that they spent $300 million to buy social gaming startup Playfish.
While big layoffs are always tragic at any company, 2009 has been particularly difficult due to the economic hardships affecting the rest of the world. We at GayGamer send best wishes to everyone hit by this latest restructuring.
mixvio
Posted to Hot Stuff on 11 November 2009
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: command & conquer 4, electronic arts, layoffs, mythic, playfish, warhammer online
Boycott's working. Eat shit and die, EA.
Okay, one, what boycott and how is it working? it's a corporate restructuring, the company is still well into profit. You're an idiot.
Two, my buddy works at an EA call center and had a lot of the higher up's in his place get canned earlier this week. It'sbeen kind of rough for him.
So back to you, EA guy, fuck off.
I think regardless of what you feel towards EA as a company, these are people with families who have just lost or will lose their jobs, and grinning about that like it's something awesome is pretty heartless.