Sales Down, Layoffs Up For Game Industry
Perhaps EA's shedding of 1,500 employees was only the beginning of a new round of game industry layoffs. Weak November sales have punched the industry in the solar plexus, boding poorly for the holidays despite strong predictions, and companies are adjusting their workforces to compensate.
In addition to the hits taken by EA subsidiaries EA Redwood Shores, Maxis, Tiburon and, of course, Pandemic, MTV's Harmonix will be laying off 39 employees, and Atari axed its own CEO, David Gardner, replacing Gardner with his right-hand man, Jeff Lapin.
Social gaming seems to be the one neighborhood within the industry that's taking on new blood, and a rush of iPhone game development makes sense given the extremely low budgetary requirements for developing on Apple's mobile platform.
But layoffs provide opportunity - as does Quebec's gaming subsidies - so companies like Activision Blizzard and THQ are also recouping some of the molted talent:
As an example of layoffs leading to job creation, Activision Blizzard has started a new studio in Foster City, Calif., not far from where EA has its headquarters, and has hired former EA executives Glen Schofield and Micheal Condrey to run the group, dubbed Sledgehammer Games. And THQ, which laid off hundreds of developers this spring and last fall, announced it would build a game studio in Montreal, thanks to Quebec government subsidies.
Game sales have been bucking expectations all year, so December's expected robust sales are no sure thing - so get out there and support the developers you'd like to survive the winter. Or hunker down and make sure you survive, which is - arguably - more important.
As video game sales lag, heads begin to roll [VentureBeat]
[via GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 16 December 2009
Other stuff like this: game industry, layoffs, sales
