f13.net

If this message is for you, you'll know what it means: The gathering seems to be at Coastal, starting any time now.
about 1 hour ago from web

Unless I'm reading too much into cryptic status updates, it looks as though Jeff Hickman has gone as well which is a pretty senior scalp to take. Jess Folsom from the community team confirmed the layoffs on her Facebook page.

this is sad, given the non-stop effort that team has been making in the last year.  WAR could easily survive as a polished niche game, which is where it is headed.  Hopefully the good people will be picked up.

Electronic Arts has taken the ax to hundreds of employees at locations in Burnaby, Orlando and San Francisco today, according to chatter from former EA employees, issuing layoffs the same day it confirms a buyout of social gaming publisher Playfish.

Said to be affected are EA's Tiburon and Black Box studios, located in Orlando, Florida and Burnaby, British Columbia, respectively. The Tiburon studio is responsible for EA Sports' Madden, NCAA Football and Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchises, as well as its upcoming mixed martial arts offering, EA Sports MMA. Black Box has been largely responsible for the publisher's Need For Speed and Skate series.

Both developers were previously affected by layoffs over the past year as part of a previously announced restructuring plan.

Also rumored to be affected are EA Redwood Shores' quality assurance team and Mythic Entertainment. Tweets from ex-staffers at those studios indicate "huge chunks" let go at the former, approximately 40% laid off at the latter.

Rumors of Electronic Arts' plans to cull staffers began circulating last week. The cutbacks appear to have been rolled out over the course of the past few days, ahead of EA's quarterly earnings report and alongside confirmation of the publisher's acquisition of Playfish, said to be a $300 million investment in the social gaming developer.

Those cuts extend to "hundreds" of EA employees and unspecified game projects, according to tipsters.

We've contacted Electronic Arts for confirmation on the cutbacks, but have not yet heard back.

The fact that on the same day EA is purchasing Playfish just adds insult to injury. If only WAR was a Facebook app...

Does facebook have experience bars?

Way to be assholes. Piss $300 million on fucking web-game developer, then layoff an asston of people working on actual games. Fuck you, EA.

Electronic Arts Inc. on Monday announced it will cut about 1,500 jobs, and reported a second quarter loss of $391 million, or $1.21 a share, widened from a loss of $310 million, or 97 cents a share in the same period last year.

The Redwood City company (NASDAQ:ERTS) had revenue of $788 million, down from $894 million in the year-ago quarter. During the quarter, EA had a net revenue deferral of $359 million related to online-enabled packaged goods and digital content, compared to $232 million in the prior year quarter.

Excluding items, the company's revenue would have been $1.147 billion, up 2 percent from $1.126 billlion in the same quarter last year. Income would have been $19 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with a non-GAAP loss of $20 million, or 6 cents a share in the same quarter last year.

Analysts expected, on average, earnings of 7 cents a share on $1.13 billion revenue.

EA also said Monday it will close several facilities as part of a cost-cutting move that is expected to save about $100 million. The company expects restructuring charges of $130 to $150 million.

http://kotaku.com/5400594/

All that info is readily available on Gamasutra (and the Playfish stuff has even been announced in EA press releases), and yet you link to a Kotaku article...

It's amazing to me that Playfish is worth 300 million to somebody.  How do they make most of their money - by people actually micro-transing in their games or by offer advertising agreements with other companies?

Crispy Gamer: That's a good point, but here's the million-dollar question: How does your company monetize that (besides on iPhone) -- how do you make money on Facebook, MySpace and Bebo?

Earner: Great question. First, some background: We are venture-funded by Accel Partners and Index Ventures, two tier-one venture capital firms. We have $21 million in funding. We don't need to touch that money. We are highly profitable -- although I can't share our exact revenue numbers -- and the way we do it is a combination of advertising, direct transactions from players spending a few dollars at a time on virtual items or perks in each of our games, and the ability for users to complete offers for free coins.

Amongst those three things we've found quite a profitable business. Microtransactions have been getting a lot of press and hype for being the next possible business-model paradigm. Whether or not it can change journalism or the Internet remains to be told, but we know it's a highly successful business model for games, and one that serves us quite well. What's really going on here is that the last generation of online games was predicated on a person playing the game for an hour, and making a quick decision after that hour whether or not they wanted to spend $9.99 and download a casual game. That model doesn't make sense, because people have so many choices and so little time to make an impulsive decision in that hour on whether or not to spend $10.

By making the games free-to-play and virtually distributed -- socially distributed on Facebook and MySpace -- everyone gets a chance to enjoy the game. And some percentage of those people -- a single-digit number, but a good one -- over time realize that they can improve their game experience by increasing their status or leveling up faster, and they choose to spend money. And that model is an effective model with which you can have tens of millions of people playing your game every month.

RMT is profitable. Period.

Next query.

Please confirm Paul got the chop...please for the love of god

EA execs have announced they have canceled "over a dozen" game titles, although specific games were not mentioned.

Does facebook have experience bars?

Does facebook have experience bars?

Way to be assholes. Piss $300 million on fucking web-game developer, then layoff an asston of people working on actual games. Fuck you, EA.

"We are focusing on what works and what matters," Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown said in an interview.

So, their employees don't work and don't matter.  Great guy, Eric Brown.  I'd momentarily regret not taking my foot off the accelerator if he crossed the road in front of me.

I see a bigger future in browser game development than I do in old school PC game development.

Quoting someone else, PCs are going to become the MMO and casual games platform of choice. The sales just aren't there for PCs anymore (or: consoles outsell PC games easily).

Perhaps its my own "elite assholeness,"

With that many layoffs right before Christmas, it still works out as pretty Apt.

No perhaps about it.  People who look down on consoles like that miss out on a lot of good shit.

I see a bigger future in browser game development than I do in old school PC game development.

No perhaps about it.  People who look down on consoles like that miss out on a lot of good shit.

I'd do it as an MBA

I dunno, frankly, controllers just aren't very good for the kind of games I enjoy.  I find a mouse and keyboard to be superior in every game except sports games, which I think are the console's best suit.  Though, I also own a wii in which my girlfriend and I play silly party games and mario games, which are also silly fun, but not really what I would call "hobby" games.

I mean, you can make lots of FUN stuff for consoles and broswers, but its not just about fun.  I know that sounds stupid, but when you think about hobbies, most of them are more than just something you do for "fun" you get some sort of greater satisfaction out of it.  Its the difference between someone who tosses a few firecrackers a few times a year and someone who is a model rocket "hobbyist."  Sometimes in gaming we call the divide "casual" and  "hardcore" but I prefer to think of it as hobbyists and not hobbyists.

it would seem IW decided that making MW2 metrosexual will sell more copies.

Fuck's sake, hold off on laying the people off until after Christmas and stop trying to acquire your soulless way to profitability, you miserable fucks.

They really should have given Need for Speed a hiatus of a year or two, instead of "cancelling" the series with great fanfare, then shipping the fucking thing out right afterwards. Does anyone buy those games at full price/new anymore?

of course, presumably Paul is still safe? 

Cue Lum to defend  Paul in 1..2..3...

With all that is going on within Mythic Entertainment and EA, I would like to take a moment to reinforce the studio’s dedication to both our games and our players.  At Mythic, we remain committed to our games and the passionate people who play them – we’re going to continue to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing. We want to assure our community that we will maintain the same high level of customer support you’ve come to expect and continue to improve our games with an exciting schedule of patches, live events and new content.

http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=980


At least he dropped the "WAAAGH!"

I'm not gonna defend EA's firing practices, but things like "Oh god, Timmy isn't going to get anything nice for Christmas" doesn't really play into the role of pleasing investors. So let's dispense of the hippy dippy shit and focus more on facts, of which there are a disastrous few here. Playfish probably makes more money as around 50-75 people than the majority of those 1500 did (shame, but most likely closer to reality).

I guess this means I'll never open my unopened Warhammer box. 

I have a problem with EA laying off 1,500 people while spending 2 to 3 times the amount those people would have cost them for 1 year of employment on a fucking broswer-game company.

I really don't want to piss on the thread from a great height (he says, opening his fly), but this is partly due to piracy. Console piracy just isn't in the same league as PC piracy. Consoles are going to see release first because they are more profitable releases at the moment. PCs are going to go towards titles where piracy is less an issue - MMOs and browser-based games.

If PC game sales were setting the world on fire, PC games would be getting the attention. They aren't, so they aren't.

it just screams "consoles first - cut and port to PC later."

I think it's relevent because of the human factor - not the hippy dippy trippy shit, but the way something like that effects your entire workforce. Like the guys staying on. Practices like this destroy morale and ensure that the 5-star talent that you do have goes off to find a job somewhere more secure, or at the very least somewhere that they won't announce they'll be kicking you out the door 6 weeks before Christmas.

I wonder how Jacobs feels now, seeing his company ground into the dust?

No, but you're not really listening.

Do you think those who remain at EA feel safe or secure in their jobs? Really?  :awesome_for_real:

We all know that EA does the big cull every year or two. We all know that they Borg the developers that they purchase.

I know I'd go and try to find work at Valve or Blizzard or somewhere like that if I were in the industry and had the talent to do so. Otherwise I'd go get a real programming job, somewhere not in the fucking games industry.

Probably smiling all the way to the bank imagining all the blow he gets to do off of hooker titties.

Also it isn't like people quit their jobs, THEN go find a new one in these situations. I guarantee that resumes are being updated and monster.com is getting hit pretty heavily from there these days.

Apparently they have Criterion working on the next one, which means I'm back to buying Need For Speed games.

Perhaps its my own "elite assholeness," but I always put consoles in the amateur category when it comes to true gaming... ever since I played pac-man in the arcade and then picked up the pac-man cart for my 2600... that was a very sad day.

Does playing pac-man using a keyboard make you feel like a pro?  You don't sound like an elitist, just a silly fucker.

What does a keyboard have to do with his statement?

I don't think I miss out on anything since I own consoles, I just prefer PC control and feel - I have always had control issues with gamepads and joysticks, but that's on me...

Pac-man on a console made him very sad.  I'm just wondering if Pac-man on a PC was hardcore enough for him.

Everyone needs a talent.

All those people should clearly be getting together and starting studios and making "That game I always wanted to make, you know, like we hashed out 300 times over beer at the saloon* while bitching about the crap they had us working on."

>You see a row of little dots stretching to the north. There are passages to your left, right, and straight ahead.

PCs have one exclusive genre, and really only WoW qualifies as "mass market".

They're going to make us their bitch?

There are rumors swirling around that Pandemic is next.

I wouldn't be surprised. Panademic hasn't produced a since before it was absorbed into the collective.

There are rumors swirling around that Pandemic is next.

Pandemic Studios, the developer behind Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Destroy All Humans.

Kotaku reports that The Saboteur IP will be moved over to EA Montreal, the team responsible for Army of Two, Skate It, and Spore Hero.

the team responsible for Army of Two, Skate It, and Spore Hero.

What an impressive line up. :facepalm:

They're apparently doing something well enough to keep their jobs. 

They're apparently doing something well enough to keep their jobs. 

According to an internal memo obtained by Gamasutra, Pandemic founders Josh Resnick, Andrew Goldman, and Greg Borrud will leave the company. "A reduction in the work force at Pandemic" is being reported elsewhere at around 200 employees, with the remainder of the Pandemic team reporting to EALA's Sean Decker at the company's Playa Vista offices.

EA says the studio consolidation is intended to "accelerate our transformation to a direct-to-consumer digital model, and to better manage our cost structure."

Under the new model, EALA will become a "showcase for the 'fewer things better'" initiative, the memo continues, describing a "a re-invention of the Medal of Honor franchise with a new design that is simply stunning."

It's also noted that Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, who recently "transitioned out" of his role as president of Trion World Networks, has joined EA to lead the Command and Conquer brand with "a new digital model that is going to re-ignite the fan base for this franchise."

Gamasutra has some more details: (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26120/EA_Memo_Confirms_Pandemic_Consolidation_Van_Caneghem_Hire.php)
It's also noted that Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, who recently "transitioned out" of his role as president of Trion World Networks, has joined EA to lead the Command and Conquer brand with "a new digital model that is going to re-ignite the fan base for this franchise."

*sigh* Bioware had better survive EA. At least long enough for Mass Effect 3 and whatever sequels Dragon Age has coming. I can't handle a world with only East Euroepean and Japanese RPGs in it. I will get up on a tower with my +5 bow of sniping damn it!

Selling out to EA is like putting your head into the mouth of a hungry Great White Shark: you are going to get bitten, it is just a question of when.

Disagree.  Pandemic just had a problem of making games nobody gives a shit about.  EA is not to blame for their failures.

I had a friend that worked as a designer at Pandemic. Yes, they are mediocre. He recognized this based on his stories about some of their decisions that made you go "WTF?"

I can't parse your post. Your friend that worked there recognized mediocrity based on his stories about some decisions that were $)(#&*)$&#$ NO CARRIER. What?

Why would you even have that achievement in anything less than a sixteen player game?

Hey Folks,

I wanted to let you know that I've been following this thread (and the ones on Facebook), and I apologize for not responding sooner (had to wait for the answer to a question I asked folks here). Any time there is a major event like the staff reductions last week, it is a very emotional time for everyone involved, so we have to be extra sensitive about what we say. For the moment, I am still working with the Dark Age of Camelot team, and the "other Camelot-related work" I had been assigned to do that briefly took my attention away from you all has concluded. As of Monday, I started working with Mark Davis to bring him up to speed on the current state of DAoC, as well as your expectations of him.

Every team in the studio was affected by the events from last week, and as such, each team has been forced to make adjustments to their plans. Some DAoC projects have stalled and/or have been cancelled as a result (I can't go in to what those were, but most were things we had not mentioned publically). The DAoC team is adapting to these changes and moving forward. The plan is to bring frequent updates to the players (every 4-6 weeks, plus holidays), with many of those updates containing items that have been included in feedback submitted by the players.

I also want to thank you all for the concern that has been expressed for my well-being. It means a lot. happy

 
-----signature-----
Lori Hyrup
Dark Age of Camelot

I fully expect MJ is calling around to raise capital to take DAoC & UO off of EA's hands.  Believe it.  He knows they make money and are low cost to maintain.

I fully expect MJ is calling around to raise capital to take DAoC & UO off of EA's hands.  Believe it.  He knows they make money and are low cost to maintain.

MJ doesn't work there anymore remember.

ummm... I think you missed a word or a meaning somewhere?

I fully expect MJ is calling around to raise capital to take DAoC & UO off of EA's hands.  Believe it.  He knows they make money and are low cost to maintain.

So some secret DAoC projects were cancelled, but she can't tell us what they were.

I guess my hopes of anyone making a DAOCv2 are completely dashed now, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFmbGWeZrAM

You'd think someone would pull out the toner first but no.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFmbGWeZrAM

(figured this was a good enough place to post this)

Selling out to EA is like putting your head into the mouth of a hungry Great White Shark: you are going to get bitten, it is just a question of when.

There are some companies who manage takeovers that don't subsume and diminish the smaller company.

Also, I never said EA was evil. It's just that their history has shown a tendency to buy-out a studio and then erode the quality of that studio's outputs and / or strip it for parts and shut it down. A Great White isn't evil, but it is an eating machine.

...the now closed Brisbane studio couldn't get The Dark Knight game out...

If you didn't want people to know who you were, wouldn't you have to cover more than the eyes? 

Pandemic's quality such as it was, started eroding long before EA bought it in 2007.  By most accounts it sounds like Pandemic had serious internal management issues unrelated to anything EA was doing.  Mercs 2 was apparently a huge money sink that was already in development long before the EA buyout and highlighted the issues they were having adapting to the new generation of consoles, the now closed Brisbane studio couldn't get The Dark Knight game out, and Saboteur has been in development for 5 years (for three of those it had about 100 people working on it).  The only thing that EA did wrong here was to not step in earlier.

So... even at the end they couldn't come up with something new and original?

I haven't watched the video (and can't atm, from work) but I'm getting an Office Space "tribute" vibe from the posts here.

Amirite?

of all the gaming closures (including one yesterday that hasn't been announced)