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EA Black Box staff sent packing

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Jan 22, 2009 4:33 pm PT

At least 80 employees of Skate 2 and Need for Speed developer given walking papers; online reports put number at nearly 200.

Just before the holidays, Electronic Arts announced that it would be closing down its Black Box studio in Vancouver. At the time, reps for the company insisted that the move was a "consolidation" of facilities, with the staff of the Skate 2 and Need for Speed Undercover developer merely moving into the facilities of nearby EA Canada just outside the British Columbian metropolis.

Nearly one month later, the situation appears to have changed...for the worse. Sources within Black Box have told GameSpot that the developer has been hit by widespread layoffs, and at least 80 of its approximately 350 staffers have been sent packing. Online reports are painting an even more dire picture, with game-industry site Gamasutra pegging the number of redundancies at closer to 200--or nearly two-thirds of the studio's staff.

As of press time, EA reps had not commented on the status of Black Box. However, the layoffs would not be unexpected. In December, the Redwood City, California-based publisher announced that 10 percent of its staff would be let go, and yesterday reps for the company confirmed that Madden-maker EA Tiburon is being affected by the downsizing. EA-owned Mythic Entertainment, developer of the massively multiplayer role-playing game Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, is also reportedly being faced with painful payroll reductions.

79 Comments

  • zombieTerror028

    Posted Feb 20, 2009 12:01 am PT

    so like... who is gonna make skate 3... please tell there will be a skate 3

  • Zoomer30

    Posted Feb 1, 2009 10:35 pm PT

    Wonder where EA read that its OK to lie. I mean, why say your not gonna lay people off when you know your are? What, are you afaird people could jump ship for a better gig (any other job is a step up from EA)

  • Sir_Hobo

    Posted Feb 1, 2009 12:17 am PT

    R41N_M4K3R:
    Here in Canada we're experiencing the recession nearly as much as the US. That's WHY Black Box is going down. I know someone who got laid off in it though, and he got a load of severance pay, so it could be worse.

  • PSgamer99

    Posted Jan 31, 2009 7:16 am PT

    man, theres a few EA games i really love (e.g. burnout, dead space) and they bailed the ps3 out on the orange box, even though it wasnt as good as the pc/360 versions.
    youre right though tonyhawksP8, theyre awfully good at ruining things, and this is just horrible

  • tonyhawksP8

    Posted Jan 30, 2009 4:13 pm PT

    EA is great at ruining things, so expect more of this in the not so distant future.

  • R41N_M4K3R

    Posted Jan 28, 2009 3:12 pm PT

    too bad to see them fired at least they are in canada
    they dont have to worry about the U S economy

  • Foggel

    Posted Jan 27, 2009 6:58 pm PT

    Black Box did a great job on Skate 2. It's too bad to see them go.

  • dan4824

    Posted Jan 27, 2009 3:19 pm PT

    This is nuts! I know, people are losing jobs, which sucks, but EA is actually doing good with the NFS series. It just needs to see that CUTTING THE GAME IN HALF ON WII AND PSP IS NOT THE ANSWER! Thats the true reason that profits are down so much! Who acually wants to buy a half-game!

  • Lucarioboyx

    Posted Jan 27, 2009 12:32 pm PT

    this economy is ruining everything

  • andrew_ribbons

    Posted Jan 26, 2009 5:50 pm PT

    EA makes everything painful, even working for them. Apparently. At least other companies had the decency to do this AFTER Xmas.

  • Cranio3000

    Posted Jan 26, 2009 3:59 pm PT

    Poor people, fired because sales aren't going well and industry is screwed :'(

  • necronaux

    Posted Jan 26, 2009 8:42 am PT

    well this sucks. The economy is effecting every industry, hard.

  • msudude211

    Posted Jan 25, 2009 6:08 pm PT

    Cuts left and right. I'm sorry to hear this...

  • angelkadaj

    Posted Jan 25, 2009 12:03 pm PT

    that really sucks. I feel sorry for these people

  • blackace

    Posted Jan 24, 2009 1:24 pm PT

    It's sad that they did this just before the holidays. Looks like they just held on to a 100 or so people until after the new year and then gave them their pink slip. That sucks. One reason why working in the gaming industry isn't the best job. If you want a permanent job either work for a new hospital that just opened or one of the Top 25 colleges in the U.S. Both places rarely ever have layoffs because they always have large sums of money coming in. People are always sick and teenagers are always paying for good colleges.

  • subzero2010

    Posted Jan 24, 2009 5:17 am PT

    The same Good Words, who said :-
    In all honesty, EA does not care about their employees or what they produce, they just want the maximum profit possible, and to corner the market on independant publishers

  • subzero2010 posted Jan 24, 2009 5:01 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    subzero2010

    Posted Jan 24, 2009 5:01 am PT (hide)

    Lol - Go To Hell EA That's Suck Games It Made In 2008 Like ( Red Alert 3 - FiFa 09 - MERCENARIES 2 - NEED FOR SPEED UNDERCOVER - Warhammer Online - Spore ) And More Coming Very Bad, The Only Company In The world Go To Bad Not For Good !! I Hope it Respond to the call of reason and be good in the future

  • kuda001

    Posted Jan 24, 2009 12:11 am PT

    it looks like they are using the current economic downturn as an excuse to lay off staff, poor guys and so soon after skate 2.

  • SweetMusic

    Posted Jan 23, 2009 8:13 pm PT

    Skate is good, NFS not so much...4/10 on IGN...

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