EA laying off nearly 700 employees!

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ea-cutting-5-of-workforce

Wilson explained the rationale for the shift away from licensed IP in his note, saying, "This greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities — to deliver the entertainment players want today and tomorrow."

What say you fellow SW friends? Are you concerned by all these recent layoff announcements? Sony and now EA? I hope the game industry is ok.

Did Luke give a shit about the janitors when he blew up the Death Star?

Everything Wilson says is PR dribbly vomit. "we will be able to make more money fucking idiot more", is what he's actually saying.

Honestly who would want to work in the gaming industry.

Even when companies are making profits they sack staff.

Really, really shitty industry to work in.

That's unfortunate, I hope they land back on their feet

@last_lap: True but to work in it, you have skills that you can apply to other industries. Maybe these workers won't get gaming jobs next but will work on something else.

Lots of companies have been laying off people. I was talking about this with someone yesterday. It’s been happening all year long.

You'd think ditching licensed games would see potential earnings projections look very favorable. I don't think they fired these people because they'd thought it'd save them money, sometimes bloodletting like this seems like it's done for the optics of shareholders, and thus, for their stock price.

I am not concerned the least bit.

Perhaps if you are among the 700 who are laid off.

Hopefully, this doesn't affect the next Star Wars Jedi game as Respawn is now working on the 3rd game.

The gaming industry layoff purge continues to rear its ugly head. Let us hope those who are effected will get a new job elsewhere.

@onesiphorus: perhaps

fyi OG source is fudge the story a bit. aka time stamp 5 hours ahead of everyone....

Of course...

At this rate, we NEED another crash.

@girlusocrazy: While yes their skills will transfer into other industries, but you gotta think these people had a passion for making games, hence why else would work in such a volatile industry.

Anyway good luck to them.

I think most people have missed the part where they said they would be moving away from licensed IP's to focus on their own IP's. Star Wars license must be costing them a fortune.

Shameful practice.

It's why I didn't get into game development, too volatile of an industry and low pay.

Layoffs will continue until morale improves.

But yeah, the gaming sector went through a massive up in recent years and what goes up....

No. 700 employees from EA is 5% of their workforce. I don't think there will be much, if any, difference. It says they'll "move away from licensed IPs to double down on owned IPs". Doesn't sound bad to me, less bad Star Wars games is a good thing. Don't really play any of their games though, so not much difference for me.

Plus, when talking about the people who got laid off, if your previous workplace was EA, you will most likely not have any trouble finding another good job.

I don't really get why. They have to manage their company. Sometimes that involves letting people they don't need go. I can understand that giving everyone a raise and let them stay until they die would make people happier, but companies need to be managed.

Now, I don't know if this was the best way to manage the company, but so don't any of you here either.

Oh no. Not EA.

Out of all companies EA literally one of the most profitable ones with their Football (soccer) game being one of the best selling game with around 20m units moved each year and one of the biggest mtx market with Ultimate Team. Not to mention Apex Legend still somehow kicking around.

Still I kind of understand the logic I mean BF2042 bombed, Star Wars Jedi Survivor released in a horrible state and NFS unbound kind of went under the radar. Unfortunate it happened to Respawn though they are one of the best game studios these part few years with many great releases.

Which studios got hit exactly?

😬😬😬

Its canceled.

Some just don't have a clue about the real world....

lolol :P

@Litchie: It's because these decisions were just that...decisions. Management made decisions that were poor, and then the employees have to pay the price, not management.

@Litchie: Sometimes it is amusing to read "armchair" CEOs on this forum who actually know little how businesses actually work and think that profit, layoffs, and capitialism are "evil."

What a disaster these AAA game publishers are... But not unexpected... Who hasn't seen from a mile away when they started beefing up non critical elements to games like, celebrity cameos/voice acting, or the total overfocus on hyper realism, set pieces and cinema in our hobby? None of these things have made games better for you. Not one....(they don't even tell compelling stories at the price they spend on a cutscene... 😂) And so now the industry doesn't know how to put this monster back in a box other than to cut work staff and further delay and cancel games....

This is our ever competitive gaming market that's doing so well under its current trajectory? Lol.... Profits are way down... (Sonys gaming division is slated to be unprofitable in two years based on current trajectory. Can't even imagine how others are fairing...) feel bad for those who lost their jobs, but we're all partially to blame. We lowered our standards.

Whats beautiful is when a game like Helldivers comes along during this and reminds everyone that gameplay will always be king forever.

Spend some time reading up on Jack Welsh, then report back.

The gaming industry proves yet again to be completely trash to work in lol.

Gamers need to stop being stingey lol.

I heard developers at FromSoft only get paid $25,000 or so. Absolutely scandalously low pay.

I thought Bioware did well with spending the money on Voice acting, realism and cinema to tell the story..to your liking?

Hmm, I don't mind some of it when done well.

@TheEroica: Screw you. I want more cutscenes and walking sequences in my games. Gameplay is overrated. Keep that shit out of our games.😂

@Heil68: BioWare created one of the only action rpgs, stories and characters worthy of the cut scenes... Literally one of hundreds of attempts in the industry. They did not need to spend money on Martin sheen and it was a waste of budget. Voice actors where great, but none were celebrities outside of sheen. It's the gold standard baby.

Edit... Mass effect also had Freddie prize Jr and that awful Jessica chobot cameo too.... Ewww.... Waste of budget on so many levels.

Also, no one is saying games can't tell stories, have some cinematics and nurture an immersive experience through non gameplay elements.... But to die on a hill with a blown out a budget a lame story and a bunch of nothing burger Hollywood actor characters is just a bad approach on so many levels.

@TheEroica: ME1 also had Keith David, Seth Green, and Lance Henrickson as well. In all three games even.

Pretty sure they are celebs, or live-action actors without the "voice acting cred" that Mark Hamill and/or Johnny Yong Bosch have. Okay, Keith David might, but still...

@kvallyx: I hate to see that. Godspeed on those folks getting new jobs ASAP. I hope they got a good severance package.

I pay for games. Just don't have enough time to get to all of them with the huge backlog I already have. Companies need to learn to share the wealth with their labor better. It's a give and take.

Good call. Completely forgot how many celebs... I actually find it immersion breaking when I see an actors 95 percent faxsimile in the games... Would very much prefer games seek out their own voice rsther than try and be Jerry bruckheimer films... It seems like sideways movement in the industry. We play because of the power to impact the game through quality gameplay. Even Voice acting of the most exquisite kind does not impact that at all.

@TheEroica: For what it's worth, I think Bioware used the celebs well for the most part (cringe at Chobot's appearance, who replaced Emily Wong from ME1 and 2). David has that iconic booming voice and I couldn't imagine Joker's dry humor without Seth Green.

I think part of the reason for all these layoffs at big industries is the gamepass and subscription model. These big AAA titles no longer support themselves like they used to. If this was in the past, EA would make a game like dead space remake and sell 10 million copies. Now they sell 2 million copies and straight to gamepass. People know the star wars jedi game will come to gamepass at some point so they're holding out. You can see the same pattern for a bunch of games.

Gamepass is great for indies, but it's causing a reckoning in the wider industry. Even Playstation is getting impacted...I mean why pay $70 for a Playstation game when you can just play a similar game or better game on Xbox gamepass. Helldivers is one and done because there will be a game like it on gamepass soon, even a mod for halo infinite is coming.

In the subscription age you need to be small and nimble, and companies will need to take a pay cut. Personally I'm loving it.

I love the characters too and the vo work in mass effect is top notch. I do think there are voices that exist beyond the scope of celebrity status that could've filled those roles quite well though!

Also.... #Justice4Emilywong

Lmao!!

@blaznwiipspman1:

Dude, just no, GP is not to blame in fact I'm sure it helps MS. I could give you a list of 30+ big companies in all sorts of industries that have had layoffs of 20 to 100% of their workforce all in the last 12-15 months. ;o

#Bidenomics, isn't it grand. lol :P

This is a nice silver lining I guess. ;)

Mass Effect 5 Still In Production After EA Layoffs

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/mass-effect-5-still-in-production-after-ea-layoffs/ar-BB1j9u6X?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=498e7733319544938b4117dbb420a2ad&ei=41

@BenjaminBanklin: Gamers are still the stingiest bunch of consumers I can think of. I wasn't pointing anything at you or anyone specifically here, but the gaming population as a whole is so cheap-minded.

people will will spend 150 hours on a game and complain that it cost them $70 (<$0.5/hr). Movie enthusiasts will drop $30 on a 4K blu ray or $20 on a cinema ticket ($10-15/hr) regularly, just to compare similar industry.

Don't even get me started on pirates (the worst obviously) but when people think $10 is too much for a content packed dlc or refuse to buy a game they KNOW they will spend dozens of hours in until it costs $20... ugh. No wonder thousands of devs are losing their jobs.

I remember when videogames used to cost $10 million to develop they were being sold for $50. Now they cost $100 million (if not HUNDREDS of millions) and yet publishers cannot release them for more than $70 without gamers complaining.

What I'm saying is the industry isn't sustainable at all. Game dev pay will have to be cut significantly. The talent will disappear rapidly, etc. If I were good at programming, videogame development would be the absolutely last industry in my mind. You could probably get 3-4x the pay with same skillset elsewhere.

Sounds pessimistic but just look at Microsoft firing 5000, EA firing 700, Sony firing 900, etc. etc.

Soon everything might be live service microtransaction bullshit lol.

That title fills me with joy and anxiety at the same time....

You are correct.

These companies can’t wait for AI to take over so they can get rid of the ugly bags of mostly water.

That's true, and then there's the crunch when a game is near completion, and everyone is sleeping at their desk working like 18 hour days. Sounds a bit crap.

Music fans are FAR worse. MP3 allowed them to truly trash artists. Now they can only really make money through live performances, because fans stopped buying the music. For big artists you can make arguments, for the small artist though...

I feel sorry for those who lose their jobs. What is the reason for all these lay-offs not only at EA but everywhere? Has AI reduced the demand for workforce already? Are computers creating the next AAA game?