@obsequies I don't think Linux needs to be stripped down to still outperform when it comes to openGL... not if the app accessing the openGL is properly coded to begin with.

All this hardware/os talk is moot though. Games are still being pumped out by substandard companies wtih AAA budgets behind them and very skilled artists to hide how utterly inadequate the other departments in the development team tend to be (design, writing, coding).

PS4 is going tro be no different than what's out there now... lots of advertising, lots of crap games, lots of fanboys thinking their casual gaming is super pro.... and a few gems that don't get the time of day in the industry they deserve because they didn't get the AAA advertising to tell everyone how awesome it really is because aa decent chunk of THEIR minimal budget had to go towards paying Sony (or Micro-Xbox) the usual licensing fee to be allowed to release on the platform (and so on with further fees for any post-release patching, DLC, in-console store hosting fees for the download-only version of the product, etc).

Let's not forget where consoles make their money... never from hardware sales. They're always taking a loss on the hardware until the unit becomes obsolete and becomes a budget system just before the next gen one comes out... it's ALWAYS from licensing their tech to developers/publishers.

@smurfa1 developers don't need major publishers these days.

Look at Chris Roberts with Star Citizen... dude hasn't made a game in ages and all of a sudden he's put his own money, and generated enough investment from the private sector and crowd funding based on his name and reputation alone.

An entire team of developers could easily do something smaller while still being very profitable (remember, no EA leaches to pay).

Of course, they have to be the kind of developers that can make something good on their own to justify that type of risk... and coming from EA, without franchise awareness and AAA advertising behind them, the quality of their work will really be the only reason they're successful.... and that should scare a lot of them, because a lot of those types of AAA developers really should NOT be making games. Look at the clowns making MoH these days... put them out at sea on their own today and they'd sink.

There's nothing to feel sorry for here.

It's a poorly run industry that continues to be run poorly. Sadly whatever happens around these layoffs... nothing will change from it

@Deadly_Nemesis

that's why things like recessions happen, the herd live in fear of big decisions so they go along to get along.

I've done it, and I've had friends do it. No security in a choice, total risk. We all ended up with better paying jobs, better conditions AND more job security (not that that anyone should ever truly rely on that sort of thing) because we had the balls to make the right decision at the right time. And the folks we left behind are still scratching their heads how we did it, and still worried about their crappy jobs with the crappy pay that they're afraid to move on from. Same industry too mind you.

There are a million opportunities in the workplace regardless of the myth of a recession... people just have to be honest with themselves. If you're motivated by money... deal with the fact that you've become a slave to the $$$.

let's hope these former employees have enough sense not to be rehired if the offer comes around.

Hell, it's about time all developers turned their back on EA. Let them make games with who they've got left.

EA have been doing this kind of thing for a long time, and it's gotten to the point that the rehired employees are just as much to blame for being rehired over and over for whatever new project they're contracted to.

Folks that really don't like how they're treated by an employer and aren't motivated by base levels of greed and a lack of integrity are willing to say NO when offered their jobs back again.

Then what happens?... the employuee with integrity finds something better and the employer with no integrity starts to struggle, the cracks start to show... and then they either crumble on their own, or the stockholders/head management/etc start dismantling sub departments.

When there aren't any employees left to ditch, then middle management go, then upper management, then you've got executives who can't hide how much they're effectively stealing from the company for doing nothing!

... just in case you thought the stereotype of fat, lazy couch potato gamer had disappeared.

for a second I read War-Z in the title thinking "well naturally, Everest is probably the only place this guy can go where people aren't pissed at him for ripping them off.

cool... now a GOTY edition will come out, and then 6 months later it'll turn up at a rather decent price during a Steam sale.

hahaha, if anyone thought for a second these guys were learning from past mistakes..

man they are so out of touch with the marketplace outside of the clowns that make up "the shareholders"

@ScreamDream that doesn't mean TD as a franchise is dead. At some point it will be resurrected yet again as a competitor against NFS/Forza.

@Avenger1324 So true, I remember that false beta experience... it was so badly organised and executed it put me off buying the game. It was obvious from that stage that they were never going to properly finish/support the game.