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EA Denies Layoff Rumor

[Apr 16, 2012, 09:17 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

An unconfirmed rumor on Startup Grind states between 500 and 1000 layoffs will hit Electronic Arts as soon as this week. They have a list of factors leading to this, including general business downturns, and specific recent aspects of this like disappointing sales of Battlefield 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the expensive incremental marketing campaigns attempting to boost both games after launch. There's a follow-up to this on Develop denying this. "There are no lay-offs as such, we always have projects growing and morphing," reads a statement they received from EA, which also adds: "at any given time there are new people coming in and others leaving," but that the company "is growing and hiring, building teams to support the growing demand for digital games and services."

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48.

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 18, 2012, 08:01

Verno

Orogogus wrote on Apr 17, 2012, 19:58:
40M Steam (Jan 2012) and 9M Origin (Feb, PC Gamer), apparently. They're doing better than I would have thought, honestly, and large enough that I have doubts about whether the impulse buyers are such a significant factor. I'm sure it would for low priced indie games, but not so much for full priced games. And people seem willing to sign up for GOG, and of course Battle.net is probably bigger than Steam.

Those Origin figures are bloated, they include all free web based EA accounts and one time registrations. Valve only uses the last year of activity for theirs IIRC. GOG is a whole different market and Blizzard's ecosystem is probably heavily rooted in WoW/D2 accounts more than anything else.

Steam is the only platform that really has a thriving, active user base with a wide variety of consumer types represented and actually buying a lot of stuff. I'm not saying Origin won't get there, they've done a lot in a short period of time but its important to remember they are a rebranding and have been inflating their stats for earnings calls with shareholders.

The client is also a mediocre piece of shit but thats neither here nor there. I'm still waiting for someone do a proper DD client with a UI that isn't a disaster.




Playing: Faster Than Light, Tales of Graces F, Fire Emblem 3DS Watching: Ghost in the Shell, Hannibal, Oblivion

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Comment [quote="Verno"Apr 18, 2012, 08:01][quote="Orogogus"Apr 17, 2012, 19:58]40M Steam (Jan 2012) and 9M Origin (Feb, PC Gamer), apparently. They're doing better than I would have thought, honestly, and large enough that I have doubts about whether the impulse buyers are such a significant factor. I'm sure it would for low priced indie games, but not so much for full priced games. And people seem willing to sign up for GOG, and of course Battle.net is probably bigger than Steam. [/quote] Those Origin figures are bloated, they include all free web based EA accounts and one time registrations. Valve only uses the last year of activity for theirs IIRC. GOG is a whole different market and Blizzard's ecosystem is probably heavily rooted in WoW/D2 accounts more than anything else. Steam is the only platform that really has a thriving, active user base with a wide variety of consumer types represented and actually buying a lot of stuff. I'm not saying Origin won't get there, they've done a lot in a short period of time but its important to remember they are a rebranding and have been inflating their stats for earnings calls with shareholders. The client is also a mediocre piece of shit but thats neither here nor there. I'm still waiting for someone do a proper DD client with a UI that isn't a disaster. [/quote]

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