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."

View

48 Replies. 3 pages. Viewing page 3.
< Newer [ 1 2 3 ] Older >

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 12:09

Cutter

Creston wrote on Apr 16, 2012, 12:03:
Wow, someone is finally blaming the stupid amount of money publishers spend on ADVERTISING as the possible culprit behind said publisher not making any money?

OMG

Creston

Good products and services sell themselves.




"Are you crazy? Is that your problem?" - Jack Burton

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 12:08

Jackplug

what do you expect from a company that releases a game that is knowingly to all that its not finished, but yet EA pushes it out and sticks 2 fingers up at the Battlefield community. What did they expect to happen, especially when you get one of the devs slagging the whole community off as thicko's who wont be able to understand their complex shit. Fuck em..

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 12:03

Creston

Wow, someone is finally blaming the stupid amount of money publishers spend on ADVERTISING as the possible culprit behind said publisher not making any money? OMG Creston

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 11:55

theyarecomingforyou

I wouldn't be surprised if Battlefield 3 sales were actually disappointing. I'd have picked it up had it been available on Steam - having bought and enjoyed both BF3 and BC2 - but I refused to buy it because it required Origin and boycotted Steam.

Don't forget that there are over 40 million active Steam accounts. If just 5% were to boycott BF3 that would have otherwise bought it then that's 2 million lost sales; if you were to assume an average sale price of $25 then that would equal an loss of $50 million. If their post-release support was based off those higher sales then EA could easily have been left in a position where they're forced to make greater than planned job cuts.




Core i7 2600-K (4.6GHz) \| 12GB DDR3 \| GTX680 SLI (1215/1605) \| OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD \| Windows 8 Pro Hazro HZ30Wie 30" \| Saffire PRO 40 \| Razer Mamba \| Coolermaster RP1000W SteamID: theyarecomingforyou

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 11:33

SXO

Wildone wrote on Apr 16, 2012, 11:11: Dissapointing BF3 sales?!? Are u effin kiddin me????! These days sales are graded on a curve. If a game doesn't sell as well as CoD/Modern Warfare, then it's considered dissapointing. I still remember when a game selling even 500k units was considered amazing and highly profitable. But then again, consider that a company like EA spends $100 million just to market a game, when they don't even understand gamers. So they would've had to sell at least 1.7 million units at $60 each just to pay off the cost of marketing, let alone the development costs. Combine that with the fact that EA is a massive gluttonous monster with an insatiable appettite, so the profits they expect from a game has to not only cover development and marketing costs, but it has to go far beyond to keep the beast well fed. A smarter company that understood that not every gamer is built the same would've had a much smaller budget for BF3 (no SP campaign, iterative of BF2/2142 but on the more advanced Frostbite 2.0 engine), would've made it PC exlusive, and would've targeted only those particular fans in the marketing campaign. They then would've had a sequel to Bad Company 3 that's designed specifically for the "Modern Warfare" crowd, with a modest budget that allows for a SP campaign, and smaller MP maps, and less intensive graphics (comparable to Bad Company 2).

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 11:11

Wildone

Dissapointing BF3 sales?!? Are u effin kiddin me????!

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 10:45

Cutter

Cue the Imperial March music.




"Are you crazy? Is that your problem?" - Jack Burton

Re: EA Denies Layoff Rumor

Apr 16, 2012, 10:00

HorrorScope

Who cares about a rumor like this in the general public? When/if it happens report about it. But what's the big excitement about knowing this ahead of time?

48 Replies. 3 pages. Viewing page 3.
< Newer [ 1 2 3 ] Older >