Mass layoffs expected at EA as the now-private publisher reportedly tells its new debt masters that it's going to cut $700 million in annual costs
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/mass-layoffs-expected-at-ea-as-the-now-private-publisher-reportedly-tells-its-new-debt-masters-that-its-going-to-cut-usd700-million-in-annual-costs/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
86 replies
The Mass [Layoff] Effect
The offices are now just a Dead Space.
Former engineers are referred to as Apex Legends.
This is great news, soon there will be no EA!
Perfect timing and a fitting fate, considering they are now owned by blood oil kings and nazi's
So no change, really.
EA died a long time ago.
It think they were talking about the undead monster one.
I know, I know and everyone defines a different time when it happened. But it's time for the zombie to.. leave.
Yet the zombie still harasses us.
Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe the last thing they would do is sell off the up to better firms.
It would be if not all the wrong people profited from it.
Wouldn't that be just the CEO, then?
I just realized I haven't played an EA game in over a decade. SW Battlefront II was the last one, and it felt like a downgrade from the 2005 version.
I mean, are there any of their titles that have made an impact in the last decade? I can't think of any other than sports and racing games.
It Takes Two and Split Fiction were published by EA.
I also played Titanfall 2 which was a great little campaign.
That's about it for me.
Once upon a time when Infinity Ward's founders left Activision because of "Activision", and formed Respawn with EA, I felt EA were still the good guys in the industry. The Titanfall games were amazing.
After APEX Legends came out, I feel EA used up most of their Good Karma that they had built in the past.
The Star Wars Jedi games are genuinely good self-contained no bs single player games.
I can't comment on anything else.
Self-contained? Don’t they require a verified online account and an internet connection?
I'm referring to the way the game lets you earn everything. There is no upsell after you buy the game. If you want something from the game, you get it by playing.
I don't believe so, but don't quote me on that, haven't played either in a very long time.
(EA has a habit of adding such requirements many years after the game was made, btw).
They are incredible, but they came out two decades ago and everyone who worked on them is long gone, nothing morally gray about pirating them...
What games are you thinking of?
Fallen Order is 2019 and Survivor is 2024. I'm specifically commenting on recent EA games.
Star Wars Jedi is the title of this most recent series by Respawn, currently with two entries.
I was gonna throw Star Wars Outlaws in there, but surprisingly that one was ubisoft.
Their new owners pretty much only care about the sports games
I got Madden last year so I could get my kid into football. Figured if there was a video game, he'd be interested in learning more about the game, and it worked. Having said that, I'm not buying any new ones for updated rosters, so they won't be seeing another dime from me.
Battlefield 6 is a new one that comes to mind - heard good things, might try it in the "perpetual demo" mode
I was looking at that recently as well, but saw the reviews are at mixed now…
All the more reason to go sailing
"We're going to have AI write all the games now"
~ some exec
AI told me we can do it!
They're not a game company anymore. It's getting the Toys R Us treatment. They're a debt vehicle. They're gonna borrow against its value, place all the debt into EA while pocketing the cash, and let it die.
If we're lucky, they'll sell off the studios and IP before cutting it loose.
In this whole ordeal that has been EA ... I can't remember a single instance where they tried to do the right thing by listening to the consumer, or employees for that matter.
It's amazing they are still around even. Die quicker pls.
The sheer power of licensing hey
They own the rights to madden and college game day, those two alone can keep the doors open
Fifa games...
And Madden, EA Sports, it’s in the game
Oligarchs oligarching. Every “publisher” and “developer” is firing everyone and are gonna very quickly vanish once it’s remembered that perpetual motion is impossible.
Private Equity 101, "buy" a business using borrowed money, put all the debt on the company you "bought", slash costs, sell off assets, have the company declare bankruptcy and take all the debt with it, rince and repeat... Profit.
Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why this is legal
And as if that wasn't an insult to the middle class, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos can borrow against their stock holdings as if they were real assets, yet never be taxed on the value. But if you borrow against the value of your house, YOU get taxed on that value.
It makes rich people richer
It doesn’t though it’s just another way of lying about the math. Line goes up because it’s doesn’t actually represent what it’s supposed to.
Well when you say it like that it just sounds dumb.
Can't wait for them to destroy it like they destroyed their golf league.
People are still buying EA:s unfinished games? Wow.
I admit that they got me a few times, but I quickly learned not to buy from them again.
The sports games keep the lights on.
Sims is also an absolute juggernaut in very different circles from Madden and FIFA
But what was the last time you bought a finished game? PS2?
I never forgot how EA destroyed battle field
EA sucks ass, hopefully this is the beginning of the end.
EA, it's in the grave.
Good. EA died to me after the end of the BIG and "challange everything" era. After that it was just releasing another Madden every year with zero changes. The death of EA will bring in the golden age of indie development and since im finally making the switch to PC I cannot wait
Yah, i expect not to buy anymore EA games. They had a good run i guess.
Mind you I haven't played many anyway lately.
A good run that ended a long time ago
At least 25 years ago.
So which studios will die this time?
All.
My only hope is EA dies soon and some other devs take up and resurrect ME and DA
Honestly like why? I don't believe either property really needs to continue. Why must everything be an IP.. those games are OLD.. the good ones at least. Let it die.
Mass Effect was really just Bioware not wanting to pay for Star Wars again. Why not do the same and make a new Mass Effect worthy IP?
The trilogy told the story. Andromeda didnt really add much.
Yea, there's still so much to that universe besides the whole bad guy ending the galaxy stick.
Someone just has to make an rpg of the expanse series.
Unfortunately I'm pretty sure all this will lead to now they they aren't beholden to quarterly growth but rather can become a sustained money printer is cutting anything except the sims, battlefield, and their sports cash cows, and recycling those every year even more than they do now, since people regularly buy those every time a new version (or in the case of the sims expansion) is released
Someone should make a Freespace RPG. It's the same story, but since there wasn't a Freespace 3 they never screwed up the ending.
I'm shocked... /s
Just trimming some fat (and a leg or two)
Hopefully they will combine the company with Neom so a future romantic poet finds the ruins amid the sands and wonders at the hubris of it.
Fuck yourself EA. Wouldn't buy any more shit from you. Actually I don't buy us-american stuff at all anymore. Except indie-games.
EA is Saudi now.
Doesn't make it any better...from one slave-country to another.
They'll only make sports games, that's the reliable cash cow.
Been playing Electronic Arts games since the 1980’s.
Even if they are a shit company, Nice knowing ya.
They didn't waste any time, did they?
🤞please sell off BioWare so i can play Mass Effect again.
Nothing’s stopping you from playing mass effect.
Why does everyone want sequels so badly? Are you all so attached to your nostalgia?
The majority of the series was great, but ME3 left a fair bit of unanswered questions at the end and Andromeda only added them.
I'd want a sequel because personally the series still feels unfinished
Without more content, the franchise will die.
Found Jared Kushner.
Last EA game I played was Skate and that shit was free.
And nothing of real value to gamers will be lost.
Once again, the fucking suits.
Trump fail son in law and journalist murderer
Fuck EA they've been shit forever.
Saw this coming when the 90% off NFS sale started on Steam
I remember in the before times. When EA made decent games and we were all young, full of hope for the future, life and love were new.