Electronic Arts To Layoff Developers
When Electronic Arts bought up Bioware and Pandemic a few days ago, some said it was good, because this would give the developers more time and money to work on games thanks to the over-watch of the mighty EA. The fact is, EA has been taken to court by employees in the past for being forced to work unpaid overtime and other unsatisfactory work conditions. EA of course has tried to strike this from the record by having its employees delete the stories from sites like Wikipedia, but all that does it make people like me mention it even more frequently. On to today’s new though…so EA is buying up all their third party developers, and supposedly fostering them with bags of money and all the time they need to make a game right? Wrong. They’re buying up these people, and then dumping them on the street.
Restructuring, layoffs forthcoming at EA, Mythic Studios
Owing to sagging profits and and a less-than-firm grip on their once invulnerable spot at top of the third party heap, Electronic Arts is looking to make some changes in their corporate structure, starting with Mythic and their Redwood Shores studio. An internal email from a trustworthy source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals that John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, has tasked every studio and company within the monolithic publisher with getting their rising costs in line with revenue, which in plain English means layoffs.
The email from Mythic VP Rob Denton was sent to all employees of Mythic and details some of the plans to reduce costs by cutting jobs as well as some actions already taken. Headcount will be managed through “attrition, performance management, stricter hiring guidelines and layoffs”. Over the next two months, the Ultima Online team will be moving from EA Redwood Shores to Mythic’s Fairfax, VA studio to streamline operations. Meanwhile, a number of employees at both studios have already been let go as of earlier today, with more to follow as EA tightens its belt in the coming months.
While this is the first we’ve heard directly of the layoffs, increasing efficiency and lowering costs in the face of falling profit margins and flat revenue can’t be achieved by just two of over 20 studios. While we were asked not to print the email in its entirety, one direct quote from the email we can show you is the following:
“Given this, John Riccitiello, our CEO, has tasked the company to get its costs in line with revenues … Every studio, group and division of the company has been tasked to review its overall headcount and adjust its organization to meet the needs of the business moving forward.”
Such an order coming from the top likely means some far-reaching consequences within the company.
The only good thing is that maybe EA is done buying up developers for the time being, but the bad news is that we have to watch them kill off development teams one by one in their downward spiral of debt since it seems more and more people are sick of being ripped off by purchasing average and below-average EA-developed games.