EA's Open Letter to Ubisoft

Alex Petraglia writes "I'd actually laugh at this if I didn't find it so disturbing. An open letter sent from Alain Tascan, General Manager of EA Montreal, to Joel Tremblay, Ubisoft Montreal, begins as such: 'On behalf of all game makers in Quebec, I urge Ubisoft to stop the illegitimate practice of forcing talented people to sign employment contracts that restrict their creative and economic freedom.' EA came under great scrutiny last year with claims of stifling employee creativity, refusing to pay for overtime, and generally engaging in less-than-savory practices. Additionally, it's widely known that EA currently seeks to gain greater control over Ubi through a hostile takeover."

Comments

Translation:

[daranz]

"Quit making decent games. You make us look bad."

E.A. was considering a hostle takeover of Ubisoft

[giblfiz]

I remember reading this not all that long ago

EA has also been moving in on gaming studios, recently buying out Digital Illusions CE (DICE), the makers of the Battlefield series, after a long dispute. More disturbing are its actions towards French developer Ubisoft, maker of the Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia series. In what the Ubisoft CEO said was a "hostile action," EA purchased about 20 percent of the company in shares, according to the online magazine GameSpot. EA declared that this was merely an "investment," and they weren't interested in a hostile takeover. Being a paradigm of corporate consistency, EA said last week that it's considering buying more shares and isn't ruling out a takeover of Ubisoft.

I pulled the above from this article:
http://www.nyunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02 /02/ARCHIVE72628

I don't know what sort of evil corprate games they are playing, but knowing E.A. they will probably manage to shaft everyone.

Open letter to EA

[Spy der Mann]

Dear EA:

Screw you!
With our best wishes,

Ubisoft.

In the game industry?

[mestreBimba]

you would rather be a consultant. At least then you are paid by the hour. 80 hour weeks for 6 months at a time while death marching to an unrealistic gold date is no fun. When I was putting in 100+ hour weeks at a now defunct game company I calculated I could make more money on a per hour basis by being a manager trainee at McDonalds.

Yes, the benefits were good.......... but nowhere near the compensation for the long hours.

Oops... I forgot to add

[mestreBimba]

there is no job security in the game indistry. Period. Top talent is laid of with impunity at the end of development cycles. I worked under a really great lead programmer who has an incredible work ethic, is very talented, and who would work 100+ hours every week to make sure we didn't slip our milestones. He has numerous credits on top titles. Last I heard he was laid off by Lucas Arts (him and the majority of the project's team) after putting in blood sweat and tears to see the project to completion.

You are disposable in the games industry. there is no job security.

Re:Instead of bitching about EA

[prefect42]

That slightly misses the point. If a geek is pissed off with EA and decides to vote with their wallet, then even though it only affects 1 game purchase, if EA piss off enough individual people, that's a lot of sales gone. So it easily could register in the thousands.

Lets put 2 and 2 together

[bherman]

This has nothing to do with EA wanting to steal away talent or Ubi having "unethical" business practices (In EA's opinion). This is about EA trying to make their takeover better for their bottom line. If EA gobbles up Ubi, they have to then deal with the employment contracts. Usually a contract has buyout if the employee is terminated. Well, if EA buys Ubi they are going to probably terminate plenty of employees to cut their costs. They can't do that efficiently if they have to pay X dollars for every employee they terminate. This is just EA trying to improve their bottom line for a takeover plain and simple. But they are doing it under the guise of being a good company.