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EA Reorganizes Into Four Labels
Reuters is reporting that the mega-publisher EA will soon be reorganized into four separate labels underneath the company's umbrella. The four groups will be known as EA Games, EA Sports, EA Casual Entertainment, and a label simply called 'The Sims'. All four organizations will be supported by two additional EA groups, which will handle publishing and 'development services'. "The changes, based on the success of a pilot program that placed games based on "The Sims" franchise into their own unit, mean it will require fewer executives to sign off on new games or to approve launching an existing game on a different platform or in a different regions. "We ran an organizational experiment and it was pretty damn successful. The Sims grew aggressively," Frank Gibeau, head of the new EA Games unit said."
The four groups will be known as EA Games, EA Sports, EA Casual Entertainment, and a label simply called 'The Sims'.
That's odd. I would have expected the fourth one to be "Madden"
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
"The changes, based on the success of a pilot program that placed games based on "The Sims" franchise into their own unit, mean it will require fewer executives to sign off on new games or to approve launching an existing game on a different platform or in a different regions.
I guess its the bureaucracy that's been holding them back from releasing madden twice a year then? I'm definitely looking forward to madden 07.5 now!
I see, they're going to release this expansion pack that makes Sims grew aggresively...
...ea 1942. or 2142. or "we like 19-21 monitors, but won't support widescreen rez-42". i'd think that'd be a cash cow, too.
Wasn't that "pilot program" called Maxis?
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Would that just be, um, Maxis?
...but is it art?
...but I just kinda said, "Fuck it," ya know?
Easy.
Spin your "studios" off, and back into independent units with a good degree of autonomy.
Maxis and Westwood were both fantastic on their own, and produced a whole bunch of innovative and fun games. Since being absorbed into the EA empire, they haven't produced a single new idea (not to mention that C&C Generals was outright offensive)
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
You are the bane of my existence.
Those groups don't representative EA well enough I think. They probably should be renamed as:
Other then in internal upper management command chains does this really change anything? EA has pretty much already had these separations in place with few exceptions.
EA Games: EA Redwood Shores and EA LA
EA Sports: EA Canada, EA Tiburon, EA Chicago and EA UK
EA Casual Entertainment: Pogo and EA Mobil
The Sims: Maxis
Really what is the difference between what is going no now and what has been going on for years?
*bows* Why thank you, sir!
I'd hate to work for that division, unless EA promised to reallocate me within another division when The Sims loses popularity. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket... People inevitably lose interest in a game over time (even World of Warcraft perhaps).
-William Brendel
To take an existing company and split it up into smaller sections - whether spin-offs, labels, or whatever - is basically a bullshit move from the standpoint of management. If it's branding we're talking about, that's one thing. Differentiating among brands to target different markets is fine. But to actually split an organization up into separate operating units and decentralize their organizational structure is the new-age crap of the late 80s and 90s that ended up being a giant fart in the spacesuit of business.
Properly managed, a single organization can be of any size and any complexity. Good management will implement organizational decentralization as necessary, and as a corollary will also integrate management of operating units at appropriate decision-making levels to ensure optimum efficiency (management-speak would insert the bullshit word 'synergies' here).
Long story short, if EA was being managed properly in the first place, it wouldn't need to be split apart. The fact that its operating units can't be creative unless they pretend they're separate companies is a sign that the management has no idea what it's doing.
A-Bomb
Ratio of each group's developers that quit.
"I don't get it, Bob. Nobody wants to be in the group that does nothing but the Sims."
ceci n'est pas un sig.
This is really a split based on the needed qualifications of the divisional executives:
EA has had enough "employee problems" over the years so it's entirely possible that they could see this as their golden opportunity to trim the payroll with almost no downside.
My bet: EA Sims will be history in less than a year. Product being produced today will be in the discount software bin in 3 months...
From what time I've put into it, the main goal is to see how long your Sims can "hold it." Like a long car trip with the kids.
EA Pestilence, EA War, EA Famine, and EA Death
I was expecting EA Rushed, EA Buggy, EA Recycled, and EA Boring.
I can't care less how they got reorganized. Where is my new version of The Incredible Machine!
:((
If they called the Maxis division "The Sims", looks like T.I.M. isn't coming any time soon
EA Games challenges everything ;-)
TFA fails to mention that the reason for this is that the EA Bugs division was disbanded because they found out that instead of spending time carefully putting CTDs inn and unbalancing gameplay, they could simplify the whole process of bug development by just corrupting the EXE file so every time on startup it gives out a BSOD.
"A competitive activity where participants try to achieve a goal within set rules, and prevent the opponent from achieving the goal. The goal is set within the game itself."
I think a sport's a game, which I would define as (here we go) "An activity where one outcome is declared as better than another outcome, while involved in the activity"
So a playing with that paddle-elastic-ball thing would be a game (albeit not a very fulfilling one). But it wouldn't be a sport. So here's my definition:
Sport:
"A competitive game."
The skill thing is redundant, because it's in the definition of the game/sport that "skill" is defined. It's not like if you're at the office, people will be praising your ability to get a ball into a ring that's 10 feet off the ground.
For the record, reference.com thinks Sport is:
"an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc."
It also has sub-definitions, but I think the Chess is sort of tacked on as sport to make people feel good. Sort of like calling American football an intellectual activity. Sure.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
I think that shooting stuff still qualifies, because you are competing against the animal. And if you're shooting at clay pigeons, you're competing against yourself. Actually, that would make the ball attached to a paddle thing a sport.
On second thought:
Sport (n)
See ESPN
Please stop stalking me, bro.