Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Electronic Arts Slashes Workforce

Posted by samzenpus on from the survival-of-the-fittest dept.

Dawn Kawamoto writes "Electronic Arts has been slashing jobs in recent weeks and according to Kotaku the size of the layoffs has reached as much as 10 percent of its workforce. The game maker says it's making the move to align its workforce closer to mobile and new technologies. For the console dinosaur that's trying to fight extinction by evolving into a bigger mobile player, this process has been a painful transition with a number of employees ending up in the tar pit - as well as its CEO."

8 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. EA is burning by Moheeheeko · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me go get my Marshmallows. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

    1. Re:EA is burning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Steam is still DRM. The fact that some people who claim to oppose DRM support Steam is rather hypocritical.

    2. Re:EA is burning by sdreader · · Score: 5, Informative

      There are some games sold on Steam with zero DRM and can run completely independently of the client, but the number of DRM-free games vastly pale in comparison to the total number in Steam's catalogue. Plus you won't know it's DRM free unless you buy it, or someone's found out and posted the info somewhere, since this fact isn't displayed anywhere on the game's respective Store page.

      I'm only pointing this out before someone else argues that Steam does have DRM-free games. Yeah it does, but it's hard enough to know what they are and since it's not common enough, it's just easier to assume they all do. And for this reason I don't use Steam... but that makes me something of a weird outsider with PC gaming, which I'm happy with.

      --
      Apparently being anti-Steam is grounds for insults, even if there's basis. I shall learn to keep my mouth shut.
    3. Re:EA is burning by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Informative

      In other words, fire the guys you've driven into burnout, haul in new ones to burn through.

      Employees aren't assets anymore. They're just means of production.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Not news worthy by BlueCoder · · Score: 1, Informative

    This is nothing new and is how any business like this should work. Laying off people is normal and healthy unless your talking about 90% of a company. 10% is nothing. It's simply makes room to try new projects and people.

  3. Not suprised by dcmcilrath · · Score: 4, Informative

    Welcome to capitalism, If you do nothing but make shitty games and piss people off until you get voted worst company in America two years running, you are going to suffer losses, or go bankrupt. (Personally, I keep my fingers crossed)

    I do feel really bad for the people who work there though :(

    --
    -1 Comment Contains Portal Reference
  4. Re:Dinosaur by LocalH · · Score: 4, Informative

    Several applications, most notably for the Amiga (although some of them also came out on other platforms like MS-DOS and the Apple IIgs). Their most notable series was Deluxe Paint, which was used for many of the 16-bit video games that were released on computers and consoles. They also released Deluxe Video (I have a boxed copy of DV3 still sitting here), Deluxe Music Construction Set. They also created the IFF file format specification, which saturated the Amiga platform (with sub-formats such as ILBM for images, ANIM for animation, 8SVX for sound samples, SMUS for sequenced music) and even lives on long after the Amiga's commercial death (AVI, WAV, and ANI formats on the Windows platform are basically little-endian IFF files with different chunk names, and AIFF on the Mac platform is also basically IFF with different chunk names and can either be big- or little-endian, but are most commonly found today as little-endian).

    --
    FC Closer
  5. The level of ignorance in this thread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Baffles me...
    EA has a large number of studios all with different cultures, processes, and management. Given the size of the company there WILL be crappy work environments. Stories about these seem to get heavily magnified by the Internet lens. I've heard way worse things about other companies, but EA being one of the largest seems the easiest to hate.
    Secondly, how long do you fund a money losing team/studio. At some point you have to pull the plug. If it was your money in the game you would've had it out way sooner.
    Nonetheless mass layoffs are really shitty and I really feel for those devs since I'm sure some where great at their job.