EA laying off 1,500 in new round of restructuring

by JC Fletcher on Nov 9th 2009 3:40PM

We know at least four portions of EA that probably aren't thrilled about the Playfish acquisition. Gamasutra reports that significant layoffs have taken place at EA's Tiburon, Redwood Shores, Black Box, and Mythic divisions. Gamasutra suggests that the layoffs exceed the scope of EA's normal annual layoffs. We're attempting to verify the actual percentages with EA.

According to a tweet by Katherine Pitta, "Mythic Entertainment, responsible for Warhammer Online, just laid off 80 people, about 40% of it's employees." Former EA employee Eron Garcia estimated "HUGE chunks of EA" have been let go. Mythic has been subject to layoffs in the past, as has Need for Speed and Skate developer Black Box, which already had its studio closed last year as part of another widespread round of layoffs. Best of luck to everyone affected by the layoffs!

[Update: Approximately 1,500 people have been or will be laid off as a result of this year's cuts, EA reports in its earnings statement. Last year's "major" restructuring resulted in the loss of about 1,000 jobs.]

Source

Tags: ea, ea-black-box, ea-mythic, ea-redwood-shores, ea-tiburon, EARS, Electronic-Arts, layoffs, mythic-entertainment

Reader Comments (35)

fuck ea

Yeah, heaven forbid they cut costs to keep from going under!

Having a job is not a right, contrary to public opinion.

Yeah, and overpaying for a studio that makes crappy flash games for facebook is cutting costs?

Darth Idiot

It's a little early to determine whether they overpaid.

All four studios have released disappointments this year, so they cut back.

*sigh*

I'm going to say thing ONE more fucking time. If you work in the gaming industry, your job is NEVER secure. You go in knowing that. You would have to be a complete fucking MORON to think you've got a cushy position as lead animator for company x.

Having known quite a few people who've worked in the industry, anywhere from 60-80% of dev teams are CONTRACT based meaning NONE OF THE JOBS ARE FULL-TIME/SALARIED positions. Does that make it right to layoff people? Fuck no, but this is how the industry works. This is how companies stay profitable. This is how companies stick around. THIS IS FUCKING BUSINESS.

These people are talented. Most, if not all, will find work relatively quickly. Sure it's sad, but for fucks sake people, this is the fucking norm and these people know that.

fuck YOU, buddy. i happen to like EA and i prefer them over the incarnation of greed known as Activision.

well that sucks. best of luck to the people on the out. i also hope none come to bioware or dice. I like those two developers alot.

All four studios have released games that didn't meet their sales expectations lately. But Visceral needs staff at the moment...you would think they'd get a break.

Geeze, is anyone even left at Mythic now? This almost seems like a waving of the white flag that the studio purchase was a mistake.

It wasn't a mistake, the launch of Warhammer was handled poorly. Too many servers, with to high a faction lock out lead to too many servers being 1 sided which is what did the game in. It was no WoW, but the things it did well, it did really well, but unfortunately it was completely faction driven (meaning if the server was all evil, there was nothing evil people could do on the server because so much depended on pvp objectives.)

I blame Obama, clearly we are not getting out of this recession just yet

You're an idiot if you ever believed the government would get the economy out of the recession.

Pro tip: The DJIA spiking is NOT an indication of a recovering economy.

No but I do believe the government has lessen the blow

That's actually a bad thing. We've been trying to put this recession off since the 80's, and it finally came back and bit us, hard.

Sometimes, you've got to deal with a little pain now, in order to keep serious pain from happening later.

Actually its not a bad thing, because this administration has taken advantage of this recession to "try" to carry out their agenda,

I want my health care now bitches

Healthcare is not a goddamned right. You don't deserve shit, troll.

How about paying for something yourself, you lazy shit. It seems to work for the rest of us.

HealthCare is a damn right, the government is suppose to protect us thus our health is essential dont you think. You can go on paying for your insurance, get an illness and then get denied, basically you can go screw yourself.

Next time you start a new job, I am going to blame you for everything your predecessor did and expect you to fix it within a few months of joining.

My god, read the fracking Constitution. Health care is not mentioned in there. The government is supposed to provide national defense. Not 'FREE HEALTHCARE'

TANSTAAFL, moron. I'm not going to pay for lazy asses like you. I'll leave the country first, and watch this once great nation go to hell.

Oh good thats one less person with a 1787 mindset to deal with, I suspect you will be leaving soon, also thanks for showing your republicans colors, now I have more reason to dislike you

How funny, that you think Republican=Conservative.

Moron. I don't identify with either of your pathetic parties.

"You're an idiot if you ever believed the government would get the economy out of the recession."
"Healthcare is not a goddamned right."
"I'm not going to pay for lazy asses like you."

Sure Rush Limbaugh

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

You're both un-smart for thinking that arguing about politics on a gaming article is even remotely intelligent.

If anything, blame yourselves for not buying their damn games.

This is why I'm a communist.

Everyone on the consumer side thought that it was a bad move from the start...but, but the PR people said nothing like this would happen! (roll-eyes)

Only people I want to hear being laid off are the people responsible for putting Securom on EA's PC games. > : (

Honestly its news bits like this that make me proud to say I haven't done business with ANYTHING EA for at least two .... possibly three years, ever since they originally purchased Mythic. Somehow after that DAoC got nerfed to hell and every patch they issued from that point on felt like we were nothing more than paying beta for what they were planning for warhammer....... Nothing is quite as effective as alienating your long term fanbase that has supported your games, some since they were closed beta.

Sad to say that means I didn't buy nor have I gotten to play Deadspace or see the anime, almost bought it but put it back when the description reminded me it was "based off EAs top selling blaw blaw blaw" luckily it was on chiller at one point.

Sorry to hear the people got fired but EA is an evil corporate amoeba. Funny thing is some of my fondest memories of games from my youth were EA games ..... before everything was EA sports ...... thing cartridge games, populous you were awesome!

sorry i think you mean activision

I do find it funny how we assign human traits to large corporations, and pick allegiances depending on how "evil" we perceive those corporations to be.

Electronic Arts is a business. While I do not agree with how it conducts that business sometimes, if it operates within the law and produces products that I enjoy, what does it really matter?

I certainly feel for everyone who lost their job, especially this close to the holidays. Good luck finding new work, people.

Buy Dead Space used.. you'll be supporting the other Monster, Gamestop, not EA. :)

I feel bad for the people still playing Warhammer.

I feel bad for the people that got laid off, however I haven't liked EA for awhile now, Dead Space series being an exception. After that I think the last EA game I bought was NFS: Most Wanted and that was when it was brand new. They will rarely ever get any money from me if I can help it.

Either way I buy my games used from individuals via Amazon Marketplace and Ebay/Half.com. I'd rather someone like that get my money instead of the subpar customer service/pricing giant known as Gamestop. I refuse to trade my games in and get $2 credit (if that) so that they can turn around and flip it for at least 10 times that amount. Screw that.

Deverlopers, artists, and coders should unionize. Call it the VGTU chapter 1 local 1.1. Videro Game Tradesman Union! Keep those greedy ass automatons in check. Oh boy here comes Darth Bardwart "hurr durr unions are communist" I think freedom gives workers the right to unionize just as corporations have the right to treat their employees like shit.

Libertarianism is a disease

Looks like the cuts are at all levels. I heard from South Africa last week that the current head/president of Asia was also a casualty, along with several other senior guys in Asia. The MD there apparently let it slip to a couple of suppliers.

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EA laying off 1,500 in new round of restructuring

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