Rumor: EA cuts targeting Maxis, Pandemic, C&C staff
by Justin McElroy 
{ Nov 11th 2009 at 9:10AM }
More cuts are rumored to be hitting Pandemic (the house behind Mercenaries and The Saboteur) and Maxis (yeah, again). We'll keep reaching out to EA to get the official story. In the meantime, our thoughts are with those affected.
Get a WordPress.com Blog
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The Baron @ Nov 11th 2009 9:18AM
EA have clearly been playing command & conquer - everybody knows it's a good strategy to tell your employees they're gonna get fired before they finish working on a game.
Redria @ Nov 11th 2009 9:36AM
I'm sure those employees will harbor no hard feeling towards EA, and professionally construct the best product they can for their soon-to-be former employer.
chrono5577 @ Nov 11th 2009 11:03AM
Wow, I guess EA wants to go back to the days where I just really don't give a shit about their games and never buy them... Enjoy your madden guys!
SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Nov 11th 2009 9:24AM
This f*cking sucks.
It doesn't matter how you feel about any of those games. A lot of good people just lost their jobs and there is no way to justify that. However I completely understand that this was a move that EA needed to act on, even if they were not at all comfortable with it.
Best of luck to everyone.
Akio Morita ... Deader than you @ Nov 11th 2009 9:47AM
EA or any other company doesn't exist for you the consumer or the employees...they exist for the shareholders. It really is quite simple.
SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Nov 11th 2009 9:52AM
I understand that, but there are many employees who remain at EA and are very uncomfortable with this move. However as a company it seems as though this was in their best interests and to argue that is pointless.
That's like arguing with Microsoft and asking why they released a broken O/S like Vista. You'll never really get an answer, you'll just get the typical PR jargon.
t00l @ Nov 11th 2009 9:53AM
Why don't publishers just sell off their assets these days, surely that would be the more profitable avenue rather than just shutting shop?
Lord Malvern @ Nov 11th 2009 10:20AM
My guess is that they are firing all their veteran developers to pave the way for new developers with less experience that they can pay less. A very short term strategy I'd say.
elwhat @ Nov 11th 2009 10:30AM
I feel horrible for those employees getting cut, but what I just don't understand is why anyone voluntarily works for EA to begin with. (Well, maybe in this job market, but under normal conditions - I just don't get it).
Yes, they make AAA titles which looks good on a resume, but the between the (reforming) sweatshop mentality and soulless sequel rehashes they put out, the work cannot be rewarding. It seems like every time they do these big cuts it is to their more creative divisions.
Their working conditions are infamous going all the way back to EA_spouse of 2004, and an article on Kotaku pointed out that this purge cycle happens every year right after crunch time for the Christmas release (almost as if they don't like paying for the recovery time between projects).
Markusdragon @ Nov 11th 2009 2:36PM
When you work for a massive multinational like EA, you get more job secur...
Er, never mind, turns out you don't.
Evan_ARRRR @ Nov 11th 2009 11:46AM
Interestingly enough, the infamous EA spouse LiveJournal entry was posted exactly five years ago, today.
bluetev @ Nov 11th 2009 11:33AM
Does no one buy RTS games any more? First Halo wars, now C&C. And sad about Pandemic, they were good developers. I am afraid that we will end up with a few mega-titles, GTA, CoD, churning the same stuff again and again, and other developers withering away. mercenaries sold 2m but even that wasnt enough it seems. And difficult though it may seem, bioware is at risk too - Mass Effect sold just 2-2.5m, and would have cost 40-50m to develop for such a massive complex game, which means they would have lost money even after PC sales.
Noodles In Soup @ Nov 11th 2009 12:53PM
Halo Wars sold over a million copies in the US alone, and considering that it was a console only (and mediocre at best) RTS the sales were quite astonishing. It will be a huge slap in the face to these developers if C&C 4 sells well, just like it was to Ensemble.
phrank @ Nov 11th 2009 11:43AM
Aside from the fact that we will be losing a bunch of great titles, my concern about this move is that EA is at risk of becoming short sighted. Without supporting new IP's, I feel that they risk becoming insignificant in the industry over time.
How long can you run a company off of sequels? Doesn't anyone else see this?
Josh @ Nov 11th 2009 11:47AM
I've never really played that series before, but that screenshot looks fun.
please @ Nov 11th 2009 11:48AM
RTS games need an HD Wii bad. Pointing and Clicking is only good in HD
AwesomeTown @ Nov 11th 2009 11:57AM
I must be getting old. I still feel Maxis and Westwood are big players in PC gaming.
Adam @ Nov 11th 2009 4:16PM
Funnily enough, I had this thought as well.
Tim @ Nov 11th 2009 1:24PM
This makes me sad ;_;
Lobster @ Nov 11th 2009 1:46PM
Hmm.. And how many executives are losing their jobs? What? None? They're getting bonuses? Yep, that sounds about right.
Jimmyjimjim @ Nov 11th 2009 2:11PM
My feelings exactly.
Beth @ Nov 12th 2009 2:18AM
And the sad thing is they'll want to hire new people that have loads of experience for low pay. Then, there's people like me who wouldn't mind getting paid lower if we could just get a good dev job (I'm an artist) to start off with even if we didn't have any experience yet. Right now I'm working at a game company, but I'm not directly involved in the development b/c I don't have enough experience.