Pages: 1 2

 

2006-02-02 12:05:24
Icleos
Member
+101|6749
bizjournals.com
EA to lay off hundreds
Thursday February 2, 1:37 pm ET


The world's largest game company is becoming little bit smaller this week.
Electronic Arts began laying off 325 to 350 employees on Wednesday, or 5 percent of its workforce. The company reportedly will cut about 140 workers at EA headquarters in Redwood City, where 1,600 are employed. Most of the newly unemployed are game developers, including computer graphics artists and programmers, EA, maker of "Madden NFL" and "The Sims" said the move will help reduce costs and realign resources as the company moves through a revenue-slowing transition to new gaming consoles.

EA and its competitors have all suffered slower game sales in recent months, typical as the industry moves to adopt next-generation game machines, which happens every five years or so. Many consumers are delaying new game purchases in anticipation of the release of Sony's PlayStation3, due out later this year. Microsoft began selling its new Xbox 360 in November but supplies are still scarce.

EA will report its fiscal third-quarter earnings today. In December, EA warned Wall Street it would miss expectations with results falling "well below" its own guidance in November of earnings of $1.15 to $1.25 per share on revenue between $1.465 billion and $1.575 billion.

Company spokesman Jeff Brown has also said EA is realigning game development resources to work on online gaming, and games for mobile phones and handheld systems. EA said it would offer employees severance packages, and, for some, positions elsewhere in the company.

Published February 2, 2006 by San Francisco Business Times


http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060202/1223691.html?.v=2








Shit... 

Last edited by Icleos (2006-02-02 12:07:53)

2006-02-02 12:28:28
Matiandos
Member
+2|6692|Lappeenranta, Finland
Think like EA 101

All action must produce money, the more the better.

1. Reducing number of employees and exploiting the ones that stay for max. profit = $$$$
2. Making big promises to gain customers but never deliver, for max. profit = $$$$
3. Release all kinds of add-ons and expansion that essentialy bring nothing really original to the table but effectivly milk the franchise cash cows for max profit.  = $$$$
2006-02-02 12:36:02
(EWC)Zenine
Zibst3rZ
+1|6776
USA = Capitalism.
Global capitalism coming soon, stay tuned.
2006-02-02 12:47:43
Cyberwolf
Banned
+14|6699

Matiandos wrote:

Think like EA 101

All action must produce money, the more the better.

1. Reducing number of employees and exploiting the ones that stay for max. profit = $$$$
2. Making big promises to gain customers but never deliver, for max. profit = $$$$
3. Release all kinds of add-ons and expansion that essentialy bring nothing really original to the table but effectivly milk the franchise cash cows for max profit.  = $$$$
Try running your own successful business. Don't spew shit from your mouth with your Grade 10 education. You know little about business, and it shows. Apparently you live in a fantasy world where reality is quite obscured. Life is tough sometimes, companies go through bad times for a number of reasons. Look at other companies, all act a like. Unless of course your blind.

Last edited by Cyberwolf (2006-02-02 12:48:07)

2006-02-02 12:56:45
DarkCloud00
Member
+0|6710
Well its about time EA had to eat some shit, after all they own like every big game out there.
2006-02-02 12:57:56
usmarine
Banned
+2,785|6768

(EWC)Zenine wrote:

USA = Capitalism.
Global capitalism coming soon, stay tuned.
Interesting.......what about Dice?
2006-02-02 13:00:30
Mike_J
Member
+68|6676

Cyberwolf wrote:

Matiandos wrote:

Think like EA 101

All action must produce money, the more the better.

1. Reducing number of employees and exploiting the ones that stay for max. profit = $$$$
2. Making big promises to gain customers but never deliver, for max. profit = $$$$
3. Release all kinds of add-ons and expansion that essentialy bring nothing really original to the table but effectivly milk the franchise cash cows for max profit.  = $$$$
Try running your own successful business. Don't spew shit from your mouth with your Grade 10 education. You know little about business, and it shows. Apparently you live in a fantasy world where reality is quite obscured. Life is tough sometimes, companies go through bad times for a number of reasons. Look at other companies, all act a like. Unless of course your blind.
Really well said!  Man I get sick of the "down with the corporations," "EA is the devil," "capitolism sucks" people.  Thanks for thinking past the "oh since their goal is to make money they must be evil" mentallity.
2006-02-02 13:07:05
Cyberwolf
Banned
+14|6699
No problem. Some people are simply ignorant. They know little about the operation of a large corporation, but are very quick to pass judgement. I would happily argue with someone with an MBA who happens to be high in the chain of command of a large corporation who believes what the user said to be true. I'm sure you'd be very pressed to find one though.

The user who posted that nonesense should put himself in their shoes. Lets say your profitability, and way of life were in jeopardy. What would you do? It would boil down to the same things that happen to corporation after corporation. People have to deal with that reality.

We as consumers have the power of choice. If you dislike EA, uninstall all their games from your system and go play solitare or whatever else floats your boat. Buying the game doesn't immediately give you the right to bitch about EA. I find the game, with patch 1.2 coming to be quite excellent. Every game and company has pros and cons. If you can't handle that, feel free to leave. We won't be sorry to see you go your own way.

Last edited by Cyberwolf (2006-02-02 13:11:01)

2006-02-02 13:12:06
Jobarra
Member
+0|6688
Since when did EA develop this game?  I thought they were just the distributor

As for all the corporation BS.  Corporations are entities.  They only way they grow is to feed them money.  If they have no money to eat, they die.  It's defending itself.  Leave the cuddily wuddily little corporation alone.

*Strokes the corporation behind the ears*
2006-02-02 13:19:29
uber73
Member
+188|6759|Brisbane
this is why the euro pack is an expansion pack that we have to pay for, rather than a community bonus pack.

as i said many times, EAdollarwhores.
2006-02-02 13:21:41
usmarine
Banned
+2,785|6768

uber73 wrote:

this is why the euro pack is an expansion pack that we have to pay for, rather than a community bonus pack.

as i said many times, EAdollarwhores.
Did you ever stop to think that maybe Dice was demanding more money?  I mean do you really think the people in charge of Dice said to EA, "Hey, lets give this away for free."?
2006-02-02 13:24:46
mjw
The All Rounder
+22|6766|Rotherham, England
ea don't even make the patch, dice does, so why would EA getting rid of jobs have anything to do with the patch.
All EA have to do is take a look at it and say if they are happy with ot or not and obviously they weren't so thats why the patch has been delayed.
2006-02-02 13:34:44
AdamEcks
Member
+1|6710|Canada, Eh.

Cyberwolf wrote:

I would happily argue with someone with an MBA who happens to be high in the chain of command of a large corporation who believes what the user said to be true. I'm sure you'd be very pressed to find one though.
Arguing with someone with an MBA is like arguing with a rock, except the rock probably knows more about business. I'm in a commerce program myself and I know far to well how many stupid people their are in Business schools. You surely would be hard pressed to find someone with an MBA high in the chain of command at a large firm. People with MBAs server coffee to the people running the company. To run a large corporation you need to know how to deal with people VERY well, and you have to be able to make decisions quickly. I'm not trying to insult anyone with an MBA, I'm in business too, but it really is a worthless degree if you actually want to do something good in business. Wanna be a CEO? Take philosophy or something.

Back to the point of this topic though. People like the second poster are just plain ignorant like already said. It's not entirely their fault they hate EA though. They save up their allowance, and they save it hard. At $5/week it takes a while to come up with $50 for this game. They think that they should only have to pay $10 and that companies who look for profit shouldn't exist. The only reason any firm should ever exist is to please him. After all, he is king of the world. I hate when people click that little submit button before they actually think about what they wrote... Or maybe they just don't have the capacity to do so.
2006-02-02 13:48:09
brad2195
Banned
+-6|6726
EA is alienating a lot of their customers though..........just don't buy their shit ...............this is captialism because this is the US, but this is also a desperate ploy to try to meet earnings estimates......at the cost of idiot consumers.........people like to get fucked over.........hell the best commissions I make are people that just settle......they just want it over with and guess what they get grossed.......the people buying all of these expansions and add-ons are getting grossed.........if they enjoy it though who cares as long as they don't come back to me complaining they got screwed......it will fall on deaf ears



I just wanted to add I am very disappointed with the fact they essentially screwed the modding community over by not releasing the proper tools to do so like they claimed

Last edited by brad2195 (2006-02-02 13:56:43)

2006-02-02 13:51:13
MightyMet
Member
+2|6686|Tacoma, WA
Cheers to the level heads here that understand that companies are in business to make money.  If they do not make money they cease to exist.  Simple as that.  So it would be complete stupidity to give away things like the Euro pack for free.  You would have to be a complete jacka$$ to give away your products and if you ran a company that way you would soon find yourself out of business.  EA should do anything within it's power to make money.  If you don't like that as others have said you can speak your mind with your pocketbook.  Don't buy the products.

One exception I feel would be patches.  I think a software company has an obligation to provide patches to fix game issues free of charge.  Beyond that.  Make your money EA!

Capitalism makes the world go round.

MightyMet
2006-02-02 14:00:20
wannabe_tank_whore
Member
+5|6784

Icleos wrote:

bizjournals.com
EA to lay off hundreds
Thursday February 2, 1:37 pm ET


The world's largest game company is becoming little bit smaller this week.
Electronic Arts began laying off 325 to 350 employees on Wednesday, or 5 percent of its workforce. The company reportedly will cut about 140 workers at EA headquarters in Redwood City, where 1,600 are employed. Most of the newly unemployed are game developers, including computer graphics artists and programmers, EA, maker of "Madden NFL" and "The Sims" said the move will help reduce costs and realign resources as the company moves through a revenue-slowing transition to new gaming consoles.
They were padding their hours.

Last edited by wannabe_tank_whore (2006-02-02 14:00:44)

2006-02-02 14:04:22
2ndLt.Tucker
If you can read this, your already dead
+33|6689|Stillwater, Ok
Heh I just love how people bitch about companies and economies. I am an economic major so i understand everything a company does including why things cost more from use of different resources, change in resource prices, and yes human labor is classified as a resource and does cost money.  A business is all about maximizing profit in the most efficient manner possible.  If your not efficiently producing and a competitor is then you will eventually be bought out.  It's a cut throat game out there.
2006-02-02 14:05:15
uber73
Member
+188|6759|Brisbane
EA are gonna cash in on bf2.
am i wrong?

anyone who has played UT04 will know of the VAST amount of community support provided in after sales.  same for the IL2 games.... enourmous amounts of new planes, maps etc given FREE to the gamers who bought these games..

BF2 is one of the most MASSIVE games in the world, from THE most MASSIVE games publisher and distributor.

are you telling me that u are sweet that EA are SELLING u 3 maps and some new skinned vehicles?


come on....

Last edited by uber73 (2006-02-02 14:05:53)

2006-02-02 14:15:12
Fahrenheit
Member
+0|6786
sounds alot like most companies....graphic card developers for instance.....or CPU companies or even virus protection creators.....lets make a graph card and in 2 months release another one that is better but basically the old one with a little tweak! cos we will swallow whatever they say!......."hmmm must have the best to keep up with the times...."...i have just updated my system for the first time in 3 years...me old sys still plays all recent games but me new one will last for another 3 years...buy wisely!!!
2006-02-02 14:16:52
(T)eflon(S)hadow
R.I.P. Neda
+456|6836|Grapevine, TX

(EWC)Zenine wrote:

USA = Capitalism.
Global capitalism coming soon, stay tuned.
I hope your right!  I know you were being sarcastic, however it gives the consumer and business the most freedom. God Bless the USA.
2006-02-02 15:56:08
brad2195
Banned
+-6|6726
the only thing the US is heading for is a deeper recession..........Without question, the real estate bubble has fueled this US economy in the last several years. I am amazed at the amount of times I have heard about a friend or neighbor who decided to refinance their home, get an adjustable rate mortgage, and take cash out for some type of trivial expenditure. Why not? They would argue. I just made a 200k profit this year. This same irrational exuberance reminds me of the “paper millionaires” in the Dotcom era who pointed to their stock portfolio as a means to justify their spending. Although this spending served to fuel the economy, it also served to further fuel this bubble and send your typical consumer further and further into debt. In the future, those that can afford to pay the additional amount on their higher mortgage will have to “tighten their belt” and not spend as much money in the economy. Consequently, they will hold on to their car a couple of years longer, not frequent their local restaurant as often, and cut back on their overall spending. In turn, this will flow into the economy and we will most likely see a much needed recession as individuals refocus on savings and the re-accumulation of wealth.
2006-02-03 02:10:52
Matiandos
Member
+2|6692|Lappeenranta, Finland
To Cyberwolf and Mike_J : It might be hard to believe but I do realize that EA, like all companies need to be profitable in order to simply keep existing, even with my 10th Grade education I think I do understand that.
But what I'd like to point out is the style inwhich EA conducts business. I believe that all trade should be based on a mutual exchange that benefits both parties, between EA and its customers (us) and EA and its employees who are giving their time and talent in exhange for pay. I think I don't need to go very much into how EA treats its customer base, but here is a little on how its like to work for this company:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/busin … ssuserland

And by the way, the slave trade was a business to so thing twice before defending something without discriminatioin.
2006-02-03 02:19:46
=[4th]=SlayThem
Destroy Noob Cannons
+96|6840
Dice does the patching.
We already know why it was held back, they're fixing things liek the wallglitching.
Pardon me if somebody already said this, I didn't feel like reading the whole topic.
2006-02-03 02:31:01
dalfiuss
Member
+1|6838
I love all the fucking idiots that bash EA.  They are the biggest gaming software corporation in the world.  Regardless of what anyone says or thinks, THEY ARE IN IT FOR THE MONEY, as is every corporation.  They honestly do not care about quality, as long as the bottom line looks good, and as long as the lack of quality does not lead to diminishing profits.

That said, EA continues to put out some incredibly great games.  I am a huge EA fan and will continue to buy their products.

Does EA treat some of their employees like shit? Yes.  If you can find me a company as big as EA that doesn't, I would love to hear about it.  A large portion of EA's employees are a dime a dozen, if you cant hack it, GET THE FUCK OUT.  You dont bring in $3.2 BILLION a year by trying to be everyones best friend.
2006-02-03 04:35:27
OaksMokedBacon
Member
+0|6714|Dundee, Scotland
erm for a company to cut jobs when they are making profits in the region of $2billion + is a bit ironic. ITs all about greed and the green note in the back pocket nothing more. i think its called downsizing in the US and the excuse for streamlining is bollocks. You can cut back in other ways eg stupid director bonus's which probably = 5-6 peoples wages per director, their golf holidays. You dont have to cut jobs to save money, its jsut the easiest thing to do.  This world isnt controlled by the governments any more but by 10-20 companies. Look at Americas presidential campaign support, most of which is large corporations which suddenly get favours like reduced taxes, loopsholes inserted in enviromental policy so they dont have to clean up after themselves. Its a farce. ANyway going off topic so i'll say no more

 

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