Sho_Nuff82
Member
You should read up on Big Pharma. Novartis closed 300 jobs just in Nebraska the other day.
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EA confirms layoffs [Layoffs in the 100s, Quicklime/PCV closed, EA memo leaks]
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You should read up on Big Pharma. Novartis closed 300 jobs just in Nebraska the other day.
All of this is happening yet EA is still going to completely cut out Nintendo hardware going forward. Or at least it seems to be. How do they keep justifying purposefully ignoring a significant portion of the market and one of the industries biggest players. Leaving so many potential customers and their money on the table. Business that could help toward making sure this doesn't keep happening.
You are right and wrong at the same time. Yes, most decisions a corporation makes are made at low level positions, but the decision makers are working within a decision framework created at the high level. Call them strategic directives, value drivers, whatever corporate speak is popular in your company.
For example, Low level producer on Dead Space 3 may decide and get approval from his boss to make certain online items available through microtransactions. The CEO, VPs, and board of directors have no idea this producer made this decision. However, the producer made that decision because he knows there was a corporate directive to increase post sale online revenue, and he knows his studio will receive larger bonusese if they grow their online revenue.
That producer made the decision, but the reason he made it the way he did is squarely because of the strategic focus his higher ups set for him and the incentives written into his yearly performance agreement.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
QuickLime? Aren't they responsible for Need for Speed World? Who is going to keep that running now?
What has EA done with Popcap since purchasing them? It seemed like Popcap had hit a good stride just before that, making games that appealed to both casual and core audiences like Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled, and even things like Bejeweled 3 and Bookworm Adventures to an extent. Now, from what I can tell, they mainly port their old games to new platforms and made an endless series of hidden object games. What a waste of talent.
How is that sad!? That should be a good thing. It shows, for as crazy as it might seem on the outside at times and perhaps a bit backwards, they have a good business plan laid out for themselves that seems to work for them. What sad is constantly closing studios and firing several hundred people on what seems like regular basis. A good portion of the industry is so screw up at the heart the problems seem to be the companies so many like to champion.
Hopefully that would open up some room in the various genres they used to do for other studios at least, or even some new studios.
They put out Fifa, Mass Effect 3, NFS etc and they all sold jack shit. Why bother if the fanbase buys nothing but Nintendo games.
The problems with those games and EA's actions regarding them have been discussed over and over again. Their failures are completely EA's fault. Especially Mass Effect 3 which I feel greatly poisoned the well from day one.
EA is where talent goes to die.
Rlan posted this handy list in another thread asking this very question
Rlan said:
This is a trailer for their latest game, a hidden object game on Facebook called Hidden Agenda http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlR3VH-F5wg
I have said it before, the problem is that no one actually believes Nintendo is a big player, and thus they don't waste resources on their platforms. The Wii went on to sell almost 100 million consoles, which is more than both the others, and for awhile it was outselling both COMBINED. But the problem with developers and publishers in the west is they are so focused on the newest, greatest GRAPHICAL technology and satisfying that ""Teh Wii is gayyy" crowd they bought the koolaid. And lots of gamers bought the koolaid. Then it became a self fufilling prophecy, a chicken and egg problem. The Wii was the biggest selling console of the generation, no debating it, it was destroying the other two, only bested by Nintendo's handheld, and yet the developers and publishers dragged along, laying people off, kicking and screaming into bankruptcy, closing down studios to keep chasing that COD pie. they let their budgets explode to price out the small guys, ignored last generation half the video game market and wonder why now they are all suffering.
PC and Wii gamers made alot of people rich, but it wasn't most of the legacy 3rd parties.
And now with the Wii U doing so poorly they have a good excuse to not put games on the platform. But EVEN SO, the Wii U will be at 9 or 10 million by years end for sure, why not continue to try to foster a player base, build it up. Everyone knows Nintendo plans to release their big games which will certainly drive sales. As quiet as it's been, Mario U has passed 2 million in sales, Zombi U over 100k, so games are selling, just not alot. And if I was a company I'd be sure to be there this time, once it actually does begin to sell.
The video game market is in a self induced spiral, they have purposely cut off a 3rd of their player base in Nintendo systems, still ignore PC gamers and give us shitty ports and late ports, and then instead of trying to foster new audiences they double down on the same base which got them into this mess. No matter WHAT people say, Nintendo and PC represent a significant portion of the game market, but ignoring them, releasing half assed super late ports and then blaming the PC and Nintendo gamers for "not buying our stuff" is a BS argument.
They have dug their own grave, burst their own bubbles and now people are suffering for their decisions and will continue to do so as the again, double down on the same audience which apparently can't support the industry on its own despite what they wish.
flabberghastly
Member
Ah, yes, more "headcount rationalization."
Hopefully the talented people affected by it will soon find themselves in much more amicable work environments where they are seen as more than heads to be counted then rationalized away.
Hopefully the talented people affected by it will soon find themselves in much more amicable work environments where they are seen as more than heads to be counted then rationalized away.
GungHo
Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
Because we're not sociopaths and don't actually want to see people's lives get fucked up, regardless of the impact they may have had on our choice of entertainment. I don't care if there's actually one man/woman in all of EA who fucked up all of the SimCity code. Even if he/she should rightly be fired, I still am not pleased about all the ramifications of that person losing his/her job and the impact it has on his/her family. That's not hypocrisy.
Nightstick11
Banned
You can't make an omelette without eggs. For the good of the industry, companies like EA must die.
fix't.
Kageshinzo
Member
In a perfect world, those people laid off would either be absorbed by a small or medium developer or band together to create a new company that will make games which will fill up the near absent middle-level game strata from last gen, and EA will finally wise up, stop chasing this stupid AAA/AAAA dream and actually create/publish great and creatively full games, like what they used to do in the 90s. They'd recognize Nintendo as a viable option to the hi-fi twins and actually develop new games for it.
I doubt that will happen though. But I can dream.
I doubt that will happen though. But I can dream.