Electronic Arts is Laying Off 350 Staff Members - MMORPG.com News

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Electronic Arts is Laying Off 350 Staff Members - MMORPG.com News

Variety is reporting that Electronic Arts is laying off 350 employees out of its 9,000-strong staff. EA CEO Andrew Wilson wrote, "Today we took some important steps as a company to address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead. We have made changes to our marketing and publishing organization, our operations teams, and we are ramping down our current presence in Japan & Russia as we focus on different ways to serve our players in those markets."

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Spriggen1337

i wonder how many of these are from bioware or in relation to complaints (call centre support staff) about anthem

TEKK3N

 "We are deeply focused on increasing quality in our games and services."

Yeah, there is also a flying pig pooping shitloads of ten dollars notes all over my garden.

Scolioz

I like $10 bills

axulthrull

Spriggen1337 said:

i wonder how many of these are from bioware or in relation to complaints (call centre support staff) about anthem

I could write an essay about pertaining to biofail 6yrs and anthem. Ive been around from day -365. Long story short, they stole from me. I bought a product on false advertising. I will never buy another bioware game. Also, EA does not warrant the blame here. bioware under ben irving released a extremely broken product that did not match with their advertising. The first game I have ever bought that I feel robbed. Literally, robbed. I know I bought something but it was under false pretense. I feel robbed and that is my feeling and it is my opinion publicly that I was robbed.
Your character actually got WORSE they more you had the impression you leveled up! That is one thing out of the hundreds that they screwed us with.

The story does not even have a timeline! You meet an npc for the first time, then later, you meet them for the first time again! If they were not following the 1984 handbook on the anthem reddit because they had to enact 1984 rules because they were being called on their lies and false advertising, bioware effectively bought the anthem subreddit. If you dont think that happened even though reddit mods put in text" no affiliation"...you should start to question other things in your life as well. Just because someone says something, when it acts like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.

And to ppl who will be quickly to say, "I got my moneys worth" and try to equate it to hours played, I am happy for you. I would not wish the feelings me and many of my friends and online cohorts have on anyone. It is not a good feeling to have the feelings of being stolen from, especially when you had a hand in your own demise.

Albatroes

"Great games will continue to be at the core of everything we do, and we are thinking differently about how to amaze and inspire our players."

They probably should've laid off whoever wrote that statement.

Sovrath

axulthrull said:

Spriggen1337 said:

i wonder how many of these are from bioware or in relation to complaints (call centre support staff) about anthem

I could write an essay about pertaining to biofail 6yrs and anthem. Ive been around from day -365. Long story short, they stole from me. I bought a product on false advertising. I will never buy another bioware game. Also, EA does not warrant the blame here. bioware under ben irving released a extremely broken product that did not match with their advertising. The first game I have ever bought that I feel robbed. Literally, robbed. I know I bought something but it was under false pretense. I feel robbed and that is my feeling and it is my opinion publicly that I was robbed.
Your character actually got WORSE they more you had the impression you leveled up! That is one thing out of the hundreds that they screwed us with.

The story does not even have a timeline! You meet an npc for the first time, then later, you meet them for the first time again! If they were not following the 1984 handbook on the anthem reddit because they had to enact 1984 rules because they were being called on their lies and false advertising, bioware effectively bought the anthem subreddit. If you dont think that happened even though reddit mods put in text" no affiliation"...you should start to question other things in your life as well. Just because someone says something, when it acts like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.

And to ppl who will be quickly to say, "I got my moneys worth" and try to equate it to hours played, I am happy for you. I would not wish the feelings me and many of my friends and online cohorts have on anyone. It is not a good feeling to have the feelings of being stolen from, especially when you had a hand in your own demise.

I doubt they stole from you.

All you had to do was wait a bit to see how the game (any game) turned out.

You saw some adverts and you dove in.

The other side of that is that no game is guaranteed to be great. That's the chance you take.

heck, I purchased Dragon Aged Inquisition after liking the other Dragon Age games. Guess what? it wasn't a good game for me.

I've tried several times and I just hate it.

But that's what happens. No movie is guaranteed to be good, no book is guaranteed to be captivating and there are no guarantees in life.

And the lesson? If you are sensitive to marketing then just wait and see what others say and maybe that will help guide your decision.

Stole from you?  No.

Albatroes

Torval said:

parrotpholk said:

Likely getting ahead of the quarterly earnings call so they can show a positive profit outlook for the year and they hope to avoid the bad PR after Acti announced record profits while laying off 800.

I doubt this has anything to do with Anthem in the short term but more overall performance outside of Apex.

If Apex does well and they cut the fat from the projects/support that don't then investors will be happy. They should probably focus on Apex and their sports franchises because that is what they do well. I'm not sure why they're still trying to make RPG like games. They struggle with that.

Its not like they struggle with making actual rpg games, its that they struggle with making rpg-like games they can monetize the fk out of. This is exactly why the 'success' of Apex Legends is a double-edged sword. Sure it might actually be good for what it is and popular (for now), but companies like EA only focus on how they can recreate those profit margins, not how to create a product that can generate within the realm of those margins. Its like Jim Sterling always says about Acti-Blizzard, they make alot of money but its not enough because they didn't make all of the money.

Pher0cious

axulthrull said:

Spriggen1337 said:

i wonder how many of these are from bioware or in relation to complaints (call centre support staff) about anthem

I could write an essay about pertaining to biofail 6yrs and anthem. Ive been around from day -365. Long story short, they stole from me. I bought a product on false advertising. I will never buy another bioware game. Also, EA does not warrant the blame here. bioware under ben irving released a extremely broken product that did not match with their advertising. The first game I have ever bought that I feel robbed. Literally, robbed. I know I bought something but it was under false pretense. I feel robbed and that is my feeling and it is my opinion publicly that I was robbed.
Your character actually got WORSE they more you had the impression you leveled up! That is one thing out of the hundreds that they screwed us with.

The story does not even have a timeline! You meet an npc for the first time, then later, you meet them for the first time again! If they were not following the 1984 handbook on the anthem reddit because they had to enact 1984 rules because they were being called on their lies and false advertising, bioware effectively bought the anthem subreddit. If you dont think that happened even though reddit mods put in text" no affiliation"...you should start to question other things in your life as well. Just because someone says something, when it acts like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.

And to ppl who will be quickly to say, "I got my moneys worth" and try to equate it to hours played, I am happy for you. I would not wish the feelings me and many of my friends and online cohorts have on anyone. It is not a good feeling to have the feelings of being stolen from, especially when you had a hand in your own demise.

TLDR version: 

 

LOL

BlueThunderBear

You know if we started these layoffs at the top and left the low level employees alone we might have something here.

TEKK3N

Torval said:

If Apex does well and they cut the fat from the projects/support that don't then investors will be happy. They should probably focus on Apex and their sports franchises because that is what they do well. I'm not sure why they're still trying to make RPG like games. They struggle with that.

To be honest if you take FIFA and MADDEN out of the equation, EA would be a bang average gaming company.

Amathe

"we are ramping down our current presence in Japan & Russia as we focus on different ways to serve our players in those markets."

They are going to serve those markets better by firing most everyone who works on them? What a bunch of claptrap.

Scot

What happens when games are a product or service and not a passion? This.

Hariken

I just wish they would lose their Star Wars licensing.

sipu

We fire our staff to explore upcoming opportunities! Fucking corporate bullshit. Whoever tries to make similar excuses is just a pure dick.

FacelessSavior

Sovrath said:

axulthrull said:

Spriggen1337 said:

i wonder how many of these are from bioware or in relation to complaints (call centre support staff) about anthem

I could write an essay about pertaining to biofail 6yrs and anthem. Ive been around from day -365. Long story short, they stole from me. I bought a product on false advertising. I will never buy another bioware game. Also, EA does not warrant the blame here. bioware under ben irving released a extremely broken product that did not match with their advertising. The first game I have ever bought that I feel robbed. Literally, robbed. I know I bought something but it was under false pretense. I feel robbed and that is my feeling and it is my opinion publicly that I was robbed.

Your character actually got WORSE they more you had the impression you leveled up! That is one thing out of the hundreds that they screwed us with.



The story does not even have a timeline! You meet an npc for the first time, then later, you meet them for the first time again! If they were not following the 1984 handbook on the anthem reddit because they had to enact 1984 rules because they were being called on their lies and false advertising, bioware effectively bought the anthem subreddit. If you dont think that happened even though reddit mods put in text" no affiliation"...you should start to question other things in your life as well. Just because someone says something, when it acts like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.



And to ppl who will be quickly to say, "I got my moneys worth" and try to equate it to hours played, I am happy for you. I would not wish the feelings me and many of my friends and online cohorts have on anyone. It is not a good feeling to have the feelings of being stolen from, especially when you had a hand in your own demise.

I doubt they stole from you.

All you had to do was wait a bit to see how the game (any game) turned out.

You saw some adverts and you dove in.

The other side of that is that no game is guaranteed to be great. That's the chance you take.

heck, I purchased Dragon Aged Inquisition after liking the other Dragon Age games. Guess what? it wasn't a good game for me.

I've tried several times and I just hate it.

But that's what happens. No movie is guaranteed to be good, no book is guaranteed to be captivating and there are no guarantees in life.

And the lesson? If you are sensitive to marketing then just wait and see what others say and maybe that will help guide your decision.

Stole from you?  No.

You must have a ton of disposable income. I'm not sure where your examples line up though. How many times have you shown up at the movies to watch a western, and you got a chick flick? Would you just sit there and watch the wrong movie? Because I'd go get my money back.

The op wasn't just saying he didn't like it, hes saying they falsely advertised a product they did not intend to deliver.

That is accurate. Luckily I saw the writing on the wall and waited, but the Anthem they started hyping years ago was a drop in/drop out, open world, coop, story driven campaign. The Anthem they released is a shitty Hub Shooter. That they tried to keep concealed until the last possible moment, and were still lying about mere months from release.

People have a right to be pissed and feel taken advantage of. It's all around shady business practice.

alkarionlog

if most of these lay off are from russia, is kinda make sense, looks like russia is trying to close his internet like china do, to control his population and to make things easy for the goverment shenanigans.

but let's see what do happen, companys normally bend over to china for his 2B+ people market, I doubt russia can compete on that

Sovrath

FacelessSavior said:

You must have a ton of disposable income. I'm not sure where your examples line up though. How many times have you shown up at the movies to watch a western, and you got a chick flick? Would you just sit there and watch the wrong movie? Because I'd go get my money back.

The op wasn't just saying he didn't like it, hes saying they falsely advertised a product they did not intend to deliver.

That is accurate. Luckily I saw the writing on the wall and waited, but the Anthem they started hyping years ago was a drop in/drop out, open world, coop, story driven campaign. The Anthem they released is a shitty Hub Shooter. That they tried to keep concealed until the last possible moment, and were still lying about mere months from release.

People have a right to be pissed and feel taken advantage of. It's all around shady business practice.

Well, I invite him to give a "real" reason to why he was robbed because he didn't. I don't buy what he wrote. He can say that it was false advertising but I doubt it. I would go with "he wasn't paying attention or he filled in the blanks from what was in his head." He might not like the game, that's fine, there could be lot's of bugs which is a huge shame and shouldn't be, but that's not stealing.

As far as showing up to a "Western and getting a chick flick ... "

Years ago I saw this and it was presented as a comedy ...

wasn't the poster when I saw it "fyi"

It wasn't, it was a drama ...  I also saw crimson peak and it sure wasn't a horror movie.

Did I march up to the ticket counter and demand my money back, saying I was stolen from? No. if I was so sensitive that I seeing something other than what I thought I was going to see would send me into a tizzy, I would have waited and gathered more info.

Also, newsflash, if you see Brokeback Mountain and expect a western you will be in for a shock.

Or when Twilight first premiered and a coworker thought it was a vampire movie.

Do I have a lot of disposable income? More than some, not as much as others. But if I was on a very fixed budget you can bet your britches I would be very careful on what I spent that money on.

Though thinking about it, I'm not a really whiny person who laments every purchase I make that doesn't come to expectations. I can't tell you how many video games I've purchased that ended up being somewhat "less than." I'm ok with a lesson learned approach.

FacelessSavior

Sovrath said:

FacelessSavior said:

You must have a ton of disposable income. I'm not sure where your examples line up though. How many times have you shown up at the movies to watch a western, and you got a chick flick? Would you just sit there and watch the wrong movie? Because I'd go get my money back.



The op wasn't just saying he didn't like it, hes saying they falsely advertised a product they did not intend to deliver.



That is accurate. Luckily I saw the writing on the wall and waited, but the Anthem they started hyping years ago was a drop in/drop out, open world, coop, story driven campaign. The Anthem they released is a shitty Hub Shooter. That they tried to keep concealed until the last possible moment, and were still lying about mere months from release.



People have a right to be pissed and feel taken advantage of. It's all around shady business practice.

Well, I invite him to give a "real" reason to why he was robbed because he didn't. I don't buy what he wrote. He can say that it was false advertising but I doubt it. I would go with "he wasn't paying attention or he filled in the blanks from what was in his head." He might not like the game, that's fine, there could be lot's of bugs which is a huge shame and shouldn't be, but that's not stealing.

As far as showing up to a "Western and getting a chick flick ... "

Years ago I saw this and it was presented as a comedy ...

wasn't the poster when I saw it "fyi"

It wasn't, it was a drama ...  I also saw crimson peak and it sure wasn't a horror movie.

Did I march up to the ticket counter and demand my money back, saying I was stolen from? No. if I was so sensitive that I seeing something other than what I thought I was going to see would send me into a tizzy, I would have waited and gathered more info.

Also, newsflash, if you see Brokeback Mountain and expect a western you will be in for a shock.

Or when Twilight first premiered and a coworker thought it was a vampire movie.

Do I have a lot of disposable income? More than some, not as much as others. But if I was on a very fixed budget you can bet your britches I would be very careful on what I spent that money on.

Though thinking about it, I'm not a really whiny person who laments every purchase I make that doesn't come to expectations. I can't tell you how many video games I've purchased that ended up being somewhat "less than." I'm ok with a lesson learned approach.

Sure. We'll just ignore the documentation and lawsuits regarding false advertisement and rely on your anecdote. He shouldn't have to prove to anyone what is already readily available in the public record that is the interwebz.

Basically you're saying you wasted hours of your life on movies that weren't what you felt they were advertised as, and somehow you're taking the higher ground because you didn't ask for a refund? Lol. Yea, you're def representing the smart consumer.

Sovrath

FacelessSavior said:

Sure. We'll just ignore the documentation and lawsuits regarding false advertisement and rely on your anecdote. He shouldn't have to prove to anyone what is already readily available in the public record that is the interwebz.

Basically you're saying you wasted hours of your life on movies that weren't what you felt they were advertised as, and somehow you're taking the higher ground because you didn't ask for a refund? Lol. Yea, you're def representing the smart consumer.

great, and once again, what was the lie? I'm still waiting. It's a bold claim.

No, I didn't "waste hours of my life" on movies. See? That is you taking what I said and turning it into something that resonates with you and supports your own narrative. Did I waste hours of my life? Absolutely not. Did I see movies that were different from what I thought I was going to see? Sure! Did I play games that weren't as great as I wanted them to be? Sure! But that's not wasting my life, it's just what it was. One has to move on no?

In any case, I strongly suspect that is what he is doing. He has his own narrative and if what he sees/experiences doesn't fit into that li'l box then he goes off the handle.

Years ago, When Bioware was making Star Wars the Old Republic, (I've used this example before) one of the developers said that the combat was "epic." That it had epic combat.

A player came to these forums and said that it was a lie as the combat wasn't epic.

If there was ever a face palm moment. Someone who is proud of their work and who very well thought they were making "epic combat" said so and therefore he was lying. Not that the player had a "different opinion" but that the developer was actually lying.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sovrath

blueturtle13 said:

I mean it is not a surprise. EA does a few things that make them money. 
Spreading your payroll around to projects that are not doing as well as you would like makes little sense. 
Being a big company just for the sake of being a big company is not smart. 
Like @Torval said focus on Apex, sport titles and The Sims franchise. 
If they want to spread out do it with IPs that have a history. Like Simcity and/or Command and Conquer. 
Bioware is becoming Rare....
What once was will never be again.... 

It just feels like they aren't even leveraging bioware in a way that plays to their strengths.

itchmon

paragon > bioware when it comes to storytelling in games these  days, IMHO

gervaise1

Scot said:

What happens when games are a product or service and not a passion? This.

Very few games are made out of "passion"; devs want to eat. 

Even if a game has been "made with passion" however delivering it to you, me, and however many thousands or millions of others want to play it is - absolutely - a product / service that costs money.  

"Passionate devs" might "mortgage their houses" - which I would call gambling in the hope of a big payoff rather than passion btw - but the companies that make the servers, provide the software licenses, the banking facilities, telecoms facilities, offices, electricity etc., etc.  they want paying.  Not to mention people the company might directly employ - customer services staff, operations staff etc. 

Games are all about the product / service.

And this is what happens when products / services don't perform as expected. Whether its a game or a car model.

TEKK3N

blueturtle13 said:

I mean it is not a surprise. EA does a few things that make them money. 
Spreading your payroll around to projects that are not doing as well as you would like makes little sense. 
Being a big company just for the sake of being a big company is not smart. 
Like @Torval said focus on Apex, sport titles and The Sims franchise. 
If they want to spread out do it with IPs that have a history. Like Simcity and/or Command and Conquer. 
Bioware is becoming Rare....
What once was will never be again.... 

They did a C&C Mobile, so they are using their IP in the wrong way.

They also have Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and what they do?
They almost fucked up Mass Effect and we still know nothing about the next Dragon Age.
They royally screwed Battlefield, with a Bionic woman fighting the WW2...obviously nothing wrong with that, at all.

Apex was a lucky roll, they were actually betting on Anthem, made by the devs that should be working already on Dragon Age, which is what people actually expect from Bioware.

So, it doesn't look like they know what they are doing.

FIFA is carrying the whole company, that's the truth.

MadFrenchie

Considering Dragon Age: Inquisition was "MMORPG: The Singleplayer Edition" in the worst possible ways, I'm honestly glad Bioware isn't working on another Dragon Age.