Article written by Peter Chapman.
Published on 16/04/2012 at 09:23 AM.
There’s a report on a website called Startupgrind, quoting “multiple sources”, that EA is about to announce job cuts. Of course, none of these multiple sources, who are apparently inside EA, have been named so we’d advise caution until we hear confirmation from the company itself.
What isn’t in doubt is the less than thrilling financial situation at the giant publisher. Star Wars: The Old Republic, although very successful, has apparently under performed. Battlefield 3 had some astronomical sales figures but they were offset by massive marketing costs.
According to the sources, EA could be about to drop between 500 and 1000 of its staff. That’s between 5 and 11 per cent of the work force. The website reporting all of this also points out the expensive acquisition of PopCap and the fact that many of EA’s top employees are now working for casual games studio Zynga.
EA’s share price dropped like a stone at the end of 2008 but has held fairly steady since then.
Graph from Yahoo
Update: EA has given a statement to MCV:
There are no lay-offs as such, we always have projects growing and morphing. At any given time there are new people coming in and others leaving. EA is growing and hiring and building teams to support the growing demand for digital games and services.
Source: Startupgrind
lol dropped heaps when Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space were released. Don’t know why they were both fantastic games.
There were definitely other things bothering the stock market at the time than Mirror’s Edge or Dead Space, as much as I liked the former… ;o)
You didn’t like Dead Space?? :O
I wouldn’t go near it.
Then you are doing yourself out of a fantastic gaming experience – Dead Space is utterly brilliant.