Layoffs Confirmed at ArenaNet and EA

Job losses continue to impact the games industry as two more companies announced layoffs in their operations. The first of these companies is ArenaNet, developer of the Guild Wars franchise with NCSoft, which owns ArenaNet, stating that the resources just aren’t there to continue support for the number of people employed due to declining incomes and issues with getting new titles to market.

A message was emailed to staff by CEO of NCSoft West, Songyee Yoon, which reads:

“Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased. Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.”

Variety has reported that up to 33% of the staff may be let go, a huge proportion of the 400 currently employed by ArenaNet. Those affected will receive two months of severance pay as well as additional pay depending on company tenure.

Elsewhere EA is cutting staff at its Australian studio Firemonkeys which is responsible for the publisher’s mobile offerings like the Real Racing games and The Sims: Freeplay. Allegedly Real Racing 4 has been cancelled in light of the layoffs. While numbers haven’t been confirmed it is thought approximately 40 to 50 people have been made redundant from a pool of 200 employees.

Source: Variety/Kotaku

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From the heady days of the Mega Drive up until the modern day gaming has been my main hobby. I'll give almost any game a go.

1 Comment

  1. Let me guess, EA didn’t make extrastupidamountillion dollars thus had to sack people for not getting them it. Activision’s reason was pretty much that. EA may not have the same reason but I can see them being greedy enough to do this.

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