EA Fires 10% of work force, shutsdown 9 studios

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: bl4ckfl4g

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Well its about time EA showed some strain. It astounds me that they have remained in buisness for this long churning out complete trash.

Except that I think they were doing better financially when they actually were churning out trash. They certainly aren't just churning out trash these days. That award goes to Activision.

Bullshit, activision are far better than EA are. Its crazy that some people are so quick to forget the years of garbage games just because EA got lucky with dead space and got lucky with buying out bioware just before they released an awesome game (mass effect). EA is the same lousy company they have always been.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: bl4ckfl4g

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: bl4ckfl4g

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Well its about time EA showed some strain. It astounds me that they have remained in buisness for this long churning out complete trash.

Except that I think they were doing better financially when they actually were churning out trash. They certainly aren't just churning out trash these days. That award goes to Activision.

It takes time for perception to change. Maybe all their dumps in a box finally caught up with them.

I think it is more that people like to cry for something new and not the constant retreads but when quality new stuff comes out, it is passed over for a shitty call of duty.

I hate to say it, but I think CoD:W@W multiplayer gameplay is better than CoD4. It's more balanced and not a total frag fest.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Train
thats a pretty narrowminded view. EA makes BILLIONS a year, 99.9% of the busineses out there make way less than that. What one small studio may be profiting could be a nice ROI for most people. Even if its not churning out the incredible margins that something like Guitar Hero is.

But, again: if you were given the choice between investing in the higher-margin EA and the lower-margin independent studio, you'd be a fool to invest in the latter.

And anyone who's ever worked on a programming team knows you dont just throw some developers together and have a yourself a profitable team. It takes WAY more investment to assemble a new team than it would be to rescue one from another company that is cutting an entire team.

I tend to agree - but, again, these teams weren't making EA tons of money so it's questionable how much they're really worth in the first place. Going indie is probably not going to solve that problem. Why buy something broken when you can just make your own that might not be?

I've seen a lot of startups use this strategy to save on startup costs... find a downsizing company, hire them as a group, they already know eachother, have worked together, etc. One of my early jobs as a programmer was with such a company.

Mine, too - programming for a tiny federal contractor. That company is now on its last legs, from what I understand. (Too bad, I liked working for them!) The little guy doing his own awesome independent things doesn't always win in real life.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Train
thats a pretty narrowminded view. EA makes BILLIONS a year, 99.9% of the busineses out there make way less than that. What one small studio may be profiting could be a nice ROI for most people. Even if its not churning out the incredible margins that something like Guitar Hero is.

But, again: if you were given the choice between investing in the higher-margin EA and the lower-margin independent studio, you'd be a fool to invest in the latter.

Your still missing the point. Don't you think if we had the choice we'd all put our money in the company with the most ROI out there? Makes sense right? But in reality, people invest in millions of companies every year. Every company has a point where it cant accept more investment without dropping its return.

Besides EA isnt investing more in thier higher ROI studios, they are increasing thier OVERALL ROI by dropping the lower ROI studios (and at the same time cutting costs, again boosting ROI) The are acting like a company that is more interested in manipulating a stock price for the next year than they are the long term.

And more along the lines of investment 101 (since you seem to have failed at that too) You dont buy a company based on past performance, you buy it based on what you think future performance is going to be. If an EA studio buys itself out, and becomes employee owned, are you saying they are just going to kep humming along like nothing changed? Of course not, they are going to try and GROW, and increase that ROI.

People buy companies that post 1% dividends a year. (hell they even buy companies that post NEGATIVE dividends) Why? They could get a better return from a basic savings account (and insurance) They do this because they believe they can increase that 1% dividend. Sometimes they succeed, and those are some of the most successful people out there.