The GFC may be easing, but even after acquiring a new developer, Electronic Arts is still trimming its workforce.
Mammoth game publisher Electronic Arts has just trimmed 1500 jobs from its books, cutting staff from across its portfolio. Included in the trim are such big name dev houses as EA Tiburon, EA Redwood Shores, and Mythic Entertainment.
Thankfully, no local jobs have been lost, so that's something to be thankful for.
The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement of EA's acquisition of Facebook game developer Playfish, so it really does seem to suggest EA's very much still looking to future, at the same time as making sure its operations are as trim as possible. The company is certainly still making money - earnings are up, thanks to the continuing success of some of EA Sports' mega-franchises.
It's particularly interesting to see that Mythic's losing staff. It's big headline title, Warhammer Online, has been hemorrhaging players since its initial launch spike, and the recent closure of all the Oceanic servers has sparked a further loss of players. Years after launch, many bugs are still unaddressed, so perhaps - in this case, at least - some of the cuts are very much performance-based. Twitters from staff suggest that up to 40 per cent of Mythic's workforce has been shown the door.
There are also rumours floating around that numerous in-development titles may be in trouble, but our local EA contact has not been able to confirm this - so take that that with a grain of salt.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012