EA Lays-Off 600 Employees, Expands Profit Margins
by Ian Stanfield on October 30, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Economic hardships have officially hit the previously thought to be untouchable games industry, as Electronic Arts has announced that it will lay off 600 of its employees. This comes as an effort to conserve development resources and expand profit margins, as Mariam Sughayer explained to Kotaku.
“All parts of EA have reviewed their team sizes to adjust employee numbers. The goal is to ensure we’re resourced in a way that allows us to continue to grow our revenues while at the same time keeping our costs under control and improving profitability. These changes will be announced to affected staff starting October 30.”
Sughayer continues to cite the economic turmoil that the American, and much of the global economy, has been experiencing as of late. With more gamers keeping their wallets shut, studios have been forced to cut back on expenses to simply survive.
“These are challenging economic times around the world, and it’s impossible for any business leaders to predict the future. However, EA has made good progress in improving product quality, building a holiday lineup of titles that is extremely strong, filling our new IP pipeline, and expanding our Direct-To-Consumer and online businesses. As well, our talent remains the best in the industry.”
Rumors of a massive staff cutback have apparently been circulating around EA watercoolers for sometime now, with the number being around 20% of staff, so 6% comes as as bit of a surprise. Many speculate that this cutback may be signifying EA’s change in strategy, from internal development to external. Regardless, Ripten hopes the employment fairy will be visiting EA’s newly unemployed.
Source: Kotaku
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4 Comments » |
on October 31, 2008 2:26 am
Office Space!
on November 1, 2008 10:10 pm
Using the excuse “times are hard” is bull. The gaming industry is doing great now just for the simple fact that no one has the money to travel so they go to video games for an “escape.”
And I just invested in an EA game, a GOOD EA game
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on November 2, 2008 1:00 am
I agree Whaler. The times are hard BS boils down to a bunch of investors and executives crunching numbers and looking to make the rich richer.
on November 2, 2008 1:08 am
Yep exactly, which is stupid because EA is just adding insult to injury by increasing the already bad unemployment issue we got. Just for the sake of some money, what ever happened to being humble?