Video Game Crash 2.0 Continues: EA Lays Off 5% of Workforce

Thread: Video Game Crash 2.0 Continues: EA Lays Off 5% of Workforce
Spiders

Spiders

Come for the titties, stay for the ass
 
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GameIndustry.Biz article:
www.gamesindustry.biz

EA cutting 5% of workforce

Electronic Arts today announced that it is laying off approximately 5% of its employees as it leans in on the parts of …
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

Cocksuck dribble from the CEO post layoff announcement:
www.ea.com

Continuing to evolve our business and teams

An update on our business from CEO Andrew Wilson
www.ea.com www.ea.com


Top-down industry collapse, at least from a job perspective.

What's actually going on? Bills arriving on COVID hiring practices? DEI fuckery? Has the cost of games and the risk profile for big-budget projects become untenable?

Let's discuss, D-Heads.
 
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It's really something that the hobby has never been bigger, and the biggest industry players are failing spectacularly. The cynical part of me is happy to watch it burn, but the optimist in me hopes this can kickstart a wave of talent into AA and independent development.
 
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Simply put, this level of hiring, expenditure and doubling down on live service elements means there is simply no room for failure of any big budget title. The market is massively oversaturated already.

Though, I must say, given the sheer size of EA and the draw of specific properties, such as EA Sports FC, Madden and others, how are they feeling the pinch? This very well could be a workforce reduction in preparation for something larger.

I do believe we are seeing a market correction, though much like yourself @Spiders I do hope we see the next generation of independent developers arise from this mess.
 
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Article:
According to an IGN report, Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars first-person shooter was canceled as a result of the reorganization, and the 2022-established Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games has been shut down, with some of its staff folded into sister Battlefield studio Ripple Effect. Danny Isaac and Darren White at Criterion will oversee single-player work on the series going forward. Work on the next Star Wars Jedi game remains underway.
 
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Grinchy said:
Let's start getting some 2-3 year lower budget games that put ideas and gameplay first, textures and lighting second.
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They kind of do? Unravel, It Takes Two, they just put out Zau. I guess you mean like that "AA" tier and boldness that put out Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, etc.?
 
Combination of covid as well as swelling game budgets and lack of return

The whole industry is shifting towards mobile as its smaller/cheaper and you get more of an audience
 
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Spiders said:
They kind of do? Unravel, It Takes Two, they just put out Zau. I guess you mean like that "AA" tier and boldness that put out Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, etc.?
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Yeah maybe EA is on the ball with that, but that was a more general sentiment about the "Video Game Crash 2.0" situation we're seeing. All these companies are spending 5-10 years making a single fucking game and it has ruined an entire generation. If they spend that long, not only does it have to be the safest made-by-committee game ever, but it's also most likely going to underwhelm anyway. So all that time was just wasted.
 
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It's sort of a perfect example of the assholery afoot when Helldivers 2 is the best game Sony has released in years and it had very little fanfare and hype. I think these companies keep thinking that everything has to be AAA to make an impression and that couldn't be more wrong.

I hope they can turn it around, but I don't think they can. There's too much bloat, too much DEI shitting up the creative process and too many people who don't understand this hobby that are in charge of it.
 
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Vyse said:
Article:
According to an IGN report, Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars first-person shooter was canceled as a result of the reorganization, and the 2022-established Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games has been shut down, with some of its staff folded into sister Battlefield studio Ripple Effect. Danny Isaac and Darren White at Criterion will oversee single-player work on the series going forward. Work on the next Star Wars Jedi game remains underway.
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I guess we'll have to wait until 2030 for a new Star Wars Battlefront/FPS game now...
 
Do you think it may be related to all the AI news recently?

I saw a system created by Google that watched hundreds of hours of 2d platformer games and can now create full games with a few clicks.

Imagine that taken to the next level and being able to create full interactive game worlds on the fly?
Crazy stuff..

The layoffs and big project cancellations are happening in the movie industry too.
 
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pubba said:
Do you think it may be related to all the AI news recently?

I saw a system created by Google that watched hundreds of hours of 2d platformer games and can now create full games with a few clicks.

Imagine that taken to the next level and being able to create full interactive game worlds on the fly?
Crazy stuff..

The layoffs and big project cancellations are happening in the movie industry too.
Click to expand...

Right now, it's increased costs for everything and extremely bloated organizations after years of growths & hiring.

But the impact of AI will definitely occur inside of the next few years, especially in the art design at first, but quickly in other jobs as well. Hell, even in coding. When you throw AI at it, even now the code is like 75% usable and works, you have to clean up some stuff and definitely immediately notice that the code has been generated - but when it has to be done quick and dirty, it really saves time already.
 
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pubba said:
Do you think it may be related to all the AI news recently?

I saw a system created by Google that watched hundreds of hours of 2d platformer games and can now create full games with a few clicks.

Imagine that taken to the next level and being able to create full interactive game worlds on the fly?
Crazy stuff..

The layoffs and big project cancellations are happening in the movie industry too.
Click to expand...

Makes me think of Foamstars using AI for art and visual design related stuff.

I don't think it's that prolific yet? At least just by the fact that very little is actually coming out — you'd think an AI boom would look like the Wii shovelware days.

The Palworld accusations make me think this too — it's as if devtwitter couldn't believe such a small team could ship a successful game.

It's coming though, for sure.
 
Spiders said:
Makes me think of Foamstars using AI for art and visual design related stuff.

I don't think it's that prolific yet? At least just by the fact that very little is actually coming out — you'd think an AI boom would look like the Wii shovelware days.

The Palworld accusations make me think this too — it's as if devtwitter couldn't believe such a small team could ship a successful game.

It's coming though, for sure.
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I like how it will disrupt the power balance in the business. AI will enable smaller teams to go for a bigger scope, delivering better products. Brute forcing via 1000 people dev teams will make even less sense, AI will reduce the gap between what a small dev team is able to achieve compared to what huge triple A teams are doing right now.

The industry will shift away from big ass bloated productions, it'll all be more efficient with more smaller to mid sized teams delivering great games. With smaller budgets and less risk.

(Hopefully)
 
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regawdless said:
I like how it will disrupt the power balance in the business. AI will enable smaller teams to go for a bigger scope, delivering better products. Brute forcing via 1000 people dev teams will make even less sense, AI will reduce the gap between what a small dev team is able to achieve compared to what huge triple A teams are doing right now.

The industry will shift away from big ass bloated productions, it'll all be more efficient with more smaller to mid sized teams delivering great games. With smaller budgets and less risk.

(Hopefully)
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Yeah I think you're right. *hope* your right. We already got a sneak preview of the "muh they're using AI" to denigrate small team's successes, so it will be interesting when people are "for" and "against" AI with some kind of moral stance.
 
There cutting the.fat. you dont need artist and programmers to make video games. The most important and only needed employees are DEI directors and DEI bureaucrats.
Get rid of the useless engineers and designers and just leave Henrietta from HR to make sure the next Spiderman game has prominette Pride flags.
 
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cryptoadam said:
There cutting the.fat. you dont need artist and programmers to make video games. The most important and only needed employees are DEI directors and DEI bureaucrats.
Get rid of the useless engineers and designers and just leave Henrietta from HR to make sure the next Spiderman game has prominette Pride flags.
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She sounds like a Hambeast.
 
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Mickmrly said:
I guess we'll have to wait until 2030 for a new Star Wars Battlefront/FPS game now...
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I wouldn't put too much hope in much of anything SW related after the Respawn trilogy. The franchise is more-or-less dead, and Disney is so hurting for cash right now that I expect the license agreements to not be worth the effort.

Go to Games Workshop, they pass out 40k licenses for a song as long as you're willing to put up with a little creative control.
 
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