First off in this double whammy of EA news: 51 employees have been laid off at EA’s Tiburon studio (the ones who did the Madden games) in Maitland, Florida. This is in lieu to the future restructuring plans of EA where they will lay off 1,500 employees by the end of March 2010. To quote the e-mail received by the Orlando Sentinel (via Crispy Gamer):
“The game industry is in a period of rapid change, and the pace of that change is accelerating,†Tiburon General Manager Philip Holt wrote in an e-mail to employees. “In order to control our own destiny and succeed in this rapidly changing environment, EA is taking bold action on costs so we can win in the future. We are not exempt from these cost actions here in Orlando and, subsequently, 51 of our colleagues will be leaving Tiburon.â€
Other studios like EA Black Box (who did the new Need For Speed games) also laid off their employees, though the exact number isn’t known yet. Mythic Entertainment had laid off 80 people, which happens to be 40% of its employees, according to a report on Gamasutra.
On the flip side of the coin, EA recently bought over social network game-developing company Playfish for US$275 million in cash, and an additional US$25 million in equity retention arrangements, meaning it’s a grand total of US$300 million. That’s a lot of money for a company that makes 5-minute games on Facebook and MySpace, but think about this: Playfish has over a 150 million games under its wing. A few of these million games are being played right now; the guy working next to you in your cubicle is probably on Facebook spending a few minutes rearranging his personal farm or stacking blocks. In buying Playfish, EA has acquired more entertainment time and has put in money into something that’s obviously growing and growing.
Against this buyout is Wedbush Securities managing director of equity research Michael “Wii-nis Envy” Pachter, who states that “it’s hard to say that a purchase of Playfish is a good idea since they’ve only been around two years.” Who knows what the future holds for EA and their new venture in social gaming media. Would we be seeing a Mutant League Football in browser game form? Yeah, a man can dream, can he?
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i’m inclined to say bwahahah. seriously folks, the future is casual and on the internet, not yet another blood/gore/fantasy/Madden reincarnation. Playfish deserves the win and that’s some serious investment.
EA also let go of 80 people (approx. 40% of the staff) at EA Mythic today. Mythic are the team responsible for Warhammer Online.