And the top can keep safely making terrible decisions and all the money. Capitalism
At least EA handled this better than Activision did. The article mentions employees knowing or suspecting of this since at least October, where as Activision's move was apparently very sudden with little prior warning in the past.
Still doesn't make it less shit on all levels. Hope all of those affected find new jobs within the industry.
Just waiting for the bonuses any minute now.
The extra money goes into:
A. Making batter games
B. Investing EA Game Changers program
C. Enriching remaining employees
D. The pockets of billionaires
Honestly it seems to me that traditional marketing isn't that effective anymore.
Should point out that those positions are the types that chew through people like it's nothing. Job security wasn't the highest there.
From that email that was sent around the office.
We’re making deliberate moves to better deliver on our commitments, refine our organization and meet the needs of our players. As part of this, we have made changes to our marketing and publishing organization, our operations teams, and we are ramping down our current presence in Japan and Russia as we focus on different ways to serve our players in those markets.
I would imagine they're downsizing their marketing division thanks to success of Apex Legends, with marketing consisting entirely of dishing out 6 figures for at least one streamer, plus however much more for all the other streamers they paid. In contrast, Bioware's Anthem was hyped in marketing material for two years, but unfortunately EA did not disclose the game's marketing budget. With the success that was seen with Apex Legends, we will see a change of pace with marketing staff, with developers/publishers paying less in other media marketing costs and more in buying streamers out instead.
Fuck sake we need Unions in the game industry. For programmers, modelers, artists, concept artists, writers, pretty much everything. Cause these lay offs and contract work are just going to get worse.
Lay offs still happen though, union or not. For example, when you're downsizing you might find yourself with an overabundance of employees (due to insufficient amount of work), and have to let those people go.
Lays offs happen. But the shouldn't be happening at this level of stupidity.
The sad fact is that very often, due how burned out these people are and the job insecurity / lack of rights in the sector they end leaving altogether Game Dev to never return.
It has been warned for years that the industry almost have no veterans ( it is rare to find someone lasting more than a decade ) and is even starting to affect the current games in diverse ways ( very often on reinventing the wheel on the balance between making a game challenging and fun ) and almost everybody uses young blood that gets quickly discarded, sometimes in less of a year.
Just look at the teams behind some big ass AAA games like L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption and others, many ( if not all ) get the boot after being squished day and night.
I'm also going to mention that 350~ people is very small for EA, these type of layoffs happen constantly and there is really no avoiding it, especially within two main areas they've said.
Marketing and publishing is brutal to keep a stable job in, you either have to hit gold or be a fucking genius in how to play your target markets and predict where things where go.
But again, 350~ people isn't a lot at all, this is a really minor downsize, the article makes it sound more drastic than it actually is, you'll likely find a lot of these were temp contractors anyway who were only one for 1~2 years.
The other thing the article glosses over is a chunk of these will likely be rehired back into EA but in other departments, this happens all the time as well.
Its really trying to push a minor corporate restructure to be worse than it actually is, it sucks people will be losing their jobs but this is how businesses work.
Least its not like how fucking Activision did it, now that was news worthy due to the bullshit they pulled.
I don't really think it's reasonable that you can leave the company at any time but the company is expected to be loyal to you.
I don't think the company or the employee really owe each other loyalty. If you don't serve one another's purposes, you cast them away. Both parties are doing exactly this.
You'll be surprised how much companies throw away valuable employees and other workers in this business.
Right, just like employees constantly leave to pursue whatever is better for themselves even if it harms the company.
I think i know the difference between employees looking for other work and ones that get fucked over and laid off by a Company.
We're already in a sort of renaissance period for indie devs. Some really kick ass shit has come out in the past 5 years that Triple A companies wouldn't dare touch, or are now piggy backing off of. It's almost hit after hit after hit in the Indie scene
Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Factorio, Prison Architect, Binding of Isaac, Kerbal Space Program, Cuphead, Parkitect, Firewatch, Oxenfree, The Witness. I believe these were all released in 2018 alone
So it's acceptable for the employee to dispose of the company when it's no longer the optimal route for the employee, but the company must be loyal to the employee despite the fact that the employee is unnecessary because.....?
In the ideal world, that would be a fair arrangement. However there is a inbalance between the power of workers and companies, the tools available for the company to keep the worker retained is a much larger toolset then the tools a worker has to maintain their job security.
A company can increase pay rates, salary or give bonuses. Hell even non-financial benefits help retain employees. What tools does a worker have, working overtime without pay? I speculate that it is also a lot harder to convience a company to keep employing you then a employee not to leave
Yes. If they want a game to be created and be made at the best level of quality. They need to treat the people who make it with respect and care. Cause we're the ones who keep the company alive.
It is not reasonable for that to be the sole goal of a company.
If they treat us like shit, they don't deserve a good product from us. Plain and simple.
Not retaining unnecessary employees is not "treating you like shit".
And the company has the ability to recruit and hire workers, that's a two way street. The problem is it is a lot harder for workers to retain their jobs then it is for companies to retain their workers, which is why I think employees ought to be given a little more job security then they currently are.
No shit genius i just agreed with you on that on the previous post.
Fuck sake Geel its like you can't fucking accept that someone agrees with you in these discussions. You always have to find a way to shit on the other guy cause of your Ego.
Yeah we don't agree because you've judged these layoffs as being "stupid" without knowing anything about them.
Layoffs are not inherently wrong. Sometimes companies don't need or cannot afford employees.
You're delusional if you think that a single employee has equal negotiating power to the company that employs them.
As long as we need a job to live, the latter should be given adequate protections to level the playing field. As it stands, an employee has a lot more to lose than their company when it comes to job termination.
U N I O N I Z E
for your own goddamned sakes
I think it stems from the fact that people take up the abuse because they got bills to pay.
This happens everywhere, not just game dev.
Theres those days where you curse the company you work at, but in the end you think twice and go "yeah I got bills to pay, mouths to feed, so I'll just shut up and go about my business", and sometimes you get people that don't even bitch and are valuable members, and are still let go way before their time.
Happened to me. The job I was in got on my nerves and I was kind of wanting to be let go, especially when my contract was nearly up. I was let go 4 months sooner in a round of mass layoffs, curiously the same number of people that Activision fired, and in the end I got pissed off at it.
Probably also because my BITCH of a boss said they did the right thing in firing me when I refused to do overtime after getting fired, but whatever. She can go fuck herself with a rake really.
https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1110808694399205377
Sorry on the uptake, but EA completely shut down EA Japan. The initial report of 350 people losing their jobs hasn't increased, as far as I can tell, so I'm thinking this is where the downsizing is coming from.
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