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well, I cant say I'm surprised. they always go with the "safe bet" let me explain "safe bet": a game they have done over a dozen times, in their sleep and have released only now with a new skin/Every 5 years a new game engine. Battlefield Vietnam was the last EA game I truly enjoyed because they added a radio/helicopters that added new game play mechanics like dropping jeeps/ boats/tanks behind enemy territory and then rocketing the fuck out of enemy bases. | |
FFFFFFFFUUUUU- Wonderful! Just...wonderful. And by "Wonderful" I mean "Unabashedly shite." I suppose this was expected what with all the pink slips that just got printed but still ;/
Sigh. That's business, I suppose. | |
dang is medal of honor is already cancled. that only took 2 hours | |
EA "Revitalizing" the Medal of Honor Series EA Cancels "Over a Dozen" Unannounced Projects I'm with John and Gabe...do people actually enjoy being screwed over? I'm confuzzled. | |
Well so much for ever hoping for a new Road Rash. | |
GAAAAAAAAAAAH! Mirror's Edge was one of those games I just wanted to see a sequel on, so much screwed up potential, they deserved a second shot :-/ Seriously, this sets a really bad example to other companies. It's like "HEY! You can either be hated and survive or be loved and die" | |
Well,Riccitello was originally responsible for axing Westwood studios and tried to retcon Trip Hawkins out of company's history,if memory serves right. So it's not big surprise. Too bad we won't be seeing Mirror's Edge 2,though. Also thanks for precision strike with link to TVTropes. I can resist,others are not as lucky. | |
So, EA can now stand for "Eventually Activision" now. I would bet Activision is eating this up with it's silver spoon. | |
So in other words, we only have their word any projects have actually been cancelled. That's what 'unannonuced' means. Sounds like someone is fishing for sympathy. | |
I GAAAAAAAAAAAH! with you comrade. I suppose I'll just have to keep playing the first one, weeping into my ice-cream as I do. | |
something fishy going on. Might it be to lower stocks prices. and after that an easy buy for somebody. I have seen things like that before, fake bankrupt and "our savior X company" comes and saves us. do you remember Microsoft buys EA rumors, could it be true? | |
Sigh that comic pretty much sums up my feelings. People need to learn to stop complaining about EA making repetitive games and then not buying the genuinely innovative games they do make (like dead space, mirrors edge, etc). Also if one of those axed titles was Dungeon Keeper 3 then there will be hell to pay! | |
That comic is so true and so sad at the same time. EA finally tries to innovate and introduce new IPs and we as consumers just showed them that what we want is the same trash year after year. /sigh... | |
That's depressing. Especially the Mirror's Edge sequel. There was a lot of potential there. All they had to do was stop making us fight so much, fix the shitty cutscenes, hire an actual writer... The gameplay was the seller, and the story had so much going for it in theory. (But has anybody ever drawn or found a plot graph of Mirror's Edge? Yikes :/)
One more for the Mirror's Edge pity party, over here! | |
Great, and I was really rooting for EA. Did my best to support them and help them from turning back to the dark side. All of you, the ones who don't support good games. Who are still buying anything Activision throws out despite the fact that they are SCREWING you. This is you're fault. I hope Modern Warfare 2 was worth it, I hope you enjoy looking at you're kids when they asked you what you did to stop the damnation of an industry. | |
Dammit John, I was having such a good morning until I read this article. As a independant mutimedia producer just starting out and shopping for funding, stories like this scare the hell out of me, because I would like to freelance for companies like EA, BioWare, UbiSoft (Yes, Ubisoft) and the like, but if game developers (Or more importantly their faceless investors) keep making announcements like this, then I think I might just have to stick to my own plans and just work for myself. What EA is doing really sucks, but its a decision based on profits, which is what business is all about. But axing a dozen unannounced titles before they even get off the drawing board seems a bit rash. I mean besides their investors freaking out, what reason could they have for doing that? Is it a lack of confidence in the market, or a lack of confidence in their ability to create original titles that gamers will want to purchase and play? As for the employees who are getting laid off, perhaps they should all get together and start their own studio, where decisions are based on taking risks and coming up with new and innovative games, rather than just churning out the same thing over and over with shinier graphics. | |
Of course they do. | |
Goddamnit! If they want to roll over and play dead that is fine, but they are NOT taking Bioware with them, YOU HEAR ME EA! YOU DON'T GET TO RUIN BIOWARE!!! also, there should be a freaking law that says if a sequel to something is cut before it was announced, they need to announce that they were going to make it but it was cut I hate not knowing whether a sequel is coming or not, every so often it takes like 6 years for them (by 'them' I mean any game company) to decide to make a sequel, so when it is canceled and they don't tell anyone, big fans wonder for years sometimes if a sequel is coming, and that sucks lastly, it would be genious marketing if EA released trailers for the top 5 most promising out of those 12 unnanounced games they cut, and let people vote on which was the best, then made the one that got the most votes. | |
To be totally honest...I've not been happy with a great deal of products that EA has released in the past couple years. I found Dead Space to be rather boring, Mirrors Edge was at least five years too late, going on and on, they just haven't captured me. I guess they can go back to the business model that has worked for them in the past, but if they really wanted to impress me: actually FINISH a sports game that has as few glitches as possible (looking at you FIFA!) and revolutionize the way we play sports games. | |
Of course they won't touch Bioware. That'd be like a suicide - cut the only squad that actually makes good games and gives players what they promised or even more? We have a saying for that: "Cutting off the gold-making chicken's eggs". Poor translation, because eggs can also mean testicles in our language, but you get the idea - a chicken lays golden eggs, and they cut the chicken's... reproductive organs. | |
Everyone has had to have seen this coming. Activision have laid off more staff earlier, EA tried to keep going. Hell EA was still hiring many possitions up till recently where Act. weren't. Crazy growth is always, and I say ALWAYS, followed by a down turn. EA have been on the crazy train for too long not to have some issues here. They have put those game titles back in the books for when they can afford the risk. LOL, so dont be too drama filled about what could be. Because they can still appear in the future. My Hats off to EA for their direction and I hope they continue to be the shining.... ok thats going too far. But EA have turned around, because of it they make less money which means their business model has to change. Not to mention the whole economic downturn which has dropped their share value from high 40s and low 50s to what? teens? | |
Tsk tsk EA, people want stuff that's new and interesting, check out how well indie titles are doing. | |
It's understandable that under the new EA they'd have to do this eventually. I mean, since they're actually spending some time on games now instead of churning out grade D titles they have to put time into them and probably can't have as many projects going at once anymore, so people who would've hopped from one lame game to another got canned because they just didn't have as many lame games and hence didn't need as many people. | |
Because the casual gamers like games they can pick up and play. Like sports games. They do not want a serious plotline with Wayne Rooney going to avenge Colleen's death in a psychopathic rampage; it has to much plot. Far better to pander to the many than the few. | |
I agree with Gabe, now that EA is TRYING they are loosing people, what the hell? I was starting to like them and they seem to be going out of business. | |
How I would love to live in a world where money wasn't all powerful and there was actually honesty and trust in a company like this. Damn I'm dreaming again, oh well I never really liked EA that much. Hopefully their downfall will give other game publishers an oppurtunity to attack. | |
I see my chances of ever playing Mirror's Edge 2 has just dropped possibly to zero. EDIT: Oh, yes, and I'll never get to play those 11 Need For Speed titles either. | |
looking thought my games.. hmm no not a single EA game.. cause they all suck... ahhaha shame these poor people dont have jobs anymore. hopefully they will go to a better company.. or wait maybe put there own together..and iduno make one of those canceled games.. | |
(Finally a use for this account I've never really used!) I'd myself hope that since mirrors edge 2 has been confirmed to be in production, that they would continue making it, since this is apparently only a fairly large amount of unannounced titles being dropped, well, i can hope anyway :P | |
Because bioware already did a pretty good job at that with their DLC policies. Back on topic, i would like to know what games were canceled and if EA decided to completely axe those series or just put them on indefinite hiatus for when the economy is back on track again. | |
Business is Business. It had to be Done. | |
So much for the EA that saved Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend when all seemed lost. 8( | |
hey, they just need a an epic release... looking at the BF franchise for this... and TBH, Need for speed series peaked at underground 2 IMO, that game was just some squad cars from total win. | |
EA is a shitty place to work anyways. Its a game developers dream to work at Valve or Blizzard but common EA? You are going to miserable 80% of the time anyways. Those guys who got laid off will probably make an independent studio and continue making games (it worked for some people so I figure we will see some small studios popping up here and there). | |
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EA Cancels "Over a Dozen" Unannounced Projects
More bad news from EA: Along with the 1500 job cuts announced yesterday, CEO John Riccitiello has said that the company has taken the axe to "over a dozen" unannounced projects in development.
Yesterday during EA's quarterly earnings call with investors, the publishing giant announced that it was making cuts at several of its studios that would amount to approximately 1500 workers laid off by the end of next March. This is the most severe round of layoffs the publisher has seen yet, with 600 workers laid off last October and 1100 jobs cut in February - including 200 at Need For Speed developer EA Black Box, which was also one of the affected studios this time around.
CEO John Riccitiello said that in addition to the job cuts, the publisher had pulled the plug on twelve or so titles in development that had yet to be announced, judging the games to no longer be worth the price - or the risk.
"Electronic Arts has a core slate of games labels and sports franchises that we will iterate on an annual or bi-annual basis," explained Riccitiello, "All of them are selling or have sold in their most recent edition 2 million units or more ... after that, we've got The Sims and Hasbro, and frankly anything that doesn't measure up to looking like it can pencil out to be a very high profit contributor and high unit seller got cut from our title slate from this point going forward."
This is bad news for people who may have been hoping for a sequel to last year's Mirror's Edge, as Riccitiello has previously said that he was disappointed with the first-person parkour game's performance. Dead Space and its Wii cousin Dead Space Extraction, on the other hand, may have performed sufficiently well to warrant a sequel (though cuts made at developer Visceral may suggest otherwise).
My personal feelings on the matter are nicely summed up by the picture you see here above and to the right, taken from this particular Penny-Arcade. For years, EA was seen as the industry's "Big Bad", a soulless corporation that existed only to churn out sports sequels, to acquire young, thriving studios and put them to work on crappy movie tie-ins, and to cut corners and rush development, all for the sake of a few extra bucks.
EA might have been the gaming Antichrist, but in the past two or so years, the publisher made a concerted effort to turn its act around. Riccitiello stated that he didn't see any inherent conflict between creativity and profitability, went on public record as being against DRM, and stated that he viewed the pirated Sims 3 as a demo of sorts to entice people to buy the full game. It was almost a complete turnaround in public perception for the once-reviled giant (it didn't hurt that Activision seemed more than willing to step up into its place as the industry's own "Devil at the Crossroads"), and while certainly not perfect, the New EA was a move in the right direction.
Unfortunately, moving in the right direction apparently means that the company has axed 3200 jobs since last October, and if Riccitiello's comments here are any indication, we may see the New EA turning back into the Old EA - a company that emphasizes profitability as the bottom line, with a focus on safe titles that the higher-ups know will sell.
And that would honestly be one goddamn shame.
(Via IGN)
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