EA Profits up, Workers get layoffs....

[stuffedmonkey]

http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/01/26/202241.shtml?tid=187&tid=10


"Gamespot and GamesIndustry.biz has the news from yesterday's conference call where EA CEO Larry Probst reported higher earnings for his company in Q3, despite a small yearly decline. He also held forth on the future cost of next-gen games, which in his opinion will likely stay as high as $50 and could perhaps fetch more on retail shelves. Just before this story was to be published, Tim Butler wrote in with the news from 1Up.com that EA was laying off members of its LA studio. From the article: "According to sources close to the company, Electronic Arts is currently in the process of laying off between 50-70 team members from its minty-fresh new EA LA office. The teams affected worked on the poorly-recieved GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and the forthcoming Medal of Honor: Dogs of War FPS titles."

[Big Papa Husker]

That doesnt make ANY sense...

[EnemyZero]

to the rest of the employees it means "slave labor"

[Iron Draggon]

It makes perfect sense. When I worked for Kroger, they used to have annual "profit sharing" meetings, where they bragged about how many millions of dollars they donated to charity. Then they told us that there wasn't enough money left out of their profits to share any of it with us.

:angry:

[goatdan]

He also held forth on the future cost of next-gen games, which in his opinion will likely stay as high as $50 and could perhaps fetch more on retail shelves.

Interesting...

So the rumors that EA may raise the price of their sports games seems to be even more true to me now.

[Berserker]

In other news, Satan and his demonic hoardes are set to rise up from the fiery depths of Hell.

When asked why he was preparing to violate the "No Invading the Mortal Realm" Treaty, set forth in 649835839 B.C., Satan merely shrugged and said, "Challenge Everything!"

[badinsults]

It all makes perfect business sense. Video games used to not be a big business thing, but now it is. The desisions made by EA are not surprising, and really cannot be critized.

[studvicious]

In other news, Satan and his demonic hoardes are set to rise up from the fiery depths of Hell.

When asked why he was preparing to violate the "No Invading the Mortal Realm" Treaty, set forth in 649835839 B.C., Satan merely shrugged and said, "Challenge Everything!"

that made me laugh... thank you LOL

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

Unfortunately it does make a lot of sense. Basically EA isn't screwing around. They are strictly interested in keeping assests only. The new L.A. development house under EA obviously wasn't producing enough money in EA's corporate eyes to justify keeping them. They made product, produce was received poory. Can them...

This is how the large companies work...so it does make sense. In addition, one way they improve profits is by laying off "Not so needed" workforce. My own company has done this several times through the years to make the qtr reports look fantastic. Then over the course of the year, they slowly hire the workforce back. Usually at least pay...

The cycle continues...