this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024

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EA to Lay Off Around 670 Workers, Sunsetting Games, 'Moving Away From Licensed IPs' (www.ign.com)

submitted 11 months ago by L4s to c/technology

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

EA to Lay Off Around 670 Workers, Sunsetting Games, 'Moving Away From Licensed IPs'::Electronic Arts has announced that it, too, is undergoing mass layoffs, with plans to let go 5% of its total global staff, or roughly 670 individuals.

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[–] jeffw 102 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Here’s a thought… maybe they could try making a good game?

[–] circuitfarmer 36 points 11 months ago

Ahahaha what do you think it's 1995?

[–] aluminium 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I mean you gotta give em credit, they are getting a bit better lately.

[–] jeffw 6 points 11 months ago

Not sure I buy that. I think there’s been a steady decline. None of the sports titles have done anything interesting in years. Shooters have been declining too. Go back a decade and they had some bright spots like Battlefield Bad Company, which I’d argue broke the mold that they’ve used before and after those games.

There have always been a couple games here and there that were good, just like the Bad Company games a decade ago and the Jedi games now. But those are the exceptions

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Well, the Dead Space remake was a start.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

Releasing a big crop of talent for indie studios to snap up ...perhaps this is how to turn back the tide against indie studios cutting into their recurring revenue.

[–] linearchaos 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

5%? I get that 700 ppl is a big number but 5% is pretty tame for the games industry. AAA sheds more than that after a big title releases.

[–] stoly 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I had to re-read because at first I thought you were referencing "big tittie releases"

[–] linearchaos 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I mean I'm game if you are. :)

[–] stoly 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well as a gay person it doesn’t quite do it for me lol

[–] linearchaos 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Heh, That's fair. I wasn't presuming gender or orientation, mostly just for the LoLs.

[–] stoly 3 points 11 months ago

Me too. :)

[–] thorbot 9 points 11 months ago

EA can fuck off

[+] foggy -39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Writing is on the walls. AAA game studios are going to suffer. AI is levelling the playing field.

Buy puts.

Edit: lol wow that's a lot of downvotes. Okay, you guys buy calls, I'll buy puts. Let's see how it shakes out!

[–] shiroininja 29 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I’m holding my judgment on AI assisted content. I already feel ai writing and image generation is still shitty, I’m less interested in something more complex like a video game.

Also, my 20+ years in the workforce has taught me that large and small companies suffer the same exact problems and both are greedy. Ai will be used to not hire workers, but to increase worker output , not lighten their load.

I trust indie companies to maybe make better content, but I expect them to rip off workers.

Not that I’m defending EA. There’ve ruined so many franchises.

[–] foggy 7 points 11 months ago

I guess I'm more saying..

In the 60s, to record an album, you needed a record deal who would finance your time in a professional recording studio, which was run by engineers with specialized roles.

These studios still exist, but they are nearly extinct. Basically museums at this point. Because as technology has improved, the access to tools that do the same jobs has become democratized. It's cheap, widely available.

Same will happen for the still-existing mega production studios: Hollywood for movies, EA or UbiSoft or Activision for games.

[–] stoly 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

LOL LOL AI literally has nothing to do with this. This isn't the HAL 9000 computer here, these things are very primitive still.

No, the failure is with out-of-touch execs who are in it for the money rather than the art.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If anybody tried to shoehorn AI into game development, it would be those same out of touch execs!

[–] stoly 1 points 11 months ago

Exactly. Maybe in 20 years or 50 years AI can do this. Now it’s basically just Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant levels of competence.

[–] olympicyes 1 points 11 months ago

Seems like it has more to do with video games moving to a subscription basis. I’ve been trained not to buy PS5 exclusives after seeing everything I bought be added to a $10/month PS Plus offering.

[–] jeffw 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Buy puts?

[–] BottleOfAlkahest 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Overly simplified: It's a term used to indicate that you should bet the stock is going down if you are a stock holder.

[–] jeffw 6 points 11 months ago

Oh my god, I did not realize you were talking about stock options haha. My brain just did not register it in this context

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

The downvotes are for your hot take on AI, not that people think the studios are fine. Of course I’d prefer comments explaining why that’s a silly thing to say instead of everyone jumping on the downvote bandwagon…