EA denies massive layoff reports
EA has denied reports of incoming widespread layoffs that began circulating this weekend.
EA has denied reports of widespread layoffs, after rumors circulated over the weekend that the company was preparing to let go of 500-1,000 positions. Even in its denial, though, EA seems to make room for some amount of job losses as studios and projects shift.
Startup Grind reported that the layoffs would impact 5-11% of the company, and were previously set for last Monday. The report blames lower-than-expected sales of Battlefield 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic for the downsizing.
However, EA has denied the report. "There are no lay-offs as such, we always have projects growing and morphing," the company said in a statement to MCV. "At any given time there are new people coming in and others leaving. EA is growing and hiring and building teams to support the growing demand for digital games and services."
The statement seems very carefully worded, including an "as such" statement that could imply planned layoffs won't be quite as widespread as the report claims. We'll keep an eye out for more developments and update as information becomes available.
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, EA denies massive layoff reports.
EA has denied reports of incoming widespread layoffs that began circulating this weekend.-
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At what point in the history of the industry has there not been a constant turnover of personnel?
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During the 2000's things were healthy, things were growing, now its just massive games that dont sell worth a shit, blowing 50 million dollars and scaring publishers even more. What Im see now is a small core of employed devs having to hire 100 people at the last second, on contract, they dont gel together well, the product suffers and they call get canned at the end of the project.
Im out.
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Makes me wonder what proportion of rumors like this are started by people shorting stocks or the like.
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Follow up from EA:
Update: EA corporate communications sent the following statement to Joystiq: “EA is growing and looking to hire hundreds of people for our digital, console, mobile and social games. Like all game companies, we make occasional adjustments to resize teams as projects are completed and new priorities are established. Overall, we expect that headcount will be up at the end of this year.”-
For the Google-impaired: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/16/ea-denies-report-of-incoming-mass-layoffs/
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