PopCap shuts down two studios, lays off 50 in Seattle

PopCap, the social gaming studio behind hints like Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies, has laid off dozens of employees from its Seattle headquarters. In addition, two international studios in Dublin and Shanghai have been shuttered.

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Update: PopCap co-founder John Vechey confirms the layoffs, offers comment.

PopCap, the social gaming studio behind hints like Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies, has laid off dozens of employees from its Seattle headquarters. In addition, two international studios in Dublin and Shanghai have been shuttered.

PopCap's head of social media Jeff Green confirmed the layoffs in a tweet, asking the gaming community to "hire my PopCap friends!" Other employees have already begun using social media to search for new jobs.

3D Realms founder George Broussard has been providing regular updates about the situation at PopCap, confirming the extent of the worldwide layoffs. An earlier report from VG247 suggested that the developer has been "very quietly" laying off staff for "several months," culminating in today's unfortunate turn of events.

Recently, the studio had announced a sequel to its popular tower-defense game, Plants vs Zombies. Broussard suggests that it's an example of "good news before bad news." The company was acquired by gaming giant Electronic Arts last year for over $700 million.

PopCap co-founder John Vechey says that the EA acquisition has nothing to do with today's layoffs. "The founders, CEO, and executives who were in charge of PopCap still are. The decision to reorganize was 100 percent made by us, with no pressure from EA," he said on the PopCap blog. Adding, "if we didn't have EA behind us, the cuts would have been worse."

"We've hired aggressively this past year and PopCap is still growing. Even with the cuts we expect to end the year with roughly the same number of people we started with."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    August 21, 2012 12:15 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, PopCap shuts down two studios, lays off 50 in Seattle.

    PopCap, the social gaming studio behind hints like Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies, has laid off dozens of employees from its Seattle headquarters. In addition, two international studios in Dublin and Shanghai have been shuttered.

    • reply
      August 21, 2012 12:39 PM

      Another EA success!

      • reply
        August 21, 2012 12:40 PM

        Can't wait for them to screw up the ending to Plants vs Zombies 3 in 2014!

        • reply
          August 21, 2012 12:43 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            August 21, 2012 1:38 PM

            Seven endings (actually, the same ending, tinted for each of the different colors of the rainbow)

        • reply
          August 21, 2012 12:46 PM

          Pre-order now from Amazon to get Double Flower Points Booster
          Pre-order now from Wal-Mart to get an extra campaign!

          For $30 EA-BUX you can unlock an extra ability slot in all modes!

          • reply
            August 21, 2012 12:50 PM

            i actually thought this was a real post for a second

    • reply
      August 21, 2012 12:45 PM

      I am sure.

      EA - We own you now. Lay off a whole bunch of your staff.

      PopCap - Ya know, we were growing until you acquired us.

      EA - Yeah, we do that to companies.

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      August 21, 2012 12:59 PM

      Wasn't PopCap pretty autonomous? Like almost completely? Of course there's no way something bad could happen and it couldn't directly be EA's fault.

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        August 21, 2012 1:29 PM

        Shame on EA and PopCap execs and investors. PopCap was profitable before EA. Steady growth and sales. The EA waived a billion dollars in front of them and they bit. EA way over paid for the casual game company. Not sure in what universe they thought they were going to make $1 Billion back on the deal over games that sell for $1 or $2. At least not so soon.

        Now it looks like the social & casual games market was overvalued all around given this turn of events and the problems at Zynga. Big freaking shock!

        But the PopCap investors and execs probably made out like bandits in this deal. I'm sure they all deep down knew PopCap wasn't worth 1 Billion. That EA wouldn't be able to sustain the head count at PopCap with that buyout price hanging over their heads. And now we know the end result. EA announces a new PvZ game and then layoffs. Now the hard working people who built PopCap up over the last decade are the ones paying the ultimate price.

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      August 21, 2012 1:00 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 21, 2012 1:36 PM

      Is Jeff Green still afloat?

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      August 21, 2012 1:40 PM

      Another notch on EA's belt. It's relentless quest to buy all talented studios and then scuttle them continues unhindered.

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      August 21, 2012 1:42 PM

      That's probably because they didn't make mofo'in Plants vs. Zombies 2 like they should have!!!!

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      August 21, 2012 1:45 PM

      Now that the casual bubble has officially burst can someone please get back to work on Sin Episodes 2?

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      August 21, 2012 1:55 PM

      Wasn't it a few short days ago that someone asked why everyone hates EA so much?

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        August 21, 2012 2:52 PM

        The game industry in general sucks right now. :\

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          August 21, 2012 2:54 PM

          [deleted]

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          August 21, 2012 2:56 PM

          Many companies that EA doesn't buy, also shut down. Vancouver's issues would actually leave EA as the biggest shop still unscathed.

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            August 21, 2012 3:00 PM

            That said, EA Canada seems to be shrinking. I remember in late 2010 when EA decided to can NBA Elite 11, and move future NBA game development to EA Tiburon. I don't remember exactly, but I think there was a winding-down after the release of the new SSX.

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      August 21, 2012 4:30 PM

      EA strikes again.

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      August 21, 2012 4:39 PM

      "We've hired aggressively this past year and PopCap is still growing. Even with the cuts we expect to end the year with roughly the same number of people we started with."

      Does that meant he people they hired where crap???

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        August 21, 2012 6:38 PM

        or they replaced crap with newhires

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          August 21, 2012 6:39 PM

          but more likely, they just had staff in areas that weren't matching the current trend. Sometimes you dont need animators, or a DS PSP guru, or whatnot.

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      August 21, 2012 5:35 PM

      EA: Close everything.

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      August 21, 2012 5:52 PM

      Well, that sucks.

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      August 21, 2012 6:42 PM

      Have they even made anything recently? How many ports of Bejeweled, PvZ, and Peggle can they do without something new?

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      August 21, 2012 6:46 PM

      those studios were probably underperforming, and would make it harder to sell the company

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