EA will be closing “at least” nine studios, including Black Box (Need for Speed, Skate), before March 31, 2009, according to shacknews.com. While I’m a big fan of neither franchise, this will certainly affect a lot of people who are.
Let’s look at the stats:
- 1,000 employees without jobs (about 10% of EA’s global workforce)
- $120 mil in company savings
- Restructuring charges of $55 – 65 mil
EA has yet to name the other eight studios it will be shutting down, but it did announce that it will be relocating some employees and franchises to offices in Burnaby, British Columbia.
While not as earth-shattering and surreal as the recent shut-down of TimeSplitters developer, Free Radical, it’s still a shame that so many studios seem to be closing up shop as of late.
Let’s just hope this isn’t some continuing trend.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Loading ...
Damn, I understand the Midway layoffs.
And though in my heart I don’t want to accept the Free Radical layoffs, I can at least understand it with Haze being their last game.
But.. EA trimming their fat too… bah. Just when the company has been on my good side as of late. I wasn’t a fan of skate, but so many people were claiming it was the Tony Hawk killer.