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.

      • jeffw@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        10 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

  • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    10 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@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    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.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    43
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    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@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      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@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 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@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • olympicyes@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        10 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.

      • BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        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@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          10 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