Mass layoffs expected at EA as the now-private publisher reportedly tells its new debt masters that it's going to cut $700 million in annual costs

2 months ago by inclementimmigrant to c/games

The Battlefield and Sims owner has taken on $20 billion in debt by going private
acosmichippo 117 points 2 months ago

The Mass [Layoff] Effect

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nullspace 38 points 2 months ago

The offices are now just a Dead Space.

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criss_cross 7 points 2 months ago

Former engineers are referred to as Apex Legends.

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warmaster 87 points 2 months ago

This is great news, soon there will be no EA!

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empireOfLove2 41 points 2 months ago

Perfect timing and a fitting fate, considering they are now owned by blood oil kings and nazi's

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nullspace 18 points 2 months ago

So no change, really.

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Strider 9 points 2 months ago

EA died a long time ago.

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Aceticon 9 points 2 months ago

It think they were talking about the undead monster one.

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Strider 3 points 2 months ago

I know, I know and everyone defines a different time when it happened. But it's time for the zombie to.. leave.

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muusemuuse 2 points 2 months ago

Yet the zombie still harasses us.

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scrubbles 5 points 2 months ago

Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe the last thing they would do is sell off the up to better firms.

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CosmoNova 3 points 2 months ago

It would be if not all the wrong people profited from it.

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YouTalkinToMe 58 points 2 months ago

Wouldn't that be just the CEO, then?

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arotrios 44 points 2 months ago

I just realized I haven't played an EA game in over a decade. SW Battlefront II was the last one, and it felt like a downgrade from the 2005 version.

I mean, are there any of their titles that have made an impact in the last decade? I can't think of any other than sports and racing games.

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Blackmist 26 points 2 months ago

It Takes Two and Split Fiction were published by EA.

I also played Titanfall 2 which was a great little campaign.

That's about it for me.

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mudmaniac 7 points 2 months ago

Once upon a time when Infinity Ward's founders left Activision because of "Activision", and formed Respawn with EA, I felt EA were still the good guys in the industry. The Titanfall games were amazing.

After APEX Legends came out, I feel EA used up most of their Good Karma that they had built in the past.

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MentalEdge 22 points 2 months ago

The Star Wars Jedi games are genuinely good self-contained no bs single player games.

I can't comment on anything else.

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ayyy 3 points 2 months ago

Self-contained? Don’t they require a verified online account and an internet connection?

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MentalEdge 5 points 2 months ago

I'm referring to the way the game lets you earn everything. There is no upsell after you buy the game. If you want something from the game, you get it by playing.

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Raiderkev 3 points 2 months ago

I don't believe so, but don't quote me on that, haven't played either in a very long time.

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ayyy 5 points 2 months ago

(EA has a habit of adding such requirements many years after the game was made, btw).

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FippleStone 1 point 2 months ago

They are incredible, but they came out two decades ago and everyone who worked on them is long gone, nothing morally gray about pirating them...

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MentalEdge 1 point 2 months ago

What games are you thinking of?

Fallen Order is 2019 and Survivor is 2024. I'm specifically commenting on recent EA games.

Star Wars Jedi is the title of this most recent series by Respawn, currently with two entries.

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NocturnalMorning 1 point 2 months ago

I was gonna throw Star Wars Outlaws in there, but surprisingly that one was ubisoft.

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ripcord 11 points 2 months ago

Their new owners pretty much only care about the sports games

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Raiderkev 3 points 2 months ago

I got Madden last year so I could get my kid into football. Figured if there was a video game, he'd be interested in learning more about the game, and it worked. Having said that, I'm not buying any new ones for updated rosters, so they won't be seeing another dime from me.

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adhdsergio 1 point 2 months ago

Battlefield 6 is a new one that comes to mind - heard good things, might try it in the "perpetual demo" mode

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caut_R 2 points 2 months ago

I was looking at that recently as well, but saw the reviews are at mixed now…

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adhdsergio 1 point 2 months ago

All the more reason to go sailing

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rizzothesmall 43 points 2 months ago

"We're going to have AI write all the games now"
~ some exec

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NekoKoneko 19 points 2 months ago

AI told me we can do it!

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chiliedogg 11 points 2 months ago

They're not a game company anymore. It's getting the Toys R Us treatment. They're a debt vehicle. They're gonna borrow against its value, place all the debt into EA while pocketing the cash, and let it die.

If we're lucky, they'll sell off the studios and IP before cutting it loose.

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FreddiesLantern 34 points 2 months ago

In this whole ordeal that has been EA ... I can't remember a single instance where they tried to do the right thing by listening to the consumer, or employees for that matter.

It's amazing they are still around even. Die quicker pls.

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Krudler 11 points 2 months ago

The sheer power of licensing hey

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Polisheocket 9 points 2 months ago

They own the rights to madden and college game day, those two alone can keep the doors open

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MonkderVierte 3 points 2 months ago

Fifa games...

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cmbabul 3 points 2 months ago

And Madden, EA Sports, it’s in the game

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Donebrach 28 points 2 months ago

Oligarchs oligarching. Every “publisher” and “developer” is firing everyone and are gonna very quickly vanish once it’s remembered that perpetual motion is impossible.

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buddascrayon 25 points 2 months ago

Private Equity 101, "buy" a business using borrowed money, put all the debt on the company you "bought", slash costs, sell off assets, have the company declare bankruptcy and take all the debt with it, rince and repeat... Profit.

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muusemuuse 14 points 2 months ago

Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why this is legal

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buddascrayon 15 points 2 months ago

And as if that wasn't an insult to the middle class, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos can borrow against their stock holdings as if they were real assets, yet never be taxed on the value. But if you borrow against the value of your house, YOU get taxed on that value.

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btsax 7 points 2 months ago

It makes rich people richer

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muusemuuse 1 point 2 months ago

It doesn’t though it’s just another way of lying about the math. Line goes up because it’s doesn’t actually represent what it’s supposed to.

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mirshafie 2 points 2 months ago

Well when you say it like that it just sounds dumb.

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Dadifer 22 points 2 months ago path: 0 25144013, hotness: undefined, score: 22, children: 0
D_C 19 points 2 months ago

People are still buying EA:s unfinished games? Wow.

I admit that they got me a few times, but I quickly learned not to buy from them again.

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village604 4 points 2 months ago

The sports games keep the lights on.

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Trainguyrom 4 points 2 months ago

Sims is also an absolute juggernaut in very different circles from Madden and FIFA

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numanair 2 points 2 months ago

But what was the last time you bought a finished game? PS2?

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Absolute_Slayer 1 point 2 months ago

I never forgot how EA destroyed battle field

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crusa187 14 points 2 months ago

EA sucks ass, hopefully this is the beginning of the end.

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Binturong 12 points 2 months ago

EA, it's in the grave.

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Cosmonauticus 1 point 2 months ago

Good. EA died to me after the end of the BIG and "challange everything" era. After that it was just releasing another Madden every year with zero changes. The death of EA will bring in the golden age of indie development and since im finally making the switch to PC I cannot wait

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BC_viper 10 points 2 months ago

Yah, i expect not to buy anymore EA games. They had a good run i guess.

Mind you I haven't played many anyway lately.

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LemmyPlaceDN 12 points 2 months ago

A good run that ended a long time ago

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p03locke 4 points 2 months ago

At least 25 years ago.

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MBech 10 points 2 months ago

So which studios will die this time?

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Kojichan 11 points 2 months ago

All.

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Jyrdano 9 points 2 months ago

My only hope is EA dies soon and some other devs take up and resurrect ME and DA

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Onyxonblack 16 points 2 months ago

Honestly like why? I don't believe either property really needs to continue. Why must everything be an IP.. those games are OLD.. the good ones at least. Let it die.

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TeaWithDani 5 points 2 months ago

Mass Effect was really just Bioware not wanting to pay for Star Wars again. Why not do the same and make a new Mass Effect worthy IP?

The trilogy told the story. Andromeda didnt really add much.

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veni_vedi_veni 2 points 2 months ago

Yea, there's still so much to that universe besides the whole bad guy ending the galaxy stick.

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Breezy 1 point 2 months ago

Someone just has to make an rpg of the expanse series.

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urushitan 2 points 2 months ago

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure all this will lead to now they they aren't beholden to quarterly growth but rather can become a sustained money printer is cutting anything except the sims, battlefield, and their sports cash cows, and recycling those every year even more than they do now, since people regularly buy those every time a new version (or in the case of the sims expansion) is released

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TeaWithDani 1 point 2 months ago
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WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 1 point 2 months ago

Someone should make a Freespace RPG. It's the same story, but since there wasn't a Freespace 3 they never screwed up the ending.

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BallShapedMan 9 points 2 months ago

I'm shocked... /s

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caut_R 8 points 2 months ago

Just trimming some fat (and a leg or two)

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FluidBeef 8 points 2 months ago

Hopefully they will combine the company with Neom so a future romantic poet finds the ruins amid the sands and wonders at the hubris of it.

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Dyskolos 7 points 2 months ago

Fuck yourself EA. Wouldn't buy any more shit from you. Actually I don't buy us-american stuff at all anymore. Except indie-games.

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sobchak 1 point 2 months ago

EA is Saudi now.

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Dyskolos 2 points 2 months ago

Doesn't make it any better...from one slave-country to another.

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Tikiporch 6 points 2 months ago

They'll only make sports games, that's the reliable cash cow.

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RememberTheApollo_ 4 points 2 months ago

Been playing Electronic Arts games since the 1980’s.

Even if they are a shit company, Nice knowing ya.

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atro_city 3 points 2 months ago

They didn't waste any time, did they?

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W3dd1e 3 points 2 months ago

🤞please sell off BioWare so i can play Mass Effect again.

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mriormro 4 points 2 months ago

Nothing’s stopping you from playing mass effect.

Why does everyone want sequels so badly? Are you all so attached to your nostalgia?

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phx 1 point 2 months ago

The majority of the series was great, but ME3 left a fair bit of unanswered questions at the end and Andromeda only added them.

I'd want a sequel because personally the series still feels unfinished

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I_Jedi 0 points 2 months ago

Without more content, the franchise will die.

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TankovayaDiviziya -1 points 2 months ago

Found Jared Kushner.

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Tigeroovy 3 points 2 months ago

Last EA game I played was Skate and that shit was free.

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flop_leash_973 2 points 2 months ago

And nothing of real value to gamers will be lost.

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lechekaflan 2 points 2 months ago

Once again, the fucking suits.

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Snapz 2 points 2 months ago

Trump fail son in law and journalist murderer

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CarpalTunnelButt 1 point 2 months ago

Fuck EA they've been shit forever.

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stevles 1 point 2 months ago

Saw this coming when the 90% off NFS sale started on Steam

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Lushed_Lungfish 1 point 2 months ago

I remember in the before times. When EA made decent games and we were all young, full of hope for the future, life and love were new.

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brucethemoose -1 points 2 months ago
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