Rumor: EA Closes PopCap Vancouver, EA Partners - UPDATED

[Charli]

I'm so sorry for the people they've gotten rid of, but I kinda have this 'WELL IT'S EA ARE YOU THAT SURPRISED?!'
Gnome screaming in the back of my head.

Very shitty state of affairs.

 

[Longstreet]

Is anyone still suprised? If anyone can find a nice list that includes purchase and shutdown dates we can calculate an average and just start a countdown every time EA purchases a company.

And they still claim they don't deserve the worst company in america 'price'

 

[AstaresPanda]

what a surprise, EA buys a studio and closes them down not long after.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Around 2000 jobs lost? Yikes. If this is the start of EA going down the THQ path then it is going to get pretty painful. Well who ever the new ceo ends up being, for his sake I hope he has big enough bucket to bail out all the water.

 

[Callate]

*sigh*... So, has Popcap released... well, anything new since signing on with EA?

I mean, they laid off George Fan shortly after the acquisition; it wouldn't surprise me if morale at the company wasn't exactly bucking for the skies even before this. Still, this seems like a better-than-usual example of EA taking a company that seemed to be doing pretty well under its own steam and running it into the ground.

And I understand the company is headquartered in Seattle, so closing the Vancouver branch doesn't mean the end of the company. Still... Damn, EA. You sure seem to be making a hash out of a nine-to-ten figure acquisition.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I remember when we liked EA

 

[weirdee]

It's not really a big surprise that they're pulling out of Canada like everybody else, though...

 

[Shuu]

EA must be in trouble now. Can't say it really angers me. Yeah that's a lot of jobs gone, but hopefully it'll wake up the rest of the industry.
If this continues, EA will likely be bought by a larger entertainment firm before it tanks, and if that happens... who knows, they're dodgy business handling might only get worse...

 

[Atmos Duality]

We will have to wait and see just how many actually get the axe; see if it's just more "accumulative cuts", or a mad rush to keep their shareholders on board.

 

[Johnson McGee]

They pay millions for these studios, why do they just shutter them in these situations? They could at least try to find a buyer or other way to let the studio continue to operate while still giving up their financial commitment. I never hear news articles along the lines of 'EA sells studio X to publisher Y' or even 'EA cuts ties to studio X, studio X searching for other financial backers'.

 

[The]

Are they going to have any studios left after this? It's been, like, 2-3 straight weeks of layoffs.

 

[faefrost]

I'm thinking their MMO's take the next hit.

I don't.

EA's counting on its MMOs to save it right now. Their push for so many heavily-monetized F2P MMOs is part of John's initiative to capitalize on the micro-transaction craze. It's the real reason why Bioware's SWTOR team was reduced, with those people shuffled away to work on "other projects"....those "other projects" are the other upcoming MMOs they want to make.

What I do think will happen is that Bioware's going to become their de-facto "MMO maker" and that EA will shut down all of their future non-MMO projects at some point as a cost-cutting measure. All three of their new MMO properties (SWTOR, Ultima Forever, Command and Conquer) have both the EA and Bioware logos on them, and you can expect to see that trend continue as they move away from single player gaming and embrace the easily-monetized and "social" MMO model.

Bioware may become the defacto in house MMO center. But that will most likely be achieved by slashing and burning throughout any other still existing MMO properties and moving all MMO management and development under one roof. So whatever is left of the Ultima folks and the Mythic folks will be pounding pavement.

But even with that, SWTOR is part of the problem. It cost too much to make. It cost more to make then could ever be made back with f2p transactions. Heck it cost more to make then could ever be made back in a reasonable time frame with a monthly subscription model (if your name isn't Blizzard). SWTOR carries on because the cost of such a failure is still felt to be too high. But here's the danger. SWTOR is probably never in and of itself going to make it's development costs back. The math just doesn't work for it. But it is a good paid for platform for working out bugs and tech and methodology for that microtransaction driven model that you talk about. This is great, and keeps the game going... up until the point where new management or a clever accountant points out that it would have a better effect on the bottom line to just shutter it, take the loss and write it off for tax purposes. I suspect that the numbers from the SWTOT Hutt expansion will be watched closely at corporate.

 

[faefrost]

They pay millions for these studios, why do they just shutter them in these situations? They could at least try to find a buyer or other way to let the studio continue to operate while still giving up their financial commitment. I never hear news articles along the lines of 'EA sells studio X to publisher Y' or even 'EA cuts ties to studio X, studio X searching for other financial backers'.

That's because EA often buys the studios in large part for the IP. Even if they shutter the studio they still own and control the IP.

 

[faefrost]

EA's girth is getting the better of them. I wouldn't be surprised if these cuts continue and EA ends up downsizing and focusing all of their efforts on a specific demographic. I'd have thought a multimedia conglomerate would have bought them out by now, but considering how poor their stock's doing I don't really blame anyone from staying away.

Hopefully this ends soon. As much as I feel the industry needs to undergo a big change, it always sucks to have studios close and people lose their jobs.

Maybe after seeing THQ go down, potential buyers are waiting for EA to fall apart so they can bid on bits and pieces of the company.

If EA does fall apart, I'm guessing it'll be a very slow fall. I imagine they still have plenty of chances now to correct themselves before their investors want to bail with paychecks from liquidation.

the problem is, if EA falls there probably won't be anyone with the interest or the backing to bid on those pieces. EA falling would trigger the second great video game crash (if it isn't already happening). Investors and financial institutions would be loathe to throw money at those seeking to buy up its assets at anything beyond junk prices. There won't be a lot of venture capital out there to develop the projects. The fall of EA might make video games toxic from a financial services point of view. We as gamers don't want that. As much as we hate EA, we do not want them going under. We want them smaller, better, and back to delivering the sorts of games we grew up with. But them falling over completely is bad for all of us.

 

[mechalynx]

*many facepalms*

Dear EA!

Please understand that you only know one thing when it comes to gaming and that is EA Sports. Anything else is a complete mystery. Pull your collective heads out of your sphincters and leave the running of the company to someone why actually understands the market.

Honestly, every time EA is mentioned nowadays this image pops in my head

 

[Johnson McGee]

They pay millions for these studios, why do they just shutter them in these situations? They could at least try to find a buyer or other way to let the studio continue to operate while still giving up their financial commitment. I never hear news articles along the lines of 'EA sells studio X to publisher Y' or even 'EA cuts ties to studio X, studio X searching for other financial backers'.

That's because EA often buys the studios in large part for the IP. Even if they shutter the studio they still own and control the IP.

They'd still be better off negotiating a license deal for some proceeds of their IP rather than just sitting on a bunch of defunct franchises. Even if they want to keep their IP they could still give the studio the opportunity to keep its talent and infrastructure together.

 

[Chaos Marine]

Different management, same shit, EA.

 

[Grabehn]

"EA closes PopCap Vancouver" Wait... EA OWNS POPCAP???!!! WHAT?! I never even knew about this and now my day has become completely sad and depressing.

 

[Erttheking]

It's getting kinda depressing with how routine this all is.

Exactly how is EA still sustaining itself when it's constantly loosing developers anyway?