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EA: departures are coincidental

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EA Departures "coincidental"

We’ve been worrying about EA lately. Geoff wondered if it was a sinking ship following departures from Criterion, Popcap and Chillingo stables, followed by their spokesman. Now EA CEO Andrew Wilson is saying it’s all coincidental.

During the publisher’s earnings call, Wilson downplayed the flock of people leaving the company, claiming EA is still all about the creativity:

As a company we’re a creative organization. I came up through the creative side of the organization and I still have a deep passion for bringing in new creative talent and keeping our talent, but also as part of a creative industry people come and go for all kinds of different reasons. You’ve seen some recently have left and these changes happened to be announced in a short window, which was more coincidental than anything and there definitely was no connection between their departures.

So, creative differences? Isn’t that the excuse people have used for years when actually it’s all about awful working conditions, personality clashes or management turmoil? I’m still not convinced that all is okay at EA – it just seems far too convenient that everyone is jumping ship at the same time. Maybe it’s all about people wanting to go indie and take advantage of the “Indie Renaissance” that’s going on at the moment, but my gut tells me that something far more sinister is going on.

It doesn’t seem that people leaving will have a huge impact on EA, though. Wilson explained that work is still underway at those affected studios:

EA as an organization, we’ve got over 8,000 amazingly talented and creative people and we’d love to see these people have the opportunity to step up and lead our studios – guys like John Vechey at PopCap, Matt Webster at Criterion and Ed Rumley at Chillingo have all been at their respective studios for a long time and bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm and new creative thinking to their roles. These studios all have exciting work underway.

I think the implication here is that with 8k employees, we should stop focusing on the people who have left. Sure, I get that plenty of people are staying at EA, but I think the corporate culture varies widely from one studio to another. If your game/studio makes money, EA doesn’t seem to interfere too much. However, if you aren’t profitable, they will step in, take over, and add micro transactions. I suppose only time will tell – who will be the next person to run away screaming?

Last Updated: January 29, 2014

29 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief in Vegas

    January 29, 2014 at 09:30

    • Hammersteyn

      January 29, 2014 at 09:33

      • Admiral Chief in Vegas

        January 29, 2014 at 09:34

        hehehe

        Reply

      • TiMsTeR1033

        January 29, 2014 at 09:45

        Bath time!!

        Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        January 29, 2014 at 10:22

        Mac Maharaj should work for EA “No, the boat isn’t sinking, it’s actually a submarine”

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 29, 2014 at 11:12

          Bwahaha

          Reply

      • Anon A Mouse

        January 29, 2014 at 11:33

        If that doesn’t at least happens once in your golf game, you’re doing it wrong.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 29, 2014 at 11:41

          A couple of my clubs and balls has done that so it’s something 😛

          Reply

  2. Hammersteyn

    January 29, 2014 at 09:33

    I knew I said I wasn’t supporting EA anymore but I ended up buying C&C Ultimate collection seeing how a new C&C isn’t coming out any time soon. Plus it was cheap. I feel so dirty yet satisfied.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief in Vegas

      January 29, 2014 at 09:35

      1. Money spent
      2. Cheap
      3. Dirty
      4. Satisfied

      O_O

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 29, 2014 at 09:40

        Yup just like that.

        Reply

      • Gerhard Davids

        January 29, 2014 at 10:37

        Sounds like last Friday, only it happened on the corner of a dodge street. O_o

        Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    January 29, 2014 at 09:40

    And all the guys dumping stock at the same time. What a coincidence.

    Reply

  4. Kromas

    January 29, 2014 at 09:54

    3 Step plan to make EA better.
    1: Dissolve the company
    2: Sell Bioware and DICE to Valve.
    3: Winning.

    Reply

    • SheHulkNigri

      January 29, 2014 at 10:03

      Yeah no. At least with EA, we got to see an ending to Mass Effect (albeit a questionable one) Half Life?
      So no. Keep any franchise as far away from Valve as possible if you value continuity/closure.

      Reply

      • Kromas

        January 29, 2014 at 10:14

        Ah but you misread my post. I did not say sell the IPs to valve but rather sell the companies along with the IPs. Valve lets their partners do whatever they please as long as the game passes their quality standards. As a second though they could sell to CDProject Red or even Deep Silver as long as Bioware and DICE never fall into the hands of Blizzard/Activision.

        Edit: As a second though a game with Bioware’s story and Blizzard’s cinematics would be totally like amazingly awesome.

        Reply

        • SheHulkNigri

          January 29, 2014 at 10:23

          True on the Blizzard cinematics and Bioware’s story goes but no. I do not want my beloved Mass Effect close to Fat Gabe. (Let me tell you, if one fat guy calls another one fat, then you know there is not a lot of love there, but a lot of lard?)
          I just do not want that same attitude that sank Half Life to seep into ME…

          Reply

          • Kromas

            January 29, 2014 at 10:29

            True but we also have to look at stats and EA is doing far worse. They crapped on ME3 and they screwed up BF4.The brought the C&C franchise to its knees and let us not even go near any future Star Wars game plans cause I can not see it ending well. Oh and then there is Sim Shitty. Valve has only HL3 that we can really complain about.

          • SheHulkNigri

            January 29, 2014 at 10:37

            ME3 (endings be damned) was still an awesome game. BF4 I am not too fazed about as honestly, I do not play online at all. But with that said, I do agree that Bioware and DICE may be better off elsewhere. Deep Silver can stay with EA for the way they ass-violated Saints Row with that abomination called Saints Row IV.
            And Maxis should feel ashamed for the way they have allowed Sims fans like myself to be milked by all the expansion packs they release.
            So they can stay too. Look, I am the resident Lazygamer Sims fan, and even I can say now I am not looking forward to the Sims 4. Just thinking of that game makes my ass wince…

          • Kromas

            January 29, 2014 at 10:41

            I heard you pay for the game but you have to buy a dlc to unlock gameplay and then rent a server for single player. Also your Sims die within 24 hours unless you buy the inoculation dlc and wait 4 months for them to patch it in. At least you will get a free copy of Sim Shitty as an apology 2 months down the line. 😛

          • Johan du Preez

            January 29, 2014 at 11:41

            I love the butthurt Half Life fanboys that in their minds believe that half life 3 is a fail but in fact its never been announced or talked about by valve.

            Once again if you pretend in your mind something is going to happen it doesn’t mean that it really exists. Once you come to the realization that you have been bullshitting yourself in your mind all this time then only will you be able to accept it and move on.

    • Admiral Chief in Vegas

      January 29, 2014 at 10:10

      *sniff*

      That brought a tear to my eye, so beautiful, so true, so moving!

      Reply

      • Kromas

        January 29, 2014 at 10:18

        I believe the my post should be read with Aerosmith’s Armageddon song in the background. (Don’t wanna miss a thing)

        Reply

  5. RinceThis2014

    January 29, 2014 at 10:05

    Voted worst company 2 years in a row, nah, people leaving is all a coincidence… I call BS!

    Reply

    • HvR

      January 29, 2014 at 10:06

      “As a company we’re a creative organization” more BS!!

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        January 29, 2014 at 10:31

        It’s all about “artistic integrity”, lads! :p

        Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 29, 2014 at 11:13

        They were pretty creative with Syndicate and SimCity, too bad it’s not what people wanted

        Reply

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