Rumour: EA Job Cuts to Include C&C Team Options

[Saracen]

It's the morale factor that astonishes me. You're working for a big gaming company, developing something you're passionate about and work your ass over every day. Then out of the blue, you realise that you're 95% certain to lose that job because of cuts. You're not going to be anywhere near as enthusiastic. The work ethic is lost, and so is your willingness to do the best you can. You're more concerned about keeping your career alive.

So if you fail to find a new employer, you're just gonna be losing the will to continue as you did before. If the whole team is feeling the same, it's going to affect the development and the game as a whole. That sort of thing reflects in the title, and the end product ends up dive-bombing unless the title can be delayed to make sure it can be what it's meant to be.

Adam Isgreen mentioned once about the change to EA as a publisher from Virgin Interactive during the Tiberian Sun development. EA wanted certain changes made, and the whole Westwood team were unsettled. A few people were cut from the team, and positions were altered to adhere to the budget. In other words, morale was deeply affected. The result? Tiberian Sun was released almost unplayable... crippling bugs, unfinished areas and many minor nuances plagued the game. It wasn't until version 2.0 was the game sufficiently stable and in a "launch" finished state...

The question is here though... if morale takes a similar path, and most of the team go... who's to fix the mess?

[D14810]

Damn, I didn't see this one coming. I seriously thought the economic crisis was about to fade away. Apparently not

I'm afraid APOC will only maintain his position up to the release of C&C4. As soon as the game is released and people loose their interest in C&C4, he will be gone as well

Damn, where does this lead?
I feel empty today, to be honest...

[Malevolence]

The end of C&C franchise I guess. Gee, I hate all these reshuffling and firing of staff and management crap.

[Johnnyxp64]

Damn, I didn't see this one coming. I seriously thought the economic crisis was about to fade away. Apparently not :

there is no real crysis in the game industry those people has so much money you dont imagine
they just dont want to loose 0001% from their fat salaries and they fire developers.-

[D14810]

It's ridiculous huh?

I can't believe they wan't to cut down on the C&C franchise. I mean.. Seriously.. C&C ffs...

Some official announcement soon will be highly appreciated. I hate to go around feeling bad over stuff like this.

[Johnnyxp64]

well in some sort of protest i just changed my profile's avatar.

[Sonic]

The end of C&C franchise I guess.

Don't jump the gun. It looks bleak yes but no one said this is the end of C&C.

APOC is still going to be here, its the current dev team that is moving on after C&C 4 is done. Perhaps there are plans to bring other devs or move the C&C franchise to another EA studio. I'm just speculating. As I said before there are so many questions to be answered.

If all goes well C&C lives on and the all the guys who have lost their jobs will find future employment elsewhere.

After all, having C&C on your résumé, as past titles worked on, can only only be a good thing.

[recover]

This will be the end of another era of C&C, and maybe the start of another, who knows? All this speculating is driving me nuts.

Anyway, one more thing EALA, before you go, will you be able to uphold the promise of de-DRMing RA3? And C&C4?

This post has been edited by recover: Wednesday 11th November 2009 2:04 PM

[D14810]

This will be the end of another era of C&C, and maybe the start of another, who knows?

Let's hope it's as easy as that. But if EA doesn't continue the C&C franchise at all, I suggest they "hand it over" to those who deserves it.

[Raptor 4000]

Let's hope it's as easy as that. But if EA doesn't continue the C&C franchise at all, I suggest they "hand it over" to those who deserves it.

Oh god. As much as they deserve the licence, this is a perfect excus for the hardliner westwoodians to begin the ravings about how Petroglyph are better etc, etc...

At least if they do this, we can throw Generals - Red Alert 3/C&C 4 into Discontinuity.

This post has been edited by Sonic: Wednesday 11th November 2009 8:39 PM

[Apoc]

Hey everyone,

First off, I wanted to let you know my job as your C&C Community Manager is safe, and I am not going anywhere after C&C 4 launches next year. I've got a community to uphold, so if this was a fear within you that your good old friend APOC was departing, fear not.

Second, I would sincerely appreciate if people did not mention development team members names in respect of this situation, no matter what rumors float around the mill. These are real people with families and lives outside of work and its incredibly disrespectful (even as a fan) to mention names in such negative fashion. The lack of compassion often shocks me in real life situations. I will leave it at that and ask for your respect.

Our development team is putting its heart and soul in to C&C 4, and while I cannot speak further to the situation, we are laser focused on getting the Beta rolling and continuing to propel the game further with your participation.

Thanks,
APOC

This post has been edited by EA Apoc: Wednesday 11th November 2009 4:01 PM

[D14810]

Oh god. As much as they deserve the licence, this is a perfect excus for the hardliner westwoodians to begin the ravings about how Petroglyph are better etc, etc...

okay, let's not provoke that further shall we?

Our development team is putting its heart and soul in to C&C 4. We are laser focused on getting the Beta rolling and continuing to propel the game further with your participation.

[Raptor 4000]

okay, let's not provoke that further shall we?

Hence why i ended with etc, etc. I think we all know how that will happen.

[Sonic]

Second, I would sincerely appreciate if people did not mention development team members names in respect of this situation, no matter what rumors float around the mill. These are real people with families and lives outside of work and its incredibly disrespectful (even as a fan) to mention names in such negative fashion. The lack of compassion often shocks me in real life situations. I will leave it at that and ask for your respect.

I completely agree. I've gone through every post in this thread are removed all development team names.

I would like to see all the negative and harsh comments stay out of this thread please. Especially ridiculous references to giving the franchise to other companies

[ORCaLoVeR]

Hey everyone,

First off, I wanted to let you know my job as your C&C Community Manager is safe, and I am not going anywhere after C&C 4 launches next year. I've got a community to uphold, so if this was a fear within you that your good old friend APOC was departing, fear not.

Second, I would sincerely appreciate if people did not mention development team members names in respect of this situation, no matter what rumors float around the mill. These are real people with families and lives outside of work and its incredibly disrespectful (even as a fan) to mention names in such negative fashion. The lack of compassion often shocks me in real life situations. I will leave it at that and ask for your respect.

Our development team is putting its heart and soul in to C&C 4, and while I cannot speak further to the situation, we are laser focused on getting the Beta rolling and continuing to propel the game further with your participation.

Thanks,
APOC

Good to hear you're still around.
As for the ones being layed off. It is a shame, and we can only hope that they will find new jobs after this.

Hey, developing a C&C game standing on ur CV is a good thing ya?

[sith_wampa]

Jeez this must be really tough, APOC, especially since you get to stay and many of your friends don't. We feel for ya.

As for C&C, we're all familiar with EA's cash cow tendencies. C&C brings in tons of money and for them to completely throw it away is ridiculous. And as long as there are people like APOC who really love the game, working for EA, C&C will carry on.

[purplescrin]

Even though if Apoc, EALA and BCPT will be gone, the problem now lies in the main feature in C&C4, full online mode. If EALA is gone after C&C4 is released, what's going to happen when it comes to play C&C4 online? C&C4 MUST HAVE OFFLINE MODE SUPPORT ON RELEASE WHEN THIS SITUATION IS HAPPENING!!!

[jamhaw5]

This is too bad, I was looking forward to this game. I do not like the direction the gameplay was going but I really wanted a grand conclusion to the story. Now it looks like features will be cut, bugs will multiply and the odds of seeing an expansion will decline sharply.

[Sonic]

Development of C&C 4 will continue and has not been affected. Its worse that people have lost their jobs though so just remember that.

[purplescrin]

Update: I found a recent article about that EA is going to bring back some staff to work in only low-cost locations:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091112-717443.html

Not much to say about that though. I say that EA has made another mistake in the business lately.

But once again good luck to those selectable of 1500 workers who might want their jobs back.