While it sucks for the people that lost their jobs, I wonder if the Rat Bastards will take a hint that we want quality - or will spend our evaporating disposable income elsewhere.
And in other wonderful announcements from EA, this year not only will they release Madden 09, but Madden 09.5 as well (Its the same game, just in 09.5 they have the first patch which allows the game to function).
On the Battlefield front they will be releasing BF 1603: The Black Death. Your character will be helpless against it and it won't matter because it'll have a DRM scheme that simply installs the nimda virus on your computer and you can't see anything else on the CD.... Ever
Finally EA announced it was planning to go beat up your baby sister.
Bubbaspanky wrote:On the Battlefield front they will be releasing BF 1603: The Black Death. Your character will be helpless against it and it won't matter because it'll have a DRM scheme that simply installs the nimda virus on your computer and you can't see anything else on the CD.... Ever
Finally EA announced it was planning to go beat up your baby sister.
Bubbaspanky wrote:And in other wonderful announcements from EA, this year not only will they release Madden 09, but Madden 09.5 as well (Its the same game, just in 09.5 they have the first patch which allows the game to function).
On the Battlefield front they will be releasing BF 1603: The Black Death. Your character will be helpless against it and it won't matter because it'll have a DRM scheme that simply installs the nimda virus on your computer and you can't see anything else on the CD.... Ever
Finally EA announced it was planning to go beat up your baby sister.
I have a big sister though, and I'm pretty sure she can take EA 2 out of 3 🙂
Atomm wrote:Oddly enough, most other game company's shares went up while EA's went down.....
I'm telling you, the Billion+ buy out of Valve is coming. There slimming down so they can put back the cash to buy Valve.
When does "slimming down" involve losing hundred of millions of dollars? Wouldn't they would be looking to reduce debt and build their cash/stock reserves if they were fixin' for a big deal? They're losing altitude, and they're throwing out ballast in a desperate attempt to clear the mountains.
That's the thing Doc. Letting people go is a way to make money. I forgot the term our CEO used, but it's a big way to shoot cash back into the machine. You also gotta think they have cash reserves.
They lost $641 Million in Q4, but in the same quarter they spent $800 Million to buy Bioware/Pandemic. In my opinion, they made $159 Million last quarter. That $800 just hit the books. With Bioware/Pandemic working on the new Star Wars MMO and with Bioware about to release their own IP Dungeon's and Dragon game, I think they are counting on turning that $800 into a profit this next year or two.
So tell me, did they really need to cut 11% of their workforce or was it a good excuse to hang on to a lot of cash?
I figure Valve is worth anywhere between 1 Billion and 4 Billion. The only way EA won't buy Valve is if Valve buys EA. Remember, it's not their games that makes them so valuable. It's the Steam platform that makes them worth so much to EA. EA needs a digital delivery platform to continue their business of Game Publisher. By cutting out physical media, they increase their profit margin tremendously on a game. When you are as big as EA, it's about wringing as many penny's out of a product as possible, not selling more product. That's why Valve is so valuable.
Or they do like Blizzard and Activision and merge, becoming EA/Valve.
Atomm wrote:That's the thing Doc. Letting people go is a way to make money. I forgot the term our CEO used, but it's a big way to shoot cash back into the machine. You also gotta think they have cash reserves.
They lost $641 Million in Q4, but in the same quarter they spent $800 Million to buy Bioware/Pandemic. In my opinion, they made $159 Million last quarter. That $800 just hit the books. With Bioware/Pandemic working on the new Star Wars MMO and with Bioware about to release their own IP Dungeon's and Dragon game, I think they are counting on turning that $800 into a profit this next year or two.
So tell me, did they really need to cut 11% of their workforce or was it a good excuse to hang on to a lot of cash?
I figure Valve is worth anywhere between 1 Billion and 4 Billion. The only way EA won't buy Valve is if Valve buys EA. Remember, it's not their games that makes them so valuable. It's the Steam platform that makes them worth so much to EA. EA needs a digital delivery platform to continue their business of Game Publisher. By cutting out physical media, they increase their profit margin tremendously on a game. When you are as big as EA, it's about wringing as many penny's out of a product as possible, not selling more product. That's why Valve is so valuable.
Or they do like Blizzard and Activision and merge, becoming EA/Valve.
OK, thanks for clearing up that $800 million and when it it the books for a debit and a credit. In light of that, it does look like they're slimming down unnecessarily. . .unless they didn't have enough cash to keep operating as-is. I wonder if they overextended themselves. They cut operating costs, they wait it out while their products pull in some more cash, and then they can hire back as needed.
Overextended or slimming down, even a blind man can see what Valve would mean to EA. That would mean VALVE also knows it. Hopefully they'll stick to their guns, knowing that in a couple years THEY could be buying EA instead, after they've knocked them (and the price of their stock) down a bit. Valve is sitting pretty in the distribution field, and we all know that digital distribution is going to be the next big thing. It's grown greatly in the past year.
Hey, I wonder if EA fired the semi-trained chimp that's working on the alleged BF2 patch. 🙄
Atomm nailed it with the digital distribution, just look at BF1943 - it will be the Rat Bastards first full game released that way (unlike the up grades and add on's)
With Valve they solve the shitty EA Download store issues they can not get fixed.
Heres the other thing with the aquisition of Valve, they also get a DRM that works and that people mostly like. No more securom which people hate and EA has to pay for.
Another thing I should point out is EA is always trimming their workforce. It's par for the course. They buy a lot of smaller companies and periodically figure out how to combine two jobs into one.