Several Mythics are getting fired?

Shangala

http://www.destructoid.com/restructuring-layoffs-forthcoming-at-ea-mythic-studios-50896.phtml

Owing to sagging profits and and a less-than-firm grip on their once invulnerable spot at top of the third party heap, Electronic Arts is looking to make some changes in their corporate structure, starting with Mythic and their Redwood Shores studio. An internal email from a trustworthy source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals that John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, has tasked every studio and company within the monolithic publisher with getting their rising costs in line with revenue, which in plain English means layoffs.

Edit:

Luckily for WAR it seems like its mostly UO devs that are being fired.

aionowns

hmm thats interesting never realized EA was having money issues. honestly i think EA realizes how big and important this game is to them. also how much money its gonna bring them. so i doubt they will let go any 1 really important. most likely they're gonna let go the new noobs on the bottom of the ladder.

Aristea

..well..that's the first stage of what everyone thought when EA bought Mythic. Waiting for the next one..

Thecrow12345

I doubt this will have much effect on Warhammer.  They do not have a solid MMO out there yet (EA) and really need to get one if they wish to compete with current market trends, more players going online to play with their friends.  The MMO market is huge and The only games comming out right now that even stand a chance to compete with WoW are Warhammer and Conan.

Zorvan

My official prediction of the week:

UO and DAoC will soon be on life support  only. Any updates few and far between. Once EA has Warhammer launched, and Biowares' mmo ( whatever it may be )on the horizon, UO and DAoC will be allowed to exist until their population has been sufficiently reduced and then killed.

UO and DAoC will see the birth of Warhammer. But they will only be a memory by the time the Bioware mmo launches.

 

kishe

They are combining their MMO development houses, when you do that you'll automatically get colliding "seats" and it makes no sense to have two people do same job if one person is enough.

 

 

MaeEye

I don't mean to be a party pooper here.  But doesn't this put up a red flag to you guys?  Seems like WAR just began to follow the same path as all the other MMO's that are barely hanging on.  Firing people now?  This is the same thing that happened to Vanguards, to UO and their whole team, now it even happened to Gods and Heroes. . .and I'm sure there are quite a few other titles out there. 

 

I don't want to put all my money on it, but I think EA is maybe realizing WAR isn't going to be as big as they thought.  Or maybe their not happy with what they see, which means we will see a copy paste game like EA thinks is right to do instead of being original.  I don't know, I would be a bit worried if I were you guys.  I'm sure there are more reasons than "we are running out of money."  Cause we know EA has enough of it.

Thecrow12345

 

Originally posted by MaeEye


I don't want to put all my money on it, but I think EA is maybe realizing WAR isn't going to be as big as they thought.  Or maybe their not happy with what they see, which means we will see a copy paste game like EA thinks is right to do instead of being original.  I don't know, I would be a bit worried if I were you guys.  I'm sure there are more reasons than "we are running out of money."  Cause we know EA has enough of it.

 

I think that War is past the point of EA being able to copy paste things from other MMO's into the game.  The RvR PvP is already very advanced because the team has used the great parts of DaOC.  I do think that Zorvan is correct, once new mmos are out what is the point of putting money into games that have low chance of new subscribers.  At its current state Warhammer is passed the point of significantly changing the gameplay and PvP functionality.

Paragus1

This is definitely an unsettling move.   Regardless of how you feel towards WAR, we were assured by both companies that when EA bought Mythic, there would be no real changes to Mythic operations.   We can only hope that the hand of EA will not inflict too much damage.

xray00

Wait a minute people - you are reading way too much into this 'memo'.  First, never trust anything that does not have a person willing to stake his reputation and name on it.  Many people have been made to look like fools because of an 'unnamed inside source.'

Second, assuming the memo is real - it is also a pretty standard procedure in any company.  All J.R. is doing to keeping an eye on the bottom line.  He is telling his people 'Hey, there are some fat cows in the company that need to be squeezed.  They are costing us profit.'

He is not dictating the levels of firings.  He is not changing the scope of the game.  He is not fingering Mythic specifically.  This is a company wide order and applies to every studio the EA owns.  Hell, he didn't even require layoffs though they are to be expected.

In addition, this does not mean that EA is having 'money problems'.  Instead, they see that their profit level is not where they believe it should be and steps are being taken to rectify this problem.  It is what any respectable CEO should and has an obligation to do.

As for the future of UO and DAOC - who cares if they kill them.  Both games have more than run their course and have been very successful.  UO should have been put to bed a long time ago - it has been nothing but a drain for some time.  DAOC has been slowly dieing and there does come a point that it is not worth the little profit it brings in when those resources could be better used.  Both are good games I had fun in but putting them to pasture would not be a bad call.

MaeEye

Originally posted by Paragus1


This is definitely an unsettling move.   Regardless of how you feel towards WAR, we were assured by both companies that when EA bought Mythic, there would be no real changes to Mythic operations.   We can only hope that the hand of EA will not inflict too much damage.

Don't get me wrong, I'm looking very much forward to WAR.  But I have seen what EA can do and what they cannot do.  What they can do is ruin a great game, what they seem not to do is make a very successful game. 

 

Now, I know this is off topic with MMo's, but in all honesty I have never played an EA game that doesn't get boring within a couple of  weeks.  I think the only game that has actually held my interest has been Battlefield 2.  But even Battlefield 2142 shows EA got more into the game.  I'm serious about this too.  Fight night round 3, good at first but then you begin to see it flaws, what about the game BLACK that was suppost to be amazing?  What about the game Ultima X that was suppost to be released in a couple of months before they pulled the plug.  Now, I don't think EA will pull the plug on the game, but there is something here.  I understand they want more team members for WAR and less for UO/DAoC, but some of these team members have worked on WAR and we know this.  Everytime something like this happens, nothing good comes from it. 

 

Believe me, I want WAR to succeed.  Blizzard needs a game to keep them motivated and we need an amazing PVP game.  I just don't think EA is going to deliver that game.  At least not from what I've seen in the past.

Lobotomist

Such a bad news ... sad for Bioware too

mehoron

I think people are reading way too much into this. The first thing you do in a game company isn't fire people. I dunno where this came from. You order less pizza, not spend a $100k on free soda for the company. Stop licensing more copies of 3Ds Max, does the artist really need 5 keys? The last thing you want to do is start pulling the plug on the heart of the game, it's demoralizing for the entire company. After all, if one of the developers can be fired anyone can be next right? I don't understand why everyone thinks big corporations want to shoot themselves in the foot. I mean SOE pulled the plug on Sigil AFTER VG tanked, thats smart. Pulling the plug on devs before the game is done, is a total waste.

Pyrostasis

OOOOH!

 

Is this the part were I get to laugh and say I told you so when I predicted this last year when EA took over? Or do I have to wait a bit longer so everyone else can not only smell the smoke, but see the flames?

I can wait... I dont mind

mehoron

Originally posted by Pyrostasis

OOOOH!
 
Is this the part were I get to laugh and say I told you so when I predicted this last year when EA took over? Or do I have to wait a bit longer so everyone else can not only smell the smoke, but see the flames?
I can wait... I dont mind

Hey, I'm sure it will happen, just not until WAR is done, and EA is sitting on money.

Pyrostasis

Damn

Ok Ill wait a bit longer.... but I got some real good one liners ready and waiting!

Pyrostasis

Oh and for those who think we might be over reacting, take a look at this

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_45/269-The-Conquest-of-Origin

letum6030

It is common practice to alter things when you aquire a company.  These changes usually occur slowly.  EA may have laid off some people, but that won't really change their costs too much.  A large corporation would see a greater cut in profit by removing redundant positions, selling assets that are redundant (i.e. two buildings that house developers), changing benefit packages (i.e. medical/dental/life insurance policies), using cheaper toilet paper/paper towels/hand soap, reducing the percentage of anual raises, changing insurance companies to get better rates (i.e. fire, flood, theft insurance for assets), using a cheaper cleaning company, installing energy efficient lighting, using tankless water heaters, only using the electricity that is essential during non-business hours, cut down on the food purchases for the current employees (i.e. birthday cakes etc), and any other little changes they could think of to reduce overhead.  In a perfect world, the managers would take a pay/benefit cut to ensure that they don't have to layoff people.  This won't happen.  If they lower their overhead, they will increase profitability while still maintaining their work force.  Basically, what they need to do is get rid of the luxuries and make things more simple.  I hope they won't lay off too many people.  Layoffs are very demoralizing and reflect poorly on a company.

Pyrostasis

They arent just laying people off, they are combining studios.

I.E. before hand it was three studies for three games, now its one studio for three games.

On top of that they are also letting people go.

mutantmagnet

I'm not much of a follower of this game but when I saw this news I expected people here to overreact and weep unneccessarily.

Just look at any merger in human history, lay offs have to happen because there are too many employees doing the same thing. If you could find more than 3 cases where mergers occured in the past five years and layoffs didn't occur in eight months I would personally give you ten bucks if you have a paypal account.

Ozmodan

Well Mythic gets to see the true colors of the dragon that swallowed them. 

Pyrostasis

Originally posted by mutantmagnet


I'm not much of a follower of this game but when I saw this news I expected people here to overreact and weep unneccessarily.
Just look at any merger in human history, lay offs have to happen because there are too many employees doing the same thing. If you could find more than 3 cases where mergers occured in the past five years and layoffs didn't occur in eight months I would personally give you ten bucks if you have a paypal account.

Would you like another glass of koolaid sir?

Shoal

Originally posted by Shangala


http://www.destructoid.com/restructuring-layoffs-forthcoming-at-ea-mythic-studios-50896.phtml
Owing to sagging profits and and a less-than-firm grip on their once invulnerable spot at top of the third party heap, Electronic Arts is looking to make some changes in their corporate structure, starting with Mythic and their Redwood Shores studio. An internal email from a trustworthy source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals that John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, has tasked every studio and company within the monolithic publisher with getting their rising costs in line with revenue, which in plain English means layoffs.
 EA showing its true face..

People better start being damn careful about posting this sort of thing.  Unattributed damaging statements regarding company plans, health, and position in the market can be very damaging.  A post like this is undisputable proof of libelous statements.  There would be NO defense, if the information is not true.

This post reminds me of the just recent post on how EVE Online was going to rollback servers two weeks.  Turned out to be a total lie that some noob picked up off a griefer site and reposted here.

Word to the wise.

evil13

 Why are all the people moaning? Did you invest your life savings into ea/mythic stocks in hopes their price will rise with release of war, and now that war might have some problems you are scared you'll lose all your money?

 If they lay off half of mythic's team, the war is in trouble, untill then, who cares?  Also, didn't ea say they wanted a mmog divission with mythic/mark jacobs leading it? Only makes sense to somewhat combine studios. I am sure there will be still different teams on different projects.

 Ither way, untill a large number of people workign on war get laid off, it doesn't mean anything. (unless ea wants them to relocated half a country like they did with uox's dev team lol)

Coman

Originally posted by Shangala


http://www.destructoid.com/restructuring-layoffs-forthcoming-at-ea-mythic-studios-50896.phtml
Owing to sagging profits and and a less-than-firm grip on their once invulnerable spot at top of the third party heap, Electronic Arts is looking to make some changes in their corporate structure, starting with Mythic and their Redwood Shores studio. An internal email from a trustworthy source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals that John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, has tasked every studio and company within the monolithic publisher with getting their rising costs in line with revenue, which in plain English means layoffs.
 EA showing its true face..

OMG DRAMA......

EA = company

company = profit

if company IS NOT (enough) profitable = poeple get fired.

Also happens to the local grosery store/computer retailer/schools/goverment even non-profitable organisations do have to fire poeple.

Kyleran

Layoff's are never good news, but it doesn't always spell the end of a company. (or game).  Large corporations restructure constantly, my own let go of 2300 people a few years back here in my home town...yet still maintains a strong presence in the Line of Business I'm in and we're doing great.

So I'm hoping WAR won't be affected too much, but it does throw up a warning flag..... if you start to see developers let go at this point.... start being worried.....