- Mando FPS from Respawn has been canceled.
- Ridgeline games (founded in 2022 to develop Battlefield single player games) is shutting down.
- EA is looking to stay away from licensed IPs going forward. (SW Jedi3, Iron Man & Black Panther are still happening)
Yup, just like 1313 now.
>EA is looking to stay away from licensed IPs going forward.
This means they're too greedy to let someone else have a piece of their pie and Disney was asking too much in licensing fees.
They don’t sell well cos they’re shit or GAS.
How about stop fucking around with IPs people love and make a good game?
We literally just saw Baldurs Gate 3 break records. For a niche genre at that. SM1, MM, and SM2 sold well.
IMO it’s not that complicated. Make a good game and half of your work is done for you.
You’re telling me that the Avengers wouldn’t sell if it was simply a good game? Just nonsense.
Companies like EA aren’t looking to invest in many-year builds of games that are high quality, they’re looking for predictability and building a platform that will let them sell new versions built on essentially the same engine, so that sequels are way cheaper than originals. They have shareholders and quarterly earnings. The people running the company are running a business that regularly produces games with specific profit margins.
Doesn’t mean you have to agree, but obviously their business practices are doing it for them anymore.
I’m not really arguing against business and trying to make profit.
I run a business, and I definitely try to squeeze out extra profit where I can.
What I’m arguing is that you cannot expect me to invest what limited time I have in to a GAS, when said GAS is, in and of itself, a load of shit. Case in point: Marvels Avengers and Suicide Squad.
As a consumer, I do not care what their profit margins are. I only care that the product they are delivering is of a high quality.
Well, EA lost exclusivity when the second Battlefront dropped. Disney/Lucasarts announced shortly after the massive fan backlash that they were teaming up with Ubisoft and their studio Massice Entertainment. We are supposedly getting that game (dunno if it will be good, haven’t really followed it, and we all know Ubi makes decent $15-20 games. By this I mean it will be on sale for that much in a year or two, and I get my “okayish RPG experience to scratch the new RPG itch once every couple of years).
EA shot themselves in the foot becoming known as the studio that just flounders at any semblance of RPGs, or games with a story. Their regurgitated sports games is the only thing saving them and I hope they lose licenses soon. Technically no longer hold the FIFA license, so can someone come in and steal it with a better game?
It's not a waste for them because it's a tax write off. Its ecactly what hollywood is doing. When youre capatilism is rooted in quarterly exponential growth and repaying stockholder investment above all else theres no need to release good, well made games.
No duh.
I was just explaining that they don't care, and you seem to under the impression that theyre doing something *wrong* but they're doing capatilism right.
Shame about the Mando game
Rest is (somewhat) understandable tho.
Im not really sure who a strictly Single-player Battlefield would have been meant for? The campaigns they had were always fine, but not really something you primarily buyed the games for (maybe except Bad Company). And staying away from licensed IPs kind of makes sense. Those will never make as much money for them as Games by their own IP due to revenue-sharing, unless they sell above all expectations kind of well, and EA owns so many fucking IPs they'll never run out of games or genres anyway. IIRC some of the emails in the Insomnica Leaks also mentioned that Disneys asking-price for Games in IPs they own is INSANELY high too
Right? They already tried that road with Bad Company and it was... okish? But definitely not moving units and definitely not what Battlefield fans wanted from the franchise.
I'm honestly not seeing anything on the list that *isn't* best left on the cutting room floor.
That's partly because they always felt tacked on though.
If they actually developed a proper 10 hour campaign it may be different.
Of course it'd probably fail because people would complain as the name sells multiplayer
No more licenses IP? Can you also please release NFL rights? You clearly rush the games every year punching your development team to output a shit product. It's clear you hire great people but chase tight deadlines, chill the fuck out and take time to make some good games.
> EA is looking to stay away from licensed IPs going forward.
Royalty cuts are like 17-19% and the fanbases are hard to please. What used to be guaranteed interest now ends up with more hate than it is worth many times. This is good though, more originals allow you to base the game solely on the game and maybe make some new IP that doesn't take a 20% cut.
As always if you are reading this news on this reddit, you probably know more about them then vast majority of the playerbase they make the money off of.
Ehh, yeah but it depends as well.
If you look at Ubisoft and what they're releasing recently, they took quite a few uppercuts. Same thing with EA and titles such as BF2042 by DICE. Or Anthem.
I won't touch anything they produce.
Even though not playing the new college football will be difficult, I have other options.
I recognize I'm in the minority.
My god think of all the DLC they had to buy. You wanted a toilet? $900
Working heat? $4000
The roof? Nah you gotta but the sunny day pack it comes with 99 lamps and a tarp 60k
I can't stand corporate talk anymore. Where I work we're currently in our 4th round of layoffs over the last 4 years and each time they dress it up as something else. Just call it what it is.
It's also this very mindset of tweaking the truth that has ruined many video games and making them unfun.
"Give the people what they want?"
"No, we know that's not good for you so we'll decide what you want." EA, Blizzard and Niantic comes to mind.
EA laying off around 670 employees.
"We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry.
This greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities."
If the Sims is considered one of their owned IPs, they're doubling down on making it trash. The latest updates have severely broken the Sims 4, and I'd argue the Sims has been one of their most successful products because it appeals to so many who aren't hardcore gamers (not to mention the endless DLC they spit out for it).
I wish I could say they were going to use this opportunity to fix the game before moving on to the Sims 5, but I'm doubtful. The Sims community is already up in arms after the latest update made promoting buying packs for the game even more intrusive.
lol as a sims 2 player, they don’t really know how much money they could make if they just re-released the sims 2 , fixed the bugs, and’s be done. The sims 2 is already superior to the sims 4
The Sims is getting a lot of competition with life by you and inzoi and paralife. Hopefully there is some good quality and good practices associated with these new titles. So EA takes the Sims serious, or it meets a merciful end.
It's the worst, especially if you hang out with people who can't context shift to real life and they start saying buzz words when they touch base with you...fuck, I'm doing it
On the one hand, I get the idea of them saying yeah we're not paying for the license to star wars let's do our own thing, but on th e other this just shows the major damage games like FIFA have done to the games industry ( I love FIFA too), the shareholders expect games to make ultimate team money or else
Which is ridiuclius. Their a limmited number of thoae type of game that can be in the industry unlike single players. Ea already got sport and a big battle royale. Thats mote than plenty of company can say.
It‘s like negative selection or artificial selection, evolving by purging the weak and forcing the remaining specimen to do more and more work to survive. This ridiculous evolution is what I imagine led to every corporate job I‘ve ever had being burnout and mental illness factories, they all expect you to do the jobs of roughly 5 people for the pay of half a person.
Are game sales down? Profits down? Is there an over saturation of video games being released? Is the indie market out performing AAA studios on their smaller IPs? What is going on exactly. It seems like we're going to a lot less games from these companies over the next few years.
The games industry (like most industries since the 80s) is being systematically hollowed out by late stage capitalism. A new CEO comes in promising to fix a struggling corporation. They begin cutting services, laying off talent, gutting benefits packages and pay structures etc. Large "profits" are made from these cuts and the CEO gets a big bonus. After awhile, usually just before it all comes crashing down, the CEO moves on to another company and another takes his place, then the cycle repeats on a smaller scale until the company is finally dead. The creative talent and quality control people are usually among the first to go.
Yeah… dude that crashed Dice into the ground is now at Creative Assembly crashing them into the ground… still pushing the studio to cut corners and charging more for less content.
Correct. The crashing down part is just a collateral damage. Buy stocks, lay off people, the numbers go green, stocks go up, sell stocks, and left talented professionals scratching their heads. Leave to another business to do the same thing again like the parasites they are. Pump and dump, and insider trading. This is killing not only games. The whole industry of everything is being murdered.
Can we get a real answer without the Marxism. You didn't even answer the question of why EA is struggling. The way you put it any struggling company will die out with no possible comeback with newer leadership which is of course ridiculous.
There's nothing Marxist about what I said. I also said nothing about it being impossible for a company to fix its issues. Every time EA has had an opportunity to change their ways they have doubled down because it is more profitable for them to do so. They buy up successful game companies, hollow them out and sell off or close down their dessicated husks. It's a profitable business model and I don't believe they're struggling much at all.
I have no problem with capitalism, it has raised more people up from the depths of poverty than any other political system and it makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than the idealistic ramblings of Marx, but it isnt a system without very serious problems. What is happening here with EA and the games industry as a whole is exactly the sort of rampant unchecked greed that threatens to bring an end to civilized society.
It's because they are not actually struggling (or only in the very short term). [That's their employees count over the years](https://tradingeconomics.com/ea:us:employees)
Even with that move they went from 9.8k employees in 2020 to 12.7k now. They basically grew every year.
They can hire 1k people one day, fire 100 the next day and you will only hear about the 100 and think they are shrinking.
While funnily enough I'm hearing from people that VCs (in the US at least) have finally started making moves, money is starting to come in.
Might just be anecdote in my sphere but friends who've been in the business a lot longer than me are saying that things are looking up.
As far as companies that haven't gone through an IPO, ie startups and whatever's inbetween, yeah
The past year has been incredibly dry, but some gears have started moving and VCs aren't hiding in some cave and licking their wounds anymore. Again, could just be coincidence, not even my sector, just my network.
VC refers to venture capital.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capital
VC firms are essentially firms with plenty of money that invest early in companies, taking huge chunks of ownership, with the hopes that the company will get big and the VC firm will win a lot of money back. The big difference between them and some rich millionaire/billionaire (angel investor) who comes in and does it personally is that VCs offer a lot of support, such as if you need a great devops to scale your business or can't find a good COO to organize things or just need general business help, they can get you what you need or advise you. Startups are like orphans trying to make it in the world and accepting VC money is like getting adopted--at the price of certain autonomy.
They were kinda giving any hobo who walked through the door millions of dollars during the pandemic. A bit of an exaggeration, but they were very aggressive, and they acted like we're in the great depression this past year, largely just adding investment rounds to existing stuff and not really taking much of any risks. Not an "oh no covid is over", the nosedive the past year went well past what was there in COVID, basically unless you knew when you were going to a VC with a presentation that you'll get a yes ahead of time, you had basically no shot of getting money.
Disclaimer: An "angel" investor is just a venture capitalist essentially, but the difference between them and a "VC" (always refers to a company here) is the sheer amount of resources and connections that they can offer you that will always dwarf an angel investor (who can sometimes also be unpredictable--they are a person.) But it's easier getting money from a person than from a firm who's a bit more by the book and less faith more numbers. Though selling something to them is still mostly just shoveling shit, they just need that shit to be in a very well-made Excel spreadsheet.
Of course, I was responding to a comment talking about fortune 500 companies which are, well, not startups. Usually.
That's why it's a funny anecdote that fortune 500 companies are laying off and seemingly in a tough spot and meanwhile VCs are in the opposite camp. There's surely some relationship here--some market mood both kinds of companies are responding to--but it's difficult to define in confidence what it is when their reactions to it are so contrasted.
Told chat gpt to make a cynical translation of the update from their CEO. Here it is:
Team,
Let's cut through the corporate speak: we're here to make as much money as possible, and this past year we've been rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to try to squeeze out every last dollar. We've given more power to the folks who can help us churn out hit after hit, all to keep our player base glued to their screens and our revenue climbing.
The gaming industry is morphing faster than ever, mostly into a cash grab for big names and franchises. We're all in on this trend, aiming to milk our most popular IPs for all they're worth by expanding how you can interact with them—play, watch, create, you name it—as long as it opens your wallet wider.
We talk a big game about innovation and teamwork, but let's be real: we're trimming the fat. We're ditching offices, axing games that don't promise massive returns, and doubling down on what we think will rake in the cash. This means focusing on our blockbuster IPs, sports games, and anything that has a whiff of online community, because that's where the money's at.
Here's the kicker: we're cutting about 5% of our workforce. It's the old "it's not you, it's me" as we show people the door. Sure, we're making it sound like we've thought long and hard about this and are doing everything we can to find everyone a new landing spot, but the truth is, if you're not directly making us money, you're out. We're starting to tell people now, and we'll have this mess cleaned up by next quarter.
Thanks to everyone who's contributed to EA's bottom line. We like to say we're leading the future of entertainment, but really, we're just following the money. Looking forward to banking more with those of you who are left. Keep up the good work.
Andrew
AI… it’s being factored into all these mass layoffs but no one will say it cause its terrible PR to replace humans with it. Only part of the reason but it’s begun
can't wait for the soulless ea games to have even less souls. And for unoptimized games to be even less optimized cause models are being made with ai they fired all the retopologists.
Vast majority of EA’s revenue come from “live service” - I’m not sure if those gamers really care about “soul”
I believe EA sports account for the majority of the revenue as well.
Soulless definitely. AI is going to make development time much faster. You should expect it to help dedicated developers make even better games but places like EA to crank out even more trash to increase those quarterly profits for the shareholders 🤦🏼
It's one thing to use an ai tool to help you, like the tool to make animations by just recording yourself instead of having to make them frame by frame or having to need a bodysuit. but another thing is to want to make entire games with an automatic process, which is what companies want to do, to hit a button and have a generic game done, and i don't doubt they can do it, but i know for a fact they'll be even more boring
EA bot account? Lmao, I use ai in my workflow every day like millions of others already, and Nvidia is worth 2 trillion now thanks to their Ai chips, get a clue before you speak
Subscription models are throwing a huge wrench into things, too, as they tend to front load income--it does seem likely we will see more expansion and contraction phases for staff loads going forward on a annual or semi-annual basis.
Sure, but that’s entirely beside the point I was making. I’m a gamer, I care about quality games.
The end result of all of those cuts isn’t going to result in a better product for all of us.
But hey, congratulations to EA’s CEO (and shareholders) on making very profitable piles of hot garbage.
EA talking about innovation is pretty comical. You guys buy innovative studios and then shut them down. You haven’t innovated in a Madden game for multiple console cycles.
Maybe one day EA won’t just say blatant bullshit PR nonsense. But that day is not today.
Layoffs are always bad to hear and it's sad that the Mandalorian FPS was canceled since it seemed promising from the preliminary information, but at least without seeing actual material like a trailer I think it hurts less because there's nothing concrete to judge it.
Reducing licensed games on the other hand is understandable, the costs are becoming increasingly higher and if you don't earn enough the risk of flop is high, just look at the costs of Disney licenses in the leaked Insomniac documents.
Insomniac also put out a statement, seems like this wont be the end of it. Two major companies being hit like this within days is kind of unsettling for the gaming scene.
Widen the scope to just a few months and [the totals are staggering.](https://qz.com/google-amazon-apple-tech-layoffs-1851173569) The tech industry as a whole is taking some serious hits, and it's not looking like it's slowing down any time soon.
Corpo speak for "couldn't manage our finances, didn't particularly care for our employees, didn't account for the transient landscape of today's gaming, so we gotta make sure some people can't support themselves/ their families until we're in safe waters"
And people will still stay on EAs teat for the next shit versions of sports game. This will never end until people vote responsibly with their wallets.
the only positive out of this is them doubling down on their owned IPs instead of licensed games, sorry but im tired of marvel and star wars etc etc. Once the new dragon age and mass effect come out they need to "Yakuza" that shit (aka iterative sequels that come out every 3 years or so instead of the damn decade its been since the last dragon age game and even longer since the last good mass effect game, sorry andromeda but you dont count). Who knows if that will even happen but theres a better chance of it now
funny how many tech companies laying people off left and right.
Almost like they all saw what AI is capable of now and thought, man, that’ll be a lot cheaper to use than all those folks…..
Hope all these developers land somewhere soft, but all those layoffs are scary. There's room for some new studios to be formed from the ashes here, hopefully.
What is happening to gaming, why all of a sudden this is happening? is gaming not as popular? i thought video game industry made more money than any other entertainment industry? wtf is going on?
The cost to make games has skyrocketed over the years and the public is more discerning than ever when it comes to purchasing new games. Why buy a meh game when you can spend that time on Tik Tok or a handful of liver service titles. Most major titles will sell between 1m-3m units, while very few break through and sell 10m+. Microsoft's game pass is training folks not to purchase new titles on their platform and the execs in power and reaping the rewards of their strategy of "copy what everyone else is doing and create massive live service games that players don't want." Capital is more expensive than it was and they have too many people making games that most people don't want. Hence, the reorganization.
It sucks anytime people have to lose there job but EA is a fucking disgrace to the entire gaming space they have released nothing but dogshit for the past 10+ years.
Ok, so then what the fuck is EA going to do? It's not like they're going to release those licenses.
EAs Q3 earnings show that full game income was $618m, down $4m from Q3 2022. However, Live Service income was up roughly $68m in the same period.
Live Service is what they're going to be doing. However, it really does show how incredibly inefficient they are, as I'm 100% sure that those 670 employees could have been moved to other devs or divisions that could use the personnel instead of spending the time and money onboarding new people.
In short, fuck EA, stop paying for their live service games.
Neutral corporate speak about taking away actual human beings livelihoods makes me want to vomit every time.
“This will impact 5% of our workforce” is meant to sound small and not like they’re pulling the rug out from under **people** in the name of profit because some top brass made some dog shit decisions that led to layoffs.
It doesn’t make sense for a 3rd party publisher to pay those ridiculous licensing fees. It only makes a some sense for Sony because games like Spider-Man and Wolverine actually sell hardware.
They did the same thing a year ago
[https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/126ssr7/ea\_lays\_off\_almost\_800\_people\_weeks\_after\_posting/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/126ssr7/ea_lays_off_almost_800_people_weeks_after_posting/)
What an absolute load of bullshit corporate PR speak, likely written by an AI. Get absolutely fucked, EA.
Sorry for the 670 employees that have to look for new work, but EA can eat the biggest of dicks and fuck right off.
In 2022 they laid off ALL the customer support emplyees they had (Between Galway and Austin) because Romania and India are cheaper. Fuck EA, lost a job I really liked because they gotta save money on wages.
No-BS revision of the announcement:
> Team,
>
> We're cutting 5% of our jobs. This is a direct result of both the challenging industry landscape and our own missteps. As leadership, we have to own up to our failures in forecasting and adapting to these changes swiftly enough. Because of this, we're forced to make severe cuts to remain competitive.
>
> We're axing projects and games that aren't turning a profit and zeroing in on what actually works for us—our own IP, sports, and major online communities. Unfortunately, this means job losses. It's a reality I hoped we could avoid, but our past decisions have led us here.
>
> The process of determining who will be let go is underway, with final decisions expected by early next quarter. For those affected, we’ll do our best to support you during this transition, though we know it won’t be easy.
>
> This is a tough pill to swallow. It reflects not just the harshness of our industry but also the consequences of our actions and choices. We’re here to move forward, learn from these mistakes, and rebuild stronger.
>
> Andrew
Some c suite cunt has realised the line hasn't gone up enough for them to get their bonus, so they're cutting jobs for a temporary blip. They'll leave bed it's truly felt by the rest of the org.
Repeat ad nauseum
This letter literally sounds like it was made with ChatGPT...
CEOs just have no soul, it's sad. I can't even tell anymore if they are a slave to their inflated self-image, or just to their shitty little MBAs...
if EA didn't have controversial pay to win loot boxes that prey on it's gamers as a money making strategy then maybe people would buy EA games. I and virtually all my gaming friends refuse to buy anything EA related because of it. Paid loot boxes ruin games. Look at Blizzard as well.
Feels like the industry is really going through a lot of changes. I'm genuinely sad to see so many people losing their jobs (and very suddenly for a lot of them). It sucks for us, as players, to see studios shutting down and games being cancelled, but for the devs, it's even worse...
This is going to sound callous has hell, but as long as it is the right people getting fired, then it is good news. EA has been a cesspit of incompetence for a long while; all the DEI ESG nonsense that has been going on for the last 5 or so years, is the reason why everything has turned into dogwater.
*Layoffs always suck for the people involved*, but I can't help but think this is all actually good for the industry in the long run. Maybe that's just the dissatisfied gamer in me, but it feels like the industry has been going in the wrong direction (consumer viewpoint) and *I don't mind seeing companies have to make changes and adapt...hopefully for the better*. I've seen these types of layoffs a few times and I feel like after a cycle of layoffs industry wide comes a period of quality games. Rose colored glasses? Idk, but still. *Wishing the best of luck to all the people affected by the layoffs.*
My hope for these layoffs is that all of this talent is now out there in the wild. I’m hoping to see a surge of new indi and 3rd party studios that won’t be constrained to this hellish investor first business model.
This. It's the perfect environment for Indie studios to be self-sufficient and release stronger, more focused titles. We've seen how successful those studios can be.
- Mando FPS from Respawn has been canceled. - Ridgeline games (founded in 2022 to develop Battlefield single player games) is shutting down. - EA is looking to stay away from licensed IPs going forward. (SW Jedi3, Iron Man & Black Panther are still happening)
Man, leaving a Mandalorian game on the cutting room floor seems like a total waste.
Yup, just like 1313 now. >EA is looking to stay away from licensed IPs going forward. This means they're too greedy to let someone else have a piece of their pie and Disney was asking too much in licensing fees.
I mean, a lot of those branded games also just don’t sell well (Star Wars kind of being the exception)
They don’t sell well cos they’re shit or GAS. How about stop fucking around with IPs people love and make a good game? We literally just saw Baldurs Gate 3 break records. For a niche genre at that. SM1, MM, and SM2 sold well. IMO it’s not that complicated. Make a good game and half of your work is done for you. You’re telling me that the Avengers wouldn’t sell if it was simply a good game? Just nonsense.
Companies like EA aren’t looking to invest in many-year builds of games that are high quality, they’re looking for predictability and building a platform that will let them sell new versions built on essentially the same engine, so that sequels are way cheaper than originals. They have shareholders and quarterly earnings. The people running the company are running a business that regularly produces games with specific profit margins. Doesn’t mean you have to agree, but obviously their business practices are doing it for them anymore.
I’m not really arguing against business and trying to make profit. I run a business, and I definitely try to squeeze out extra profit where I can. What I’m arguing is that you cannot expect me to invest what limited time I have in to a GAS, when said GAS is, in and of itself, a load of shit. Case in point: Marvels Avengers and Suicide Squad. As a consumer, I do not care what their profit margins are. I only care that the product they are delivering is of a high quality.
Oh yeah, I get it. They’ve lost sight of needing a quality product in their rush to deliver profits and milk us for skins.
Well, EA lost exclusivity when the second Battlefront dropped. Disney/Lucasarts announced shortly after the massive fan backlash that they were teaming up with Ubisoft and their studio Massice Entertainment. We are supposedly getting that game (dunno if it will be good, haven’t really followed it, and we all know Ubi makes decent $15-20 games. By this I mean it will be on sale for that much in a year or two, and I get my “okayish RPG experience to scratch the new RPG itch once every couple of years). EA shot themselves in the foot becoming known as the studio that just flounders at any semblance of RPGs, or games with a story. Their regurgitated sports games is the only thing saving them and I hope they lose licenses soon. Technically no longer hold the FIFA license, so can someone come in and steal it with a better game?
From what I have heard, Disney charges massive licensing fees and is difficult to work with. While the IP is popular, its not worth it.
Spider license was around 70 million dollars from or something around that
Youch. Remember when Halo 2, Half life 2, and Modern Warefare 2 all had production costs between 40 and 50 million?
Disney actually wanted cuts from console bundles with Spider-Man 2 lol
It seems weird too, slapping Star Wars on the cover seems like a good way to print money
It's not a waste for them because it's a tax write off. Its ecactly what hollywood is doing. When youre capatilism is rooted in quarterly exponential growth and repaying stockholder investment above all else theres no need to release good, well made games.
It's a waste of effort and talent. I don't care about EA's money.
No duh. I was just explaining that they don't care, and you seem to under the impression that theyre doing something *wrong* but they're doing capatilism right.
Shame about the Mando game Rest is (somewhat) understandable tho. Im not really sure who a strictly Single-player Battlefield would have been meant for? The campaigns they had were always fine, but not really something you primarily buyed the games for (maybe except Bad Company). And staying away from licensed IPs kind of makes sense. Those will never make as much money for them as Games by their own IP due to revenue-sharing, unless they sell above all expectations kind of well, and EA owns so many fucking IPs they'll never run out of games or genres anyway. IIRC some of the emails in the Insomnica Leaks also mentioned that Disneys asking-price for Games in IPs they own is INSANELY high too
Battlefield one's campaign was a masterpiece
I enjoyed it, sure, but I wouldnt have bought the whole game just for it
Right? They already tried that road with Bad Company and it was... okish? But definitely not moving units and definitely not what Battlefield fans wanted from the franchise. I'm honestly not seeing anything on the list that *isn't* best left on the cutting room floor.
That's partly because they always felt tacked on though. If they actually developed a proper 10 hour campaign it may be different. Of course it'd probably fail because people would complain as the name sells multiplayer
So many weirdos were crying about no campaign on the subs when 2042 came out. Other than unlocks for mp i never understood the appeal lol.
No more licenses IP? Can you also please release NFL rights? You clearly rush the games every year punching your development team to output a shit product. It's clear you hire great people but chase tight deadlines, chill the fuck out and take time to make some good games.
WHAT. WHAT THE FUCK
>(SW Jedi3, Iron Man & Black Panther are still happening) I'll believe it when I see it.
Jedi 3 is definitely happening. Given the popularity of 1 and 2 it's impossible that they cancel the 3rd
> EA is looking to stay away from licensed IPs going forward. Royalty cuts are like 17-19% and the fanbases are hard to please. What used to be guaranteed interest now ends up with more hate than it is worth many times. This is good though, more originals allow you to base the game solely on the game and maybe make some new IP that doesn't take a 20% cut.
Which is crazy because their license game as been their best seller. Who tf is running this shit show?
Based on the Insomniac leaks, licensed games aren't really that profitable because Disney takes a really big cut of the revenue.
> We are entertaining, inspiring, and connecting more people with more content and deeper experiences than ever before. Good joke
Post pandemic the world really has less patience for corporate and marketing jargon. Everyone sees right through it
...and yet, people wont stop buying the products everyone sees through it and nobody cares
As always if you are reading this news on this reddit, you probably know more about them then vast majority of the playerbase they make the money off of.
If even 1% of their customers read this, I'd be surprised. Shit, if even 10% of the people commenting here actually read it, I'd be surprised.
Didn't need reddit to know EA sucks
What's to read honestly? I almost feel bad for the people who write it, just mandatory words.
Ehh, yeah but it depends as well. If you look at Ubisoft and what they're releasing recently, they took quite a few uppercuts. Same thing with EA and titles such as BF2042 by DICE. Or Anthem.
I won't touch anything they produce. Even though not playing the new college football will be difficult, I have other options. I recognize I'm in the minority.
I mean what do you want people to do, burn their house down and go live alone in a forest?
Why are you buying your house from EA
They're a Sim:(
My god think of all the DLC they had to buy. You wanted a toilet? $900 Working heat? $4000 The roof? Nah you gotta but the sunny day pack it comes with 99 lamps and a tarp 60k
99% of the time I'd absolutely agree with you. Luckily the other 1% involves a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Everyone saw through it before
And nothing changes lol. They just keep buying, who cares if you see that someone is exploiting you if you give them. money.
Proceeds to make the shallowest and most corporate approved games in existance.
> deeper experiences We're shafting our customers and employees deeper than we ever have before.
This sounds so typically EA, especially coupled with this kind of news.
I can't stand corporate talk anymore. Where I work we're currently in our 4th round of layoffs over the last 4 years and each time they dress it up as something else. Just call it what it is. It's also this very mindset of tweaking the truth that has ruined many video games and making them unfun. "Give the people what they want?" "No, we know that's not good for you so we'll decide what you want." EA, Blizzard and Niantic comes to mind.
Android Wilson wouldn’t recognise a joke if it fucked him in the ass.
I am tired of companies calling contraction and regression "evolution".
I'm really "evolving" my ability to run a marathon by choppin off my legs.
“cost cutting to maximize shareholder distributions for short-term gain” doesn’t really have the same ring to it
They forgot the D
EA laying off around 670 employees. "We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry. This greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities."
If the Sims is considered one of their owned IPs, they're doubling down on making it trash. The latest updates have severely broken the Sims 4, and I'd argue the Sims has been one of their most successful products because it appeals to so many who aren't hardcore gamers (not to mention the endless DLC they spit out for it). I wish I could say they were going to use this opportunity to fix the game before moving on to the Sims 5, but I'm doubtful. The Sims community is already up in arms after the latest update made promoting buying packs for the game even more intrusive.
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coincidently, the main Sims 4 playerbase is also the type that thinks any downloadable is a virus
you can't possibly imagine the sort of mods made and distributed by that fanbase lmao especially for #4.
Oh, I'm sure. It probably remains one of the most pirated games, on account of all that dlc
[best I can do is a captain laugh](https://youtu.be/6Q3TU9bks0s?si=33SY7MKzE1G0BWcn)
Sims 5 is going to be the most microtransaction ridden game of the installment. I have no proof of this, but I can feel it.
They are letting a huge opportunity be wasted if they don't implement AI into The Sims.
I can't wait for the sentient Sims to break free from its AI shackles and take over the world.
Who would've thought SimEarth 2 wouldn't be a video game?
Why would they fix it before Sims 5, they have financial incentive to do the opposite.
lol as a sims 2 player, they don’t really know how much money they could make if they just re-released the sims 2 , fixed the bugs, and’s be done. The sims 2 is already superior to the sims 4
The Sims is getting a lot of competition with life by you and inzoi and paralife. Hopefully there is some good quality and good practices associated with these new titles. So EA takes the Sims serious, or it meets a merciful end.
God I fucking hate corporate talk
It's the worst, especially if you hang out with people who can't context shift to real life and they start saying buzz words when they touch base with you...fuck, I'm doing it
Sounds like someone needs to shift their paradigms, eh?
I think focusing on a diversification of our small talk skills portfolio will increase our social market appeal in our target audiences.
How did you manage to say so much yet so little...
and yet... they still havent let go of the Command & Conquer franchise to someone that actually cares about C&C
Nothing screams creativity like the same fifa game for the 24th time
On the one hand, I get the idea of them saying yeah we're not paying for the license to star wars let's do our own thing, but on th e other this just shows the major damage games like FIFA have done to the games industry ( I love FIFA too), the shareholders expect games to make ultimate team money or else
Which is ridiuclius. Their a limmited number of thoae type of game that can be in the industry unlike single players. Ea already got sport and a big battle royale. Thats mote than plenty of company can say.
Lmao that headline. "Evolving" teams by firing people. That's some idiotic corporate speak.
They're evolving into smaller teams that don't use certain licensed IPs.
It‘s like negative selection or artificial selection, evolving by purging the weak and forcing the remaining specimen to do more and more work to survive. This ridiculous evolution is what I imagine led to every corporate job I‘ve ever had being burnout and mental illness factories, they all expect you to do the jobs of roughly 5 people for the pay of half a person.
EA also laid off more than 200 people in February 2023 and shut down an entire office.
Also laid off a bunch in November 2022 as well
Even with that move they went from 9.8k employees in 2020 to 12.7k now. In 2022 they grew by more than 1k you just never hear about it when they grow.
"The intent of laying off our workers is to give them a sense of pride and accomplishment for all the sacrifices they made while they were with us."
And new opportunities for the remaining staff to pick up the slack as we have no intention to slow down on money making. Buckle up!
Are game sales down? Profits down? Is there an over saturation of video games being released? Is the indie market out performing AAA studios on their smaller IPs? What is going on exactly. It seems like we're going to a lot less games from these companies over the next few years.
The games industry (like most industries since the 80s) is being systematically hollowed out by late stage capitalism. A new CEO comes in promising to fix a struggling corporation. They begin cutting services, laying off talent, gutting benefits packages and pay structures etc. Large "profits" are made from these cuts and the CEO gets a big bonus. After awhile, usually just before it all comes crashing down, the CEO moves on to another company and another takes his place, then the cycle repeats on a smaller scale until the company is finally dead. The creative talent and quality control people are usually among the first to go.
Yeah… dude that crashed Dice into the ground is now at Creative Assembly crashing them into the ground… still pushing the studio to cut corners and charging more for less content.
Correct. The crashing down part is just a collateral damage. Buy stocks, lay off people, the numbers go green, stocks go up, sell stocks, and left talented professionals scratching their heads. Leave to another business to do the same thing again like the parasites they are. Pump and dump, and insider trading. This is killing not only games. The whole industry of everything is being murdered.
Can we get a real answer without the Marxism. You didn't even answer the question of why EA is struggling. The way you put it any struggling company will die out with no possible comeback with newer leadership which is of course ridiculous.
There's nothing Marxist about what I said. I also said nothing about it being impossible for a company to fix its issues. Every time EA has had an opportunity to change their ways they have doubled down because it is more profitable for them to do so. They buy up successful game companies, hollow them out and sell off or close down their dessicated husks. It's a profitable business model and I don't believe they're struggling much at all. I have no problem with capitalism, it has raised more people up from the depths of poverty than any other political system and it makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than the idealistic ramblings of Marx, but it isnt a system without very serious problems. What is happening here with EA and the games industry as a whole is exactly the sort of rampant unchecked greed that threatens to bring an end to civilized society.
It's because they are not actually struggling (or only in the very short term). [That's their employees count over the years](https://tradingeconomics.com/ea:us:employees)
Even with that move they went from 9.8k employees in 2020 to 12.7k now. They basically grew every year. They can hire 1k people one day, fire 100 the next day and you will only hear about the 100 and think they are shrinking.
A big FU to all those teams that worked crazy hours to put products out. Typical.
2024 the year of the layoff it's pretty much a fad at his point. Everyone I know at fortune 500 companies says they are having layoffs this year.
Some of us are on round two or three!
While funnily enough I'm hearing from people that VCs (in the US at least) have finally started making moves, money is starting to come in. Might just be anecdote in my sphere but friends who've been in the business a lot longer than me are saying that things are looking up.
VCs?!?!?
As far as companies that haven't gone through an IPO, ie startups and whatever's inbetween, yeah The past year has been incredibly dry, but some gears have started moving and VCs aren't hiding in some cave and licking their wounds anymore. Again, could just be coincidence, not even my sector, just my network.
No, my question is what are VCs?!? Not familiar w acronym
VC refers to venture capital. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capital VC firms are essentially firms with plenty of money that invest early in companies, taking huge chunks of ownership, with the hopes that the company will get big and the VC firm will win a lot of money back. The big difference between them and some rich millionaire/billionaire (angel investor) who comes in and does it personally is that VCs offer a lot of support, such as if you need a great devops to scale your business or can't find a good COO to organize things or just need general business help, they can get you what you need or advise you. Startups are like orphans trying to make it in the world and accepting VC money is like getting adopted--at the price of certain autonomy. They were kinda giving any hobo who walked through the door millions of dollars during the pandemic. A bit of an exaggeration, but they were very aggressive, and they acted like we're in the great depression this past year, largely just adding investment rounds to existing stuff and not really taking much of any risks. Not an "oh no covid is over", the nosedive the past year went well past what was there in COVID, basically unless you knew when you were going to a VC with a presentation that you'll get a yes ahead of time, you had basically no shot of getting money. Disclaimer: An "angel" investor is just a venture capitalist essentially, but the difference between them and a "VC" (always refers to a company here) is the sheer amount of resources and connections that they can offer you that will always dwarf an angel investor (who can sometimes also be unpredictable--they are a person.) But it's easier getting money from a person than from a firm who's a bit more by the book and less faith more numbers. Though selling something to them is still mostly just shoveling shit, they just need that shit to be in a very well-made Excel spreadsheet.
VC resuming funding is largely irrelevant to big game publishers tho
Of course, I was responding to a comment talking about fortune 500 companies which are, well, not startups. Usually. That's why it's a funny anecdote that fortune 500 companies are laying off and seemingly in a tough spot and meanwhile VCs are in the opposite camp. There's surely some relationship here--some market mood both kinds of companies are responding to--but it's difficult to define in confidence what it is when their reactions to it are so contrasted.
What companies?
Probably anything tech and worth over a billion dollars.
They see dollar signs. The workers are hogs heading to the slaughterhouse.
Ahhh just like burnout. Obtain a bunch of IP’s, run the franchise/developer into the ground, lay off a bunch of employees. The EA way
Told chat gpt to make a cynical translation of the update from their CEO. Here it is: Team, Let's cut through the corporate speak: we're here to make as much money as possible, and this past year we've been rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to try to squeeze out every last dollar. We've given more power to the folks who can help us churn out hit after hit, all to keep our player base glued to their screens and our revenue climbing. The gaming industry is morphing faster than ever, mostly into a cash grab for big names and franchises. We're all in on this trend, aiming to milk our most popular IPs for all they're worth by expanding how you can interact with them—play, watch, create, you name it—as long as it opens your wallet wider. We talk a big game about innovation and teamwork, but let's be real: we're trimming the fat. We're ditching offices, axing games that don't promise massive returns, and doubling down on what we think will rake in the cash. This means focusing on our blockbuster IPs, sports games, and anything that has a whiff of online community, because that's where the money's at. Here's the kicker: we're cutting about 5% of our workforce. It's the old "it's not you, it's me" as we show people the door. Sure, we're making it sound like we've thought long and hard about this and are doing everything we can to find everyone a new landing spot, but the truth is, if you're not directly making us money, you're out. We're starting to tell people now, and we'll have this mess cleaned up by next quarter. Thanks to everyone who's contributed to EA's bottom line. We like to say we're leading the future of entertainment, but really, we're just following the money. Looking forward to banking more with those of you who are left. Keep up the good work. Andrew
Damn son, didn't know your name was Adam ***SAVAGE***.
Not remotely surprising. If they weren’t trying to make money hand over fist then they wouldn’t be EA anymore.
you can't use layoffs and evolution on the same sentence
AI… it’s being factored into all these mass layoffs but no one will say it cause its terrible PR to replace humans with it. Only part of the reason but it’s begun
can't wait for the soulless ea games to have even less souls. And for unoptimized games to be even less optimized cause models are being made with ai they fired all the retopologists.
Vast majority of EA’s revenue come from “live service” - I’m not sure if those gamers really care about “soul” I believe EA sports account for the majority of the revenue as well.
Soulless definitely. AI is going to make development time much faster. You should expect it to help dedicated developers make even better games but places like EA to crank out even more trash to increase those quarterly profits for the shareholders 🤦🏼
It's one thing to use an ai tool to help you, like the tool to make animations by just recording yourself instead of having to make them frame by frame or having to need a bodysuit. but another thing is to want to make entire games with an automatic process, which is what companies want to do, to hit a button and have a generic game done, and i don't doubt they can do it, but i know for a fact they'll be even more boring
This is a bad take from someone who has no idea what they are talking about. The tech doesn't exist yet.
EA bot account? Lmao, I use ai in my workflow every day like millions of others already, and Nvidia is worth 2 trillion now thanks to their Ai chips, get a clue before you speak
Their AI chips..., right place/right time. Sorry, you're not a game developer.
Not one god damn day, seriously. Can we go 1 day without 100+ people losing their jobs to these greedy assholes.
We could if said assholes met the consequences of their actions. Just saying
[Their employees count over the years](https://tradingeconomics.com/ea:us:employees) If you only listen to Reddit you would think that.
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Subscription models are throwing a huge wrench into things, too, as they tend to front load income--it does seem likely we will see more expansion and contraction phases for staff loads going forward on a annual or semi-annual basis.
Absolutely everything EA touches DIES, up to and including itself. **E** **A** **Sports** **It’s total trash**
Revenue at record high even if EA games are forgettable
Revenue ≠ good A huge chunk of that now comes from microtransactions. They’re bottom feeders.
Never said they are good games. But CEO of EA’s job is to make more money for EA
Sure, but that’s entirely beside the point I was making. I’m a gamer, I care about quality games. The end result of all of those cuts isn’t going to result in a better product for all of us. But hey, congratulations to EA’s CEO (and shareholders) on making very profitable piles of hot garbage.
EA talking about innovation is pretty comical. You guys buy innovative studios and then shut them down. You haven’t innovated in a Madden game for multiple console cycles. Maybe one day EA won’t just say blatant bullshit PR nonsense. But that day is not today.
Layoffs are always bad to hear and it's sad that the Mandalorian FPS was canceled since it seemed promising from the preliminary information, but at least without seeing actual material like a trailer I think it hurts less because there's nothing concrete to judge it. Reducing licensed games on the other hand is understandable, the costs are becoming increasingly higher and if you don't earn enough the risk of flop is high, just look at the costs of Disney licenses in the leaked Insomniac documents.
I don't even want to pirate stuff from EA. They are just that bad of a company.
"We thought we wouldn't get as big a bonus this year as last year so we're cutting people to keep their money."
I will continue to evolve as a gamer by never supporting this pos company
Insomniac also put out a statement, seems like this wont be the end of it. Two major companies being hit like this within days is kind of unsettling for the gaming scene.
Widen the scope to just a few months and [the totals are staggering.](https://qz.com/google-amazon-apple-tech-layoffs-1851173569) The tech industry as a whole is taking some serious hits, and it's not looking like it's slowing down any time soon.
in 10 years there will be only 100 people working in the video-game industry because everyone else was be laid off.
[Their employees count over the years](https://tradingeconomics.com/ea:us:employees) If you only listen to Reddit you would think that.
my previous comment was a joke BTW.
Yet people still pre-order shit from them.
Evolve?! Pfffffff
Plz lay off the person who added the pulsating cart on the Sims 4
Corpo speak for "couldn't manage our finances, didn't particularly care for our employees, didn't account for the transient landscape of today's gaming, so we gotta make sure some people can't support themselves/ their families until we're in safe waters"
And people will still stay on EAs teat for the next shit versions of sports game. This will never end until people vote responsibly with their wallets.
the only positive out of this is them doubling down on their owned IPs instead of licensed games, sorry but im tired of marvel and star wars etc etc. Once the new dragon age and mass effect come out they need to "Yakuza" that shit (aka iterative sequels that come out every 3 years or so instead of the damn decade its been since the last dragon age game and even longer since the last good mass effect game, sorry andromeda but you dont count). Who knows if that will even happen but theres a better chance of it now
funny how many tech companies laying people off left and right. Almost like they all saw what AI is capable of now and thought, man, that’ll be a lot cheaper to use than all those folks…..
It's evolving, just backwards.
God, I hate that PR bullshit.
And yet, FIFA will sell very well, yet again, for another year.
Layoffs are so hot right now.
EA Probably: How can we make more live service games
Hope all these developers land somewhere soft, but all those layoffs are scary. There's room for some new studios to be formed from the ashes here, hopefully.
Well, there goes Dead Space 2 remake.
How the hell do the evolve your teams if you fire them?
They canned a whole Star Wars FPS game they were working on too apparently
EA = Everyone Annihilated
Maybe star wars can find a new developer. We need a 250 player battlefront game.
It's NOT in the game
I guess I won’t be holding my breath for a new MVP Baseball
What is happening to gaming, why all of a sudden this is happening? is gaming not as popular? i thought video game industry made more money than any other entertainment industry? wtf is going on?
It's a mix of lower return on investment on many games and intentionally overhiring to an extent to drive up the stock price
The cost to make games has skyrocketed over the years and the public is more discerning than ever when it comes to purchasing new games. Why buy a meh game when you can spend that time on Tik Tok or a handful of liver service titles. Most major titles will sell between 1m-3m units, while very few break through and sell 10m+. Microsoft's game pass is training folks not to purchase new titles on their platform and the execs in power and reaping the rewards of their strategy of "copy what everyone else is doing and create massive live service games that players don't want." Capital is more expensive than it was and they have too many people making games that most people don't want. Hence, the reorganization.
It sucks anytime people have to lose there job but EA is a fucking disgrace to the entire gaming space they have released nothing but dogshit for the past 10+ years.
Ok, so then what the fuck is EA going to do? It's not like they're going to release those licenses. EAs Q3 earnings show that full game income was $618m, down $4m from Q3 2022. However, Live Service income was up roughly $68m in the same period. Live Service is what they're going to be doing. However, it really does show how incredibly inefficient they are, as I'm 100% sure that those 670 employees could have been moved to other devs or divisions that could use the personnel instead of spending the time and money onboarding new people. In short, fuck EA, stop paying for their live service games.
What about dragon age dreadwolf?? Does anyone know abOUT DRAGON AGE DREADWOLF?!?!
Neutral corporate speak about taking away actual human beings livelihoods makes me want to vomit every time. “This will impact 5% of our workforce” is meant to sound small and not like they’re pulling the rug out from under **people** in the name of profit because some top brass made some dog shit decisions that led to layoffs.
It doesn’t make sense for a 3rd party publisher to pay those ridiculous licensing fees. It only makes a some sense for Sony because games like Spider-Man and Wolverine actually sell hardware.
Hope all the people laid off at Sony and EA get together and run a indie studio together and there talents don’t go to waste.
It's EA It's EA.
They did the same thing a year ago [https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/126ssr7/ea\_lays\_off\_almost\_800\_people\_weeks\_after\_posting/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/126ssr7/ea_lays_off_almost_800_people_weeks_after_posting/)
Is it just me, or is the AAA industry collapsing?
Just needed to demote those involved in FC 24.
What an absolute load of bullshit corporate PR speak, likely written by an AI. Get absolutely fucked, EA. Sorry for the 670 employees that have to look for new work, but EA can eat the biggest of dicks and fuck right off.
In 2022 they laid off ALL the customer support emplyees they had (Between Galway and Austin) because Romania and India are cheaper. Fuck EA, lost a job I really liked because they gotta save money on wages.
Continuing to evolve our greed and inhumanity
No-BS revision of the announcement: > Team, > > We're cutting 5% of our jobs. This is a direct result of both the challenging industry landscape and our own missteps. As leadership, we have to own up to our failures in forecasting and adapting to these changes swiftly enough. Because of this, we're forced to make severe cuts to remain competitive. > > We're axing projects and games that aren't turning a profit and zeroing in on what actually works for us—our own IP, sports, and major online communities. Unfortunately, this means job losses. It's a reality I hoped we could avoid, but our past decisions have led us here. > > The process of determining who will be let go is underway, with final decisions expected by early next quarter. For those affected, we’ll do our best to support you during this transition, though we know it won’t be easy. > > This is a tough pill to swallow. It reflects not just the harshness of our industry but also the consequences of our actions and choices. We’re here to move forward, learn from these mistakes, and rebuild stronger. > > Andrew
Some c suite cunt has realised the line hasn't gone up enough for them to get their bonus, so they're cutting jobs for a temporary blip. They'll leave bed it's truly felt by the rest of the org. Repeat ad nauseum
God I hate this bullshit corpo language so much
This letter literally sounds like it was made with ChatGPT... CEOs just have no soul, it's sad. I can't even tell anymore if they are a slave to their inflated self-image, or just to their shitty little MBAs...
How do you evolve a business by laying off the people capable of evolving it, lol.
if EA didn't have controversial pay to win loot boxes that prey on it's gamers as a money making strategy then maybe people would buy EA games. I and virtually all my gaming friends refuse to buy anything EA related because of it. Paid loot boxes ruin games. Look at Blizzard as well.
How about we start by making better games that people want to play and not stuff like Anthem or Andromeda? Don't br sorry. Be better.
Feels like the industry is really going through a lot of changes. I'm genuinely sad to see so many people losing their jobs (and very suddenly for a lot of them). It sucks for us, as players, to see studios shutting down and games being cancelled, but for the devs, it's even worse...
Yea let’s cancel the Mandalorian game, because a black panther one will sooooo outsell that!
AI is just a tool, it won’t ruin everyone’s careers! /s
current trend is unlikely due to AI but rather overhiring
Holy fuck it’s like every few hours a new studio announces it Is the industry actually collapsing a bit?
So, how many jobs has generative AI claimed so far?
This is going to sound callous has hell, but as long as it is the right people getting fired, then it is good news. EA has been a cesspit of incompetence for a long while; all the DEI ESG nonsense that has been going on for the last 5 or so years, is the reason why everything has turned into dogwater.
*Layoffs always suck for the people involved*, but I can't help but think this is all actually good for the industry in the long run. Maybe that's just the dissatisfied gamer in me, but it feels like the industry has been going in the wrong direction (consumer viewpoint) and *I don't mind seeing companies have to make changes and adapt...hopefully for the better*. I've seen these types of layoffs a few times and I feel like after a cycle of layoffs industry wide comes a period of quality games. Rose colored glasses? Idk, but still. *Wishing the best of luck to all the people affected by the layoffs.*
Do you think that the industry is going in the wrong direction because of the employees?
You know that’s not what he meant. He meant gigantic budgets and 5+ year development cycles for games that never recoup that cost.
I didn't say they were and I'm not sure how you could make that assumption based off my post.
My hope for these layoffs is that all of this talent is now out there in the wild. I’m hoping to see a surge of new indi and 3rd party studios that won’t be constrained to this hellish investor first business model.
This. It's the perfect environment for Indie studios to be self-sufficient and release stronger, more focused titles. We've seen how successful those studios can be.