Some sad news has emerged today: GamesIndustry.biz reports that EA is going to slash between five and 11 per cent of its work force. That’s as much as 1,000 jobs.
This is despite Mass Effect 3 being a massive commercial success, mind you.
I have a suspicion though. EA has been on an acquisition spree in the past year or so, picking up many developers and publishers, including Firemint and Popcap. As a consequence of any acquisition spree, you end up with some redundant roles – people doubling up on stuff that others are doing.
That’s a very inefficient way to run a business, and it needs to be stamped out before it really starts to affect the rest of the business. I suspect a lot of these job losses are a result of that rationalising down.
So let’s not start those “EA is in trouble!!!” rumours just yet, yeah?