The video-game publisher cuts between 300 and 400 jobs
Electronic Arts Inc. is laying off hundreds of workers and canceling a Titanfall game that was in development at its Respawn Entertainment subsidiary.
Between 300 and 400 positions were eliminated, including around 100 at Respawn, according to a person familiar with the cuts. The company had about 13,700 employees at the end of March 2024.
“As part of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities, we’ve made select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of driving future growth,” Justin Higgs, a spokesman for the Redwood City, California-based company, said in a statement.
Publicly traded companies are detrimental to the health of the (gaming) ecosystem. A Titanfall game would have been a financial and cultural net positive for sure - maximizing for profit means losing out on everything else.
It was an extraction shooter set in the Apex Legends/Titanfall universe, apparently.
So we’re gonna need some citation on the “cultural net positive” issue, I’m afraid.
Be mad at public companies if you want, but take some time to go find whoever convinced gaming execs that Escape from Tarkov was the next PUBG and they had a chance to slot in as the next Fortnite. You could have gotten a new Marathon campaign instead, speaking of cultural net positives.
I mean the OG team who’d been together since MoH Allied Assault all the way through the early MW games, only to then make Titanfall are no longer with respawn.
They’ve been for like half a decade. Whatever magic that company had has been long gone.
Also if you want to feel old, Titanfall is basically the chronilogical half way point between allied assault and now.
So however old the quake 3 engine felt in 2014 is how old that game should feel now, eek…
Hah. That does makes me feel ancient for more than one reason.
Titanfall is a particularly rough example for those comparisons because it’s only a last-gen title, technically. There was a 360 version, but it was a downport, technically the original is Xbox One. The 360 version definitely does look its age, though.
I remember seeing a guy with a gamertag EA_C_Suite, and I think I killed him like 30 times in one match. I think this one’s on me guys, sorry, I just really like Scortch.
My hopes are somehow retroactively inflated learning it was real but at the same time also destroyed knowing that that means a new game is even less likely now.
EA exec checking the numbers and current live stats for the Titanfall games
“Sorry team, we gotta shut it down. We finally went over the threshold of uninstalls for the previous two games. People just aren’t interested in a 3rd Titanfall.”
If you want a game that has fun movement in it and isn’t being suffocated by late stage capitalism, check out the indie game Splitgate (and the soon to come out Splitgate 2).
The gameplay is halo—ishh with a really well integrated jetpack.
The gunplay is VERY tight and there is a lot of movement and positioning skill to the game, I always have a blast when I play!
Would their size not be their detriment? I’m sure the people working there are passionate and want to deliver great quality experiences, but it also feels like games made by committee. Lacking soul and overarching vision, combined with a cash grab because all those people need to be paid.
It’s usually more like execs needing bonuses. Less people at places like these usually means 1 person is now doing the work of 2. “No, we’re not backfilling these roles.” Queue collective groan from everyone left as they start to prepare their resumes.
Big companies profit from the labour of hardworking creatives. I’m just wondering how a company of their size can make good games with an incompetent leadership.
I’m saying making games with budgets like theirs should be a dream and the results should be insane, but it’s up to management to make it happen. Instead they choose to rid themselves of talent and pocket the money.
Yeah, you would think they’d be given the space to make something amazing, but the execs ruin it for everyone with insane deadlines, constant layoffs, and forcing devs to put in questionable moneymaker mechanics.
There’s been a constant squeeze in tech for years now. You’re always expected to be faster and more efficient at each interval and it never eases up. I’d be happy to wait longer for a game if it means the devs aren’t stuck in a grueling loop that burns folks out and drains the end result of its soul.
On top of that, games are insanely hard to make. So many system configurations and variables that can wreak havoc.
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Publicly traded companies are detrimental to the health of the (gaming) ecosystem. A Titanfall game would have been a financial and cultural net positive for sure - maximizing for profit means losing out on everything else.
It was an extraction shooter set in the Apex Legends/Titanfall universe, apparently.
So we’re gonna need some citation on the “cultural net positive” issue, I’m afraid.
Be mad at public companies if you want, but take some time to go find whoever convinced gaming execs that Escape from Tarkov was the next PUBG and they had a chance to slot in as the next Fortnite. You could have gotten a new Marathon campaign instead, speaking of cultural net positives.
I mean the OG team who’d been together since MoH Allied Assault all the way through the early MW games, only to then make Titanfall are no longer with respawn.
They’ve been for like half a decade. Whatever magic that company had has been long gone.
Also if you want to feel old, Titanfall is basically the chronilogical half way point between allied assault and now.
So however old the quake 3 engine felt in 2014 is how old that game should feel now, eek…
Hah. That does makes me feel ancient for more than one reason.
Titanfall is a particularly rough example for those comparisons because it’s only a last-gen title, technically. There was a 360 version, but it was a downport, technically the original is Xbox One. The 360 version definitely does look its age, though.
Oh my god. It actually was a Titanfall game.
I am fully convinced an exec at EA just has a personal hatred for Titanfall.
It was a Titanfall extraction shooter, so not the Titanfall you were looking for.
I mean, that still sounds pretty fun. Their horde mode in TF2 was fun so I’d imagine this would be too
I remember seeing a guy with a gamertag EA_C_Suite, and I think I killed him like 30 times in one match. I think this one’s on me guys, sorry, I just really like Scortch.
For brain rotten morons that only care about money… they really don’t seem to want mine.
Fuck 'em.
My hopes are somehow retroactively inflated learning it was real but at the same time also destroyed knowing that that means a new game is even less likely now.
This news comes exactly 1 day after I uninstalled Titanfall 2 so I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible 😔
BASTARD
EA exec checking the numbers and current live stats for the Titanfall games
“Sorry team, we gotta shut it down. We finally went over the threshold of uninstalls for the previous two games. People just aren’t interested in a 3rd Titanfall.”
If you want a game that has fun movement in it and isn’t being suffocated by late stage capitalism, check out the indie game Splitgate (and the soon to come out Splitgate 2).
The gameplay is halo—ishh with a really well integrated jetpack.
The gunplay is VERY tight and there is a lot of movement and positioning skill to the game, I always have a blast when I play!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/677620/Splitgate/
Seconded, and my son likes it too.
Classic EA.
They would’ve only found a way to fuck it up anyway (EA, not the devs)
This better not affect the third Jedi game you absolute fucks
Would their size not be their detriment? I’m sure the people working there are passionate and want to deliver great quality experiences, but it also feels like games made by committee. Lacking soul and overarching vision, combined with a cash grab because all those people need to be paid.
It’s usually more like execs needing bonuses. Less people at places like these usually means 1 person is now doing the work of 2. “No, we’re not backfilling these roles.” Queue collective groan from everyone left as they start to prepare their resumes.
Big companies profit from the labour of hardworking creatives. I’m just wondering how a company of their size can make good games with an incompetent leadership.
I’m saying making games with budgets like theirs should be a dream and the results should be insane, but it’s up to management to make it happen. Instead they choose to rid themselves of talent and pocket the money.
Yeah, you would think they’d be given the space to make something amazing, but the execs ruin it for everyone with insane deadlines, constant layoffs, and forcing devs to put in questionable moneymaker mechanics.
There’s been a constant squeeze in tech for years now. You’re always expected to be faster and more efficient at each interval and it never eases up. I’d be happy to wait longer for a game if it means the devs aren’t stuck in a grueling loop that burns folks out and drains the end result of its soul.
On top of that, games are insanely hard to make. So many system configurations and variables that can wreak havoc.