EA closing UK studio

[chopemon]

Officially announced today:

Publisher insists UK 'remains a vital game development center for EA'

Electronic Arts has begun a formal consultation process at EA Bright Light, with redundancies and outright studio closure both possible.
The Guildford studio, which most recently worked on a Harry Potter game for EA, recently underwent an internal review of current and future projects.

?After a review, Electronic Arts has started a formal consultation process with its Bright Light employees over the proposed closure of the studio," read an EA statement issued to GamesIndustry.biz
"Employees that are impacted will be considered for positions at other EA Studios including those in the UK," the note read.
EA said the closure is part of its aim to ?help centralise development on future projects, reduce development costs and will allow for better knowledge and talent sharing within the organisation".



?The UK is a vital centre of game development for EA and we intend to maintain a strong presence here,? the company added.
If Bright Light closes, it would leave Electronic Arts with only one studio - the Burnout group Criterion


EA's early Christmas present to me.

[fuse]

Er, I'm a dumbass. Posted, then realised who it was that'd posted the topic.

My thoughts go out, mate

[JSR]

Sorry to hear it. I sympathize.

Game development appears to be a risky career these days. Nobody seems to be safe.

[chopemon]

4th job loss in about 8 years!

Unfortunately the UK games industry is a total cluster**** if you want to work on good quality console titles.

[EvilBoris]

My Condolences go out to our valuable board members who work at said studio.

It always sounds like Guildford is a pool for games industry talent, so let's hope that should EA not provide for them, that someone else can.

[Lebowski]

Seems to be one badly selling game is an excuse to close down studios these days, really is a sign of the times and shows how much of a gamble game development is at the moment for next gen consoles.

[Flabio]

There's really only Lionhead, Media Molecule and Criterion left now in the town if you're only counting big studios doing disc release 360 and PS3 work.

Quite a lot of smaller indie developers though, mostly formed by people tired of the main large scale dev scene.

I think we're hiring at the moment, although our website is pretty out of date in terms of what's actually available.

[FelixofMars]

I actually quit the new studio I was working at the other day, got to say the whole industry is making me disillusioned to the point I think I am going to try something else. I think that the old school guys going indie just proves that they are not happy with the size of the console teams and how many places have folded.

I am planning to keep my hand in skills wise but in terms of going to studios, I think it will be a case of throwing in a CV to a few locally then putting my efforts elsewhere.

As one designer to another I wish you luck its a wild trip out there at the moment.

[Sketcz]

Oh man, that's terrible. Having avidly followed your posts and tweets on games related matters, I'm really sorry to hear this.

You have my sincerest wishes that you land on your feet.

[averybluemonkey]

Consolations. One good thing about it falling over Christmas though is that they are legally required to have consultation meetings with you (I think it's every week) and when everyone's off over the Christmas holidays no meetings can be held so you can push to have the consultation period extended due to this. We got an extra couple of weeks pay through that one last year , so it is worth pushing back on that with your representatives as it can make a bit of a difference finances wise. Best of luck.

[MisterBubbles]

So there at it again, do they have any studio's left to shutter? Taken from CVG, EA has closed the EA Phenomic studio, creator of free-to-play titles Lord of Ultima and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances. The German studio was founded in 1997 and was best known for RTS series SpellForce. At its peak it employed around 60 people. In a statement sent to GamesIndustry, EA said it has no plans to move away from free-to-play or strategy games. "As part of EA's realignment in recent weeks, we have announced internally a small adjustment to some development staff to better focus our teams against priority growth areas," the statement read. "The decision to let people go is not something we take lightly and we are working to ensure that impacted employees are treated fairly and with respect for their contributions to EA, and with assistance to find other job opportunities. "These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us."

[Brad]

Why to spend time with them? Ok. Drop origin. That'll be a good start

Shame to hear of uk job losses.

[MisterBubbles]

It's not UK FSW, EA Phenomic studio are based in Germany. It's just shocking the amount of studio's they have bought then shut.

[Leon Retro]

The Japanese gaming industry has been in quite a crisis for a while; and the British industry has gradually got into a bad state. There were signs in the 90s that America would rule gaming - and that came to be quite a while ago.

It's a shame that America rules videogaming, as I personally saw the county's output as generally far behind Europe, UK, and the US. It's a shame that the British government has always neglected the videogame industry. I just hope the gaming scene improves, so not everything has to be Americanised. I love American culture, but variety on the gaming scene is very important and makes things far more healthy and inspiring.