EA Reducing Work Force By 1,000, Closing 9 Locations

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

WRT the entire industry.... Does this mean Duke Nukem Forever will not be released? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

WRT the entire industry.... Does this mean Duke Nukem Forever will not be released? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!

lol...rain or shine, I don't think we'll ever see it finally released.

[HAL 9000 96]

Wish I could put my cybernetic talents to good use for the gaming industry... but sadly they are 100% dedicated to researching in the biological sciences at this time. My condolences to those affected.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Wish I could put my cybernetic talents to good use for the gaming industry... but sadly they are 100% dedicated to researching in the biological sciences at this time. My condolences to those affected.

You could help me by elminating some of the competition, Hal.

[HAL 9000 96]

Wish I could put my cybernetic talents to good use for the gaming industry... but sadly they are 100% dedicated to researching in the biological sciences at this time. My condolences to those affected.

You could help me by elminating some of the competition, Hal.

Hmmm... HAL 9000 believes you should consult the Borg with that one. Don't eliminate them... merely assimilate them.

[SpiritAlight 1]

I was looking at the Vancouver Sun (news) this morning and saw that they were closing their swanky downtown location (company) and keeping the one in Burnaby, BC (way bigger and swanky too). Lots of people, well gamers - are they people? hee hee - will be all out looking to which next city they should flock.

Too much discouraging news...

[aidan80 9]

WRT the entire industry.... Does this mean Duke Nukem Forever will not be released? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!

I'll be old, fat, bald and retired by the time they release the next installment of the Duke... As well at least there's GTA4...

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

My issue with EA isn't the quality of their games (most of which seem good), but the DRM they've placed on PC versions. Mass Effect (which was developed by BioWare and published by EA) only allows for THREE activations of the software when installing it. These activations can't be recovered if the game is uninstalled. This is not a problem on the Xbox 360 (no other consoles have it, as ME is an Xbox 360-exclusive, just as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is for the PS3), so PC gamers can't help but feel screwed over. BioShock used to have this problem (another game published by EA), but the decision to limit activations was eventually reversed.

From what I've heard, Dead Space has DRM in it too. I don't know about the upcoming PC version of Mirror's Edge, but since it's published by EA, I wouldn't be surprised if something similar was in place.

Well EA got assraped by consumers over the DRM for spore. Apparently it set some sort of record for the most pirated game. It has that 3 install thing too - once your 3 installs are up you have to get an unlock code by calling customer service.

What they've done since then is increase the install count to 5, and there's now a software tool to let you manage your installations.

The worst DRM is actually securerom, which is different to this. Games that use that automatically install securerom software on your pc without asking for consent - so unless you know that the game uses it you have no idea that its on your machine. And you can't easily remove it without buggering about in the registry.

[aidan80 9]

My issue with EA isn't the quality of their games (most of which seem good), but the DRM they've placed on PC versions. Mass Effect (which was developed by BioWare and published by EA) only allows for THREE activations of the software when installing it. These activations can't be recovered if the game is uninstalled. This is not a problem on the Xbox 360 (no other consoles have it, as ME is an Xbox 360-exclusive, just as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is for the PS3), so PC gamers can't help but feel screwed over. BioShock used to have this problem (another game published by EA), but the decision to limit activations was eventually reversed.

From what I've heard, Dead Space has DRM in it too. I don't know about the upcoming PC version of Mirror's Edge, but since it's published by EA, I wouldn't be surprised if something similar was in place.

Well EA got assraped by consumers over the DRM for spore. Apparently it set some sort of record for the most pirated game. It has that 3 install thing too - once your 3 installs are up you have to get an unlock code by calling customer service.

What they've done since then is increase the install count to 5, and there's now a software tool to let you manage your installations.

The worst DRM is actually securerom, which is different to this. Games that use that automatically install securerom software on your pc without asking for consent - so unless you know that the game uses it you have no idea that its on your machine. And you can't easily remove it without buggering about in the registry.

We the customers can't win.. buy the game and get treated like a criminal from the people we bought it from.. liberate a copy online and get treated like a criminal with the addition of all the junk the pirates throw in after they remove the DRM! Best course of action buy from developers that won't treat you like a thief for buying their product and using it!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

My issue with EA isn't the quality of their games (most of which seem good), but the DRM they've placed on PC versions. Mass Effect (which was developed by BioWare and published by EA) only allows for THREE activations of the software when installing it. These activations can't be recovered if the game is uninstalled. This is not a problem on the Xbox 360 (no other consoles have it, as ME is an Xbox 360-exclusive, just as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is for the PS3), so PC gamers can't help but feel screwed over. BioShock used to have this problem (another game published by EA), but the decision to limit activations was eventually reversed.

From what I've heard, Dead Space has DRM in it too. I don't know about the upcoming PC version of Mirror's Edge, but since it's published by EA, I wouldn't be surprised if something similar was in place.

Well EA got assraped by consumers over the DRM for spore. Apparently it set some sort of record for the most pirated game. It has that 3 install thing too - once your 3 installs are up you have to get an unlock code by calling customer service.

What they've done since then is increase the install count to 5, and there's now a software tool to let you manage your installations.

The worst DRM is actually securerom, which is different to this. Games that use that automatically install securerom software on your pc without asking for consent - so unless you know that the game uses it you have no idea that its on your machine. And you can't easily remove it without buggering about in the registry.

We the customers can't win.. buy the game and get treated like a criminal from the people we bought it from.. liberate a copy online and get treated like a criminal with the addition of all the junk the pirates throw in after they remove the DRM! Best course of action buy from developers that won't treat you like a thief for buying their product and using it!

Stardock famously doesn't use drm, but they're pretty small and unless you like playing sf Rts titles...

EA buggered up by not doing a litmus test for how consumers would respond to the DRM. Its still a new concept for consumers and the publishers haven't figured out what they can reasonably get away with. As EA has seen with spore, getting it wrong can be expensive.

Steam has been the most successful example so far, though they got a lot of flak when it was pioneered with half life 2.

[DeadPoolX 9]

WRT the entire industry.... Does this mean Duke Nukem Forever will not be released? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!

I remember the first PC Gamer article about DNF. I think that was back in the mid-to-late 1990s. If they ever did release it, I'm sure it'd be just as good as Daikatana was (which also had an incredibly long development time).

Well EA got assraped by consumers over the DRM for spore. Apparently it set some sort of record for the most pirated game. It has that 3 install thing too - once your 3 installs are up you have to get an unlock code by calling customer service.

What they've done since then is increase the install count to 5, and there's now a software tool to let you manage your installations.

The worst DRM is actually securerom, which is different to this. Games that use that automatically install securerom software on your pc without asking for consent - so unless you know that the game uses it you have no idea that its on your machine. And you can't easily remove it without buggering about in the registry.

Yeah, SecuRom is pretty bad. The worst one was StarForce, however. That one could render your machine inoperable or at least, severely hamper your optical drives.

[Teacher Mark 53]

I work about a mile from their central location. Here's what my boss sent out this morning...

Worst year for development (and independent development houses) in my recent memory, anyway.

The list of large, well respected, seemingly stable devs who tanked this year is staggering.

We're probably going to be okay for at least the next year, but I'm preparing for the worst.

http://kotaku.com/5114113/ea-reducing-work...ing-9-locations

got jobs in kansas, come on out

Yes! You all could live together! Good God, what a reality show that would make.

If you go into nursing, I've got the pants for you!

Edited December 22, 2008 by Joe Six-Pack

[pedroh 21]

they just re-released duke nukem 3d for the xbox 360, u can buy it in the xbox arcade section and they improved the graphics a little bit so it looks decent in hd.. it's awesome!

mess with the best, die like the rest