dThe industry continues to spiral in terms of layoffs and project cancellations, especially among small developers this year. Famous and decorated studios like Monolith Productions have come to an end with them Wonder Womanfaces multiple development problems.
Still, former Monolith studio head Kevin Stevens hoped to thrive alongside other Cliffhanger Games employees and veterans in the gaming industry. Black Panther. After all, it’s under the electronic arts, and despite its focus on single-player, it’s a Marvel property (a bit of a troubling for many gaming industry executives). Certainly, that would be fine.
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Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be the case. IGN recently reported it Black Panther It was cancelled and the cliffhanger was shut down. An alleged email sent to staff by Laura Miele, president of EA Entertainment, said such a decision was “difficult” and “impacts people who have worked with, learned, and shared real moments.” She also said publishers are aiming to find new opportunities for developers across the company who may potentially fall into new roles.
But that’s sadly not everything. EA also reportedly fires developers from its mobile and central teams. This marks the third series of layoffs by publishers this year alone. It all started with the end of an unknown number of developers from Dragon age January team. Respawn Entertainment has since announced the cancellation of two “early stage” incubation projects that are suspicious. titanium Extraction shooter.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier also reported 300-400 layoffs, making roughly 100 let go from the respawn. How many people have received new opportunities within EA? Your guess is as good as us.
Also, EA did not check the number this time either, but Miele’s email tried to explain why layoffs and cancellations were happening. It clearly is to “sharpen” the publisher’s focus and “put creative energy behind the most important growth opportunities.”
This means something like a franchise Sims, Battlefield, and the Legend of the Pillar and skate This will be the focus for the future. Miele is not involved in EA Sports, so I don’t know how this will affect the development of the franchise. Madden, College Football, And of course, EA Sports FC. However, the intention seems to be clearly clear. Consolidate your base in games that provide or have the potential to deliver the most consistent revenue. Read: Live Services and MicroTransactions.
And for better or worse, that’s not normal for electronic arts. It provided a remake of Dead Spaceit was incredible, but it didn’t get the sales it wanted. It’s been released Dragon Age: Belguard Years of development issues, pivots, live service plots, layoffs, and more, and surprises, surprises, it also fell short of expectations. CEO Andrew Wilson later said the role-playing game requires “sharing global features and deeper engagement” to “escape beyond the core audience.” Take it for what you do.
But then you might ask, what about other single-player titles from works under EA? Miele clearly guaranteed his staff a motive. Iron Mannext to respawn Star Wars: Jedi Title and Bioware Next Mass Effect It’s continuous development. It seems there is a shortage of microtransactions, Star Wars: Jedi and Mass Effect It has proven financial performance.
Iron Man It’s the only real mystery, but perhaps the goal is to tie it into the future the avengers A movie or something. This is strange as it is the first two Black Panther The film is economically successful, and the characters are still associated with the MCU. The true strange thing is Star Wars Zero Company – Single player turn-based tactical titles xcom.
EA signed a deal with Marvel and created three games based on its properties. However, it has not been confirmed that the three games fall into this category. It was Black Panther So it’s not so, is it considered insignificant? We don’t know at this point and probably won’t. However, EA provided a statement from Miele to IGN, saying, “The partnership with Marvel remains strong and the long-term multi-title collaboration continues.”
The real question you have to ask is why now use all layoffs and project cancellations? It can be argued that the company has overcome the storm when Sony, Microsoft and other publishers (Sans Nintendo) closed a number of studios. Even when Dead Space Remake didn’t meet enough expectations to cancel the rumored sequel (obviously not a straight remake) Dead Space 2. The better you don’t know), the motivation continued Iron Man.
The answer may be as simple as stupid: EA Sports FC 25.
Last January, EA revealed significant revisions to bookings for all fiscal years, ranging from $7.5 billion to $7.8 billion to $7.7 billion to $7.15 billion. granted, Dragon Age: Belguard This contributed to this as the player’s predictions were missing 50%. However, the publisher admitted that it was primarily due to overwhelming performance. EA Sports FC 25. The company’s shares fell 15%, wiping out its $6 billion market value.
Who played FC 25 You know that the launch conditions weren’t the best. Even after major updates, it is still on Steam’s overall “mixed” rating, with just 49% of nearly 68,000 reviews giving thumbs. As analyst company Moffettnathanson said at the time, the Ultimate team is EA’s “clock near the interactive media reservations” and there’s a problem if they’re not collecting microtransaction revenue. Publishers fully saw a decline in live service bookings due to “middle-single-digit percentage” while previously predicting an increase.
Also note that we have announced one of the bestselling titles of 2024 in the US College Football 25. EA Sports FC 25’s Performance was below the company’s expectations and thus did not help offset the decline. Shortly afterwards, Bioware undergoes a restructuring to focus fully on the following Mass Effectand members of Dragon age Their position has ended. Other cancellations etc.
Electronic arts has not confirmed whether this is everything and whether overwhelming financial performance has driven all these changes. However, from the player’s point of view, we cancel the title from the heart behind it. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and The shadow of warits “open story” system sounds like a great alternative to the Nemesis system, but it only hurts your heart.
Perhaps they didn’t justify the development costs. Perhaps it was a problem that was not worth spending time and money to solve it. Maybe they follow Wilson’s statement that they will move away from the development of “future licensed IPs that they don’t think will be successful in a changing industry.” Again, we don’t know, but considering this, it is reportedly the same publisher. The Mandalorian It infers the decision-making process beyond the title from the respawn, “How to meet annual forecasts.” And “How can I keep my shareholders happy?” in itself is a riddle.
Anyway, Monolith Productions are gone, so perhaps it’s another gut punch for fans who wanted it. Black Panther It could be an open world superhero game Wonder Woman I couldn’t do it. The Monolith talent was enough to just the idea that they still had a place where they probably did great things.
Wheel continues to spin electronic arts as it focuses on the annual sports offering and the next slate in titles that generate recurring revenue. However, everyone working for the company is having a difficult battle to fight, including live services, sports, and single-player-centric titles. Because if the gaming industry is proven everything this year, it’s almost impossible to find a studio to call home in the end.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent GamingBolt’s views as an organization.