Hopefully it ends soon.
In the last few months EA has lost developers, founders, their president and executives. Most of these have left on their own accord, but some got asked to leave a.k.a. layoffs. Ghost Games, the developer of the unannounced Need for Speed title, has fallen victim to EA’s year-long layoff spree.
About 6 weeks ago former co-founder of Criterion Games stated 60-65 of their employees transferred to Ghost Games. Thus leaving only 20 people in the studio to work on any projects.
Then news came down today through a Polygon article stating that numerous people were given an ultimatum: either stay the Ghost Games UK office and help with the upcoming Dead Space game, or part ways with compensation.
As consequence, the franchise Need for Speed, is now on hold until further notice. Criterion and Ghost Games created the most recent entry of the series, Need for Speed Rivals. There is no information as to what either studio is working on.
Not the only ones
In addition to the bad news regarding Ghost Games, just last week EA had more layoffs in their EA Salt Lake City studio. They’ve closed down Playfish, PopCap Vancouver and Quicklime Studio since April of last year.
Though this kind of news is always saddening, EA did announce in April last year, a company wide “restructuring” to affect various aspects of their studios. One can only hope they’re done with their layoffs and start focusing on retention.
