News Post

Head of EA Canada Out -- Major Restructuring of the Company

05:30 PM - November 9, 2010 by RaychelSnr

1Up has the story:

Quote:


	"Following a disaster that left EA's high-profile basketball sim NBA Elite 11 on the cutting room floor, the publisher has completely reorganized the way it develops games in its EA Sports brand, allegedly dismissing the game's studio manager in the process. According to our sources, all EA Sports development going forward will be driven by one core team that will oversee asset creation and sharing across multiple studios, much like is being done for Dead Space 2. As part of this change, the general manager positions at the company's Tiburon and Canada studios have been eliminated. Former Tiburon GM Philip Holt is still with EA and is, according to a representative, "considering other options within the company," while Moira Dang, GM of EA Canada -- the studio behind Elite -- is no longer with the company."

Editors Take: This is a dramatic move and one which will have pretty big effects on how sports game resources are handled. It appears there will be more control from up top on how games are developed, which may or may not lead to more continuity within the company.

On a very practical scale, we probably won't see much change initially. However, given the nugget of info about asset creation and sharing -- I'm betting we see more crossover of titles either in concept or in practice.

Stay tuned as we keep on this pretty big news story.

Member Comments

# 1 rockchisler @ 11/09/10 06:06 PM

what do they mean 'crossover of titles"?

# 2 RaychelSnr @ 11/09/10 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockchisler


	what do they mean 'crossover of titles"?

That was my comment (see that it's under the Editor's take portion of the article).

Crossover would be things like interfaces and common functionality being shared across titles more easily. Perhaps idea sharing, all sorts of things like that could be possible.

# 3 jWILL253 @ 11/09/10 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank Cifaldi


	Our sources tell us that another effect of this structural change is that each sports franchise, as opposed to studio, will have an assigned GM (described to us as "the Captain of each ship") that will report directly to Andrew Wilson, Senior Vice-President of EA Sports, who handles the development portion of its sports game business.

This could be HUGE when it comes to the development of each game, specifically when it comes to sharing resources, innovation, and dev focus. We could possibly see the whole "the suits make the decision" argument disappear, due to this. Well... as long as they hire the right people...

# 4 poloelite @ 11/09/10 07:44 PM

I know it's a business, but when you solely focus on the dollar over the art you're involved in, these things happen. Once they lose the NFL license, things will get even more tough over at EA.

# 5 superjew887 @ 11/09/10 07:46 PM

This could create the "competition" everyone like to throw around on these forums. A big corporate shakeup like this could give 2K a little uncertainty as what to expect from EA. Meaning, 2K will have to make sure they put out quality titles in the future (not just "re-releases" with updated rosters). On the other side of the coin, EA may actually be finally getting the message that the status quo just won't sell anymore. Is it too early to say "score 1 for the gamers?"

# 6 BlueNGold @ 11/09/10 07:47 PM

So does this have any effect on say the dev teams of NHL or FIFA considering they were EAC titles?

On another note, I can't believe the failure of Elite has shook things up within EA this much. What's so bad about it is that they could have just stuck with what they had in Live 10, but that's another discussion for another forum.

# 7 statum71 @ 11/09/10 08:01 PM

Man, EA is reminding me of the Cowboys right about now.

This is bad.

# 8 savoie2006 @ 11/09/10 08:23 PM

I'm sure this will have an effect on the NHL and FIFA series eventually, lets just hope it's a good effect. All this sounds too much like what went down with 2K Sports. I just hope EA doesn't decide that stupid features to attract the casual customer take priority over a more realistic approach.

# 9 dickey1331 @ 11/09/10 09:22 PM

This is interesting.

# 10 AMYO @ 11/09/10 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fcabanski


	Another thought is why change the way all sports games are developed based on one that had issues? This seems to point to problems EA recognizes across the board, with all the sports titles. Maybe one of those problems is development cost.

More then one sports title has issues Madden sucks and is getting worse

# 11 RaychelSnr @ 11/09/10 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by statum71


	Man, EA is reminding me of the Cowboys right about now. This is bad.

I couldn't help but think the same thing

# 12 ryan36 @ 11/09/10 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueNGold


	So does this have any effect on say the dev teams of NHL or FIFA considering they were EAC titles? On another note, I can't believe the failure of Elite has shook things up within EA this much. What's so bad about it is that they could have just stuck with what they had in Live 10, but that's another discussion for another forum.

I agree with this...they re-invented the wheel with their NBA title when they didn't need to. It's funny, I keep wishing Madden would be re-done, but I think Elite shows what happens when they "re-do" something without proper time/resources.

# 13 khaliib @ 11/09/10 10:51 PM

My suggestion would be that you "1st day buy" gamers, better rent & test future EA Sports games before you drop $60.

Judging from all this downsizing, I really believe that College Football will see little to no major upgrades next year.
Could it be the next sports game on the chopping block for EA?

# 14 oo7Soxs @ 11/10/10 12:04 AM

EA getting blown up from ONE **** fail of a game? I never thought I'd see the day. I hope they come out of this strong, but it doesn't look too good right now.

# 15 slickdtc @ 11/10/10 09:33 AM

Like many have said, FIFA and NHL are both series that come from EA-C that have done very well. Will the death (at least this year) of the NBA series bring these other two series down? Even though the NHL and FIFA is less popular (in the US, at least), it wouldn't make any sense to F up those series just because one beast has been slayed (or slayed itself). If anything, I applaud EA for scrapping a title that just didn't cut it instead of releasing it and garnering sales purely off brand recognition.

This sounds like something that was tossed around for a while, and the mess that the NBA series created just pushed it forward. Hopefully more good comes from the sharing then bad.

# 16 himynameisangel @ 11/10/10 10:28 AM

I dont think this is entirely because of "elite". This def. has alot to do with madden and the slupming sales/quality of the game over the past 5 years. Add to that the fact that alot of people still say NFL 2K5 was/is still better than the newest madden and how much better the 2K basketball games have been. I dont know, it could all just be something we dont even know about. Maybe a designer was caught peeing in the boss's coffee... We'll never know, and EA wont just come out and say that 2K is just a better "fan-based" company. Just like jerry jones wont just come out and say "We Suck!"

# 17 HiTEqMETHOD @ 11/10/10 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by savoie2006


	I'm sure this will have an effect on the NHL and FIFA series eventually, lets just hope it's a good effect. All this sounds too much like what went down with 2K Sports. I just hope EA doesn't decide that stupid features to attract the casual customer take priority over a more realistic approach.

Haven't they already done that with some of the stuff they've put out?

# 18 Perfect Zero @ 11/10/10 11:42 AM

We all know the glory days of sports gaming are over (and I won't go into detail about when that happened; everybody ought to know the day by now), but I wonder if this will start a new era. This is going to either be really good or really, really bad for sports gamers, and when I see "top-down" management, I can only really see the negatives. The reason why EA is failing is because they are taking a new approach every few years instead of sticking to something and going with it for good or for bad. Whatever they do now, they need to focus on it for the next five years and let it pan out.

I think that this also means that titles that don't massively sale will be cut. NCAA has been going by the way side, and I wonder if the NBA will ever see another EA update. This alone is bad news for consumers as it cuts more people out of competition.

# 19 JokerswildXOXO @ 11/10/10 12:07 PM

Now fans it's time to go after Madden!!!! Be strong and unite!!!!

# 20 savoie2006 @ 11/10/10 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiTEqMETHOD


	Haven't they already done that with some of the stuff they've put out?

Yeah, it's called Ultimate Team.

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