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We met our friend Giddeon at the AbleGamers Accessibility Arcade in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When he first sat down with the AbleGamers crew, Giddeon didn't want to play any games. He told us that with his disability gaming was difficult. Giddeon has a rare disease that caused the growth of his arms .. Read More
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Sad day for EA

Written by Steve Spohn

Published on 04 February 2009

The US economy is not the only thing dwindling recently. According to a press conference held yesterday at EA, Warhammer online has seen its subscription numbers dwindle to 300,000 in December. That number has come down from more than three quarters of a million as of September 2008.

EA has already announced that it plans to cut 11% of its workforce and close 12 facilities nationwide. The most severe cuts having already taken place at the developers of Need for Speed and Madden NFL.

Now Joystiq is reporting that there are more layoffs in store for EA Mythic, which may include people all the way up to senior designers. This is just one week after EA Mythic had announced plans to roll out a free expansion over the next few months. More than 60 individuals have already been let go, which forces one to wonder what is in store for the once promising "WoW killer."

According to Blizzard, more than 46% of those who cancelled their accounts and cited Warhammer as the reason for their departure have already returned.

300,000 subscribers is nothing to scoff at, particularly considering those numbers put Warhammer in front of titles such as Everquest II but that is a far cry from bringing down a monster such as World of Warcraft that now boasts over 11.5 million subscribers.

However, Warhammer is not the only EA title currently being molested by the current economic climate. The same press conference announced that three titles, which were set to be released early this year, have been pushed back for release in the next fiscal year. Godfather II, Dragon age: origins, and the highly anticipated Sims 3 have been pushed back well into summer. John Riccitiello CEO of Electronic Arts said the reason for the pushback of the Sims 3 is that it will be "one of the most important launches of the company's history."

Other sources say that the real reason for the pushback of such popular titles is to allow the EA marketing machine more time to get the word out about the product. Industry experts agree that over 50% of a title's net income is achieved on the first day of release. The Sims 3 now has a tentative release date of June 2, 2009.

Perhaps, the gaming industry giant is waiting for the economy to stabilize so that more people have disposable income to purchase these highly anticipated games. Regardless of the true reasons for the setbacks, if the EA conference was any kind of foreshadowing of the gaming industry as a whole: we may be headed for some tough times in virtual reality as well.

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0 #3 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Sad day for EA — Gamingkitsune 2009-02-05 15:36

drm and a lot of their tactics are another reason they are losing so much money. they've alienated quite a bit of their base.

0 #2 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Sad day for EA — Jennifer 2009-02-05 11:26

wow I'm very disappointed to hear that the sims 3 is being pushed back to June, I was really looking forward to purchasing it at the end of the month

0 #1 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Sad day for EA — Stevie 2009-02-05 08:22

having thought that the sims 3 will be out in a couple of weeks time i am soooo disappointed this has changed. Although it does give me time to get a better graphics card.

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