Electronic Arts was hoping that the casual game market would be its answer to a successful money making opportunity.
But EA’s Casual Entertainment development group has been shut down and will now be incorporated into The Sims game division and will be renamed the Sims Casual Label.
The former Casual Entertainment label was responsible for Boom Blox, Hasbro licenses, Pogo online games, and the Harry Potter franchise.
Kathy Vrabeck, president of the Casual Entertainment group has resigned, citing her departure "for personal reasons."
EA President John Riccitiello hired Vrabeck away from Activision last year. She served as president for Activision’s publishing operations. Riccitiello hired her in hopes of charging up EA’s company direction due to the gaming giant’s downturns in earnings and what industry watchers saw as stagnation within EA.
Trudy Muller, spokeswoman for EA confirmed that the consolidation of the casual games label with the Sims because of Vrabeck’s sudden departure.
"Her departure provided us with the opportunity to take what we’ve learned over the past 18 months about casual games and apply it to a stronger, more efficient and more creative structure. We learned that there are a lot of similarities between the two labels in terms of marketing, product design and user demographics. They naturally complement each other," said Muller.
"At this time, we are evaluating the right place within EA for growth initiatives such as Pogo, Casual Online and EA Mobile," she said.
The resignation of Vrabeck followed the announcement last week that EA would cut 500-600 jobs from its workforce resulting in a savings of $50 million.
Industry watchers and the gaming community have long warned EA that its over dependence on franchises and the lack of new game ideas would eventually hurt the company. But the cries were either unheard or ignored until the company took on substantial losses and relinquished its title as the number one third party game publisher to Activision last year.
EA reported a loss of $310 million during the financial quarter.
[via LAtimes]
