Looks like EA started its planned restructuring and layoffs by closing its Chicago studio today.
According to a leaked memo posted on Kotaku, Frank Gibeau, president of EA Games, announced the studio’s closure to its employees earlier today. The studio had 146 people but a majority of them will be relocated within other EA studios.
One of the main reasons for the studio’s closure is its profitability, or lack thereof. EA Chicago’s games weren’t stellar titles and as a result, the studio suffered from some poor game sales figures. Gibeau mentioned that EA Chicago had no expectation to turn a profit till 2011 or later.
"Within the EA Games Label, we are committed to running each franchise and facility as a city/state, teams with unique creative identities as well as responsibility for product quality, ship dates and profitability…
Unfortunately, EA Chicago hasn’t been able to meet that standard. The location has grown dramatically in the past three years while revenue from the games developed there has not…As it stands, EA Chicago has no expectation of hitting our profitability targets until FY2011 or later."
Gibeau also mentioned that EA was planning to shutdown EA Chicago last week, but due to a death of a colleague, the company held off the announcement.
EA Chicago is most known for developing Fight Night Round 3 and Def Jam: Icon; recently, the studio was working on an unnamed Marvel fighting game. So what’s in store for the future of these games? Well, nothing was announced regarding these titles, I’d say any possible sequels would just stay in limbo.
