Massive EA layoff, Mythic reduced by almost half. Effect on UO?

[Magdalene]

I want forum peace

Some speculation is OK, nervous opening of multiple threads is not, neither is attacking people with different view of world economy in general or game companies in particular.

 

[T-Hunt]

By THE CANADIAN PRESS, cp.org, Updated: November 9, 2009 5:29 PMElectronic Arts cuts 1,500 across company, cuts 'significant' in Burnaby
VANCOUVER, B.C. - Video game maker Electronic Arts is cutting 1,500 jobs, including several at its Canadian operations, as part of a company-wide restructuring.

A Canadian spokesman for the company said the reductions are "significant" at its operations in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby.

EA would not break down the cuts by region. Before the layoffs, EA had about 2,700 employees across Canada, including 1,500 in Burnaby, B.C. and the rest in Montreal and Edmonton.

EA says it is restructuring to focus on games that have higher profit margins.

The cuts came Monday, while EA reported a second-quarter loss of US$391 million in what's been a difficult year for the video game industry.

Earlier in the day, EA also announced it bought Playfish Inc., the creator of popular social networking games such as "Who Has the Biggest Brain" and "Pet Society," for US$275 million.


This is in Canada mainly...but EA is a large company...so try not to worry... Prays..haha...i have 6 months payed up...

I think it would be foulish to let UO go down the tubes...alot of games are going back to the old style of graphics...

And no im not going to go looking for the post saying so,,,,,,

 

[DevilsOwn]

*sigh*

The reorg will also see the publisher "provide greater focus on titles with higher [profit] margin opportunities." As a result, Riccitiello "over a dozen" games had been canceled, although he did not identify any specific titles. "Anything that doesn't measure up to be in a very high profit contributor and unit seller got cut from this point going forward," said the CEO.

from here

 

[five oclock]

Nope. Someone from EA/Mythic will post that it's all fine, they are all staying, and the next patch will fix the problems we currently have in both 2d and SA

(You wanted optimism, right? )

But but But...they been saying the NEXT patch will fix everything since pub 16.....

 

[Theo_GL]

Well, I think that depends on your definition of "Maintenance Mode". From what I've seen when other titles have gone into "MM", UO doesn't come close to that description. The lack of "New" UO boxes on the shelves, despite the arguable need for boxes on the shelf, isn't an indication of "Maintenance" status.

-GO

Grimm - It depends on your definition of maintenance.

Yes, SA was an 'expansion' but until EA/Mythic publishes 'New Sub' numbers of net new subscriptions and not simply old subscriptions re-activating for a few months for new content then letting them lapse - I look at SA as a 'maintenance' expansion to keep the status quo players from leaving.

I don't see this as a 'growing' game. While SA added some new land, new skills and another weak attempt at a new client - I would hardly call it a success unless you are counting the pure $$ you got from soaking your existing customers again.

I don't see many new players in game, there is more open land in Great Lakes than ever.

I just don't see anything to be optomistic about in this game.

I log into other games and am just shocked at how much better interfaces in D&D Online, Guild Wars etc are compared to UO. And I don't mean we need to go to a 3rd person shooter style - but man our interface is terrible. 2d client and new client. I don't see us ever having a CHANCE of attracting new players unless you fix the obvious problems:

1 - Steep learning curve and time to 'enjoy' the game. Skills take too long to develop, its still a train wreck for a new player ot come up to speed etc.
2 - Client. Its ugly, hard to use and generally like a 1990's game. Any new player that saw it on a box would put the box back on the shelf.
3 - Lag/Connection - Yup, its 4pm and I'm lagging again to all east coast shards. This happens everyday - there are like 10 posts on it and no one from EA will acknowledge an issue. Host your servers in the Amazon cloud if you need to but your own data centers seem to have an issue. Please blow up the fert07 server.

Good luck Grimm - you got your work cut out for you. I think everyone would be shocked to see the true sub numbers from the UO heyday to now. Its a downward spiral with no upticks.

Thats what I call a game in maintenance mode. If you are not growing - you are just trying to maintain playerbase.

 

[five oclock]

Prefect solution to this mess...

Everyone go out to your local game store and Buy a EA game. Don't matter which one. Don't matter if ya ever going to play it or not. Just buy at least one.

If everyone did this then we spread the word around to our friends etc etc...EA stock would go thru the roof tomorrow and we would not have any more worries....

Or just keep talking about it on stratics

 

[StifledArgument]

Prefect solution to this mess...

Everyone go out to your local game store and Buy a EA game. Don't matter which one. Don't matter if ya ever going to play it or not. Just buy at least one.

If everyone did this then we spread the word around to our friends etc etc...EA stock would go thru the roof tomorrow and we would not have any more worries....

Or just keep talking about it on stratics

Someone doesn't have the slightest idea of how corporations and earnings work...and it's the guy I have quoted.

Edit: Unless what he said was a joke..the kind of day I am having a dry wit kind of joke would go blazing right over my head...

 

[gjohnson5]

Certain products can be, and often have been, profitable of themselves, but when included in a corporate management overview of rates of return, have been abandoned, or 'let go' to smaller organisations that are happy functioning at a lower rate of profit, or can understand and develop/market the product better than the corporate can. If you've not noticed that happen in many aspects of the business world, I'm very surprised - but stating it as simply as 'profit or not', as you do, means you've probably not grasped some things about how bigger organisations work.

How a company manages itself and it's finances varies from place to place. What you speak of is/can be true in some cases. It's not true in others.

However Profit and Loss is calculated in a very easy way based on the assets and expenses sides of a balance sheet. The issue really comes down to simple accounting

 

[Xalan Dementia]

im sure ea's american layoffs are mostly from warhammer, console games and the like. if youve played warhammer youd know its a cut and paste copy of WoW (which is also horribly boring, but kids love it) Im sure they didnt make as much off of SA as they had hoped but Im sure they didnt lose enough to close uo. They shoulda just closed warhammer and focused on UO, give it some commercials, store exposure etc.

 

[JC the Builder]

Prefect solution to this mess...

Everyone go out to your local game store and Buy a EA game. Don't matter which one. Don't matter if ya ever going to play it or not. Just buy at least one.

Each person reading this topic would have to purchase 1,000 games to make a difference. EA was really counting on Warhammer Online to be its big MMO offering. It failed miserably. Not only that but they haven't managed to stem the loss of subscriptions. Warhammer might have less people playing it than UO at this point.

 

[Shamus Turlough]

Your cried of DOOM are not following the proper syntax. There aren't nearly enough O's, and nothing bold.

GET WITH THE PROGRAM U.Hall!

DOoOoOoOoOoOoOoM!!

(Just kidding, dont do this, it aggravates us.)

 

[five oclock]

Ok bad joke...Ill take the ganking now

As what you said about warhammer. Yeah I agree there. I played it for almost a year. Was a very fun SOMEWHAT balanced game. But it was just mostly gank vs gank and hard to find anyone around to actually have any fun with. The battles got smaller and smaller and the people even harder to find.

But it did have one thing going for it. Live events almost every other week it seemed.

 

[Aurelius]

Should anyone be interested - or really, really bored, or maybe insomniac... - and want to hear the 'conference call' between EA heads and large investors regarding the Q2 2010 Earnings, it's streamable from

http://biz.yahoo.com/cc/0/109310.html

Although you'll not hear much reference to UO, unless you fall asleep and start dreaming....

 

[Uriah Heep]

Warhammer might have less people playing it than UO at this point.

I don't think that statement as written is necessarily true. But to follow your train of thought, I would think that
Warhammer might have less paid subscriptions than UO at this point
might be actually true. We have less players I believe, but most of us maintain many accounts to hold houses, rares, etc etc...

And since I've seen no one else do it yet

OMG THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

 

[Dust Bunny]

Omg TAKE COVER..gather your sardine cans and run for the backwoods....its the end of the world!!!!!!!!!!




++sympathies to those that were laid off++

 

[Viper09]

So it's official that Mythic got cut?

Well as long as we don't start seeing free play-time all should be good

 

[Maplestone]

This is in Canada mainly...but EA is a large company...so try not to worry... Prays..haha...i have 6 months payed up...

But ... but ... I'm in Canada. They can't lay off customers right? *starts cowering in a corner and rocking back and forth as if suffering a little PCSD (post-corporate stress disorder)*

 

[Beastmaster]

Quick! Roll out the new Dev dupe. Dupe a few Devs for each shard and we'll be in better shape than ever.(except for the new bugs)

 

[canary]

Prefect solution to this mess...

Everyone go out to your local game store and Buy a EA game. Don't matter which one. Don't matter if ya ever going to play it or not. Just buy at least one.

If everyone did this then we spread the word around to our friends etc etc...EA stock would go thru the roof tomorrow and we would not have any more worries....

Or just keep talking about it on stratics

The last thing I would EVER do is support another EA product.

 

[olduofan]

EA Corporate insiders are stating that Electronic Arts will be slashing up to 1000 people worldwide while Mythic Entertainment's creative departments seem to be hit most. Therefore Mythic's assets are going into "maintenance" mode.

 

[FishinFool]

The last thing I would EVER do is support another EA product.

Yes, that's helpful.


As I have stated numerous times in the past;

It has nothing to do with wether or not you are profitable, it comes down to decision based upon profit margins.

Classic example is Earth and Beyond - the game was profitable, however it was only eeking out a 2% profit margin. From EA's perspective, and rightly so, it was not worth tying up good money to chase bad. As time goes by they would need to sink more and more money into the game to try to boost sales, tying up capital that would be better used on another product.

EA will be shutting Mythic down and with it UO, it is only a matter of time. EA has shown, time and time and time and time and time again, that they do not understand - nor care to understand the MMO market.

This is not a smaller company, like Turbine, who will keep their old hunk-o-junk going out of pride and nostalgia till it's time to turn off the lights.

 

[five oclock]

IF EA does decided to shut mythic and UO down. Wouldn't it be smarter to just sell it to some other company first? instead of just shutting the lights off.

Might not be high profits that EA is looking for... but its something to get off the books plus also everything is payed for. Count your loss and send the issues to another company?

Kinda like they do with casinos here in Vegas. They get tired of one or it don't meet there standards they sell it. There always seems to be a buyer too....

 

[JC the Builder]

UO does not have a large team to begin with. Not like Warhammer which has (or had) dozens of developers. I would be surprised if any were let go for UO.

The biggest concern may be the cancellation of the Event Moderator program.

 

[Uriah Heep]

IF EA does decided to shut mythic and UO down. Wouldn't it be smarter to just sell it to some other company first? instead of just shutting the lights off.

Not necessarily...shutting it down eliminates it as competition cause they still own the rights to it either way. Selling it, just leaves it out there for em to have to compete against when they roll out their next wondergame like Warhammer

 

[Salivern_Diago]

Sakkarah!

I see you reading this thread, please put us out of our misery and tell us if UO has been affected in any way!

Really dont need the negative hype so soon after a new expansion!

 

[Viper09]

Sakkarah!

I see you reading this thread, please put us out of our misery and tell us if UO has been affected in any way!

Really dont need the negative hype so soon after a new expansion!

Especially while SA is still in beta and being worked on.

 

[Amren]

Goodbye UO and WarHammer

reports that 80 people have been laid off from EA Mythic today. Official sources have not commented as of yet, and this information has been circulating from the people that were supposedly laid off. In addition to the layoffs, which may actually reach up to 1,000 Mythic employees worldwide, Mythic games will be going into "maintenance mode", since the majority of the layoffs happened in the creative department

Sorry to say it, but UO is not going any ware.

This game is a cash cow for EA. Even if UO has the least subscriber base then any other MMO, it still turns a profit.

Even if UO has 70k active "accounts" (each paying $15 a month) that translates to $1,050,000 profit a month. Do you really see em giving that up?

I DO see server merges happening at some point. It makes no sense to have all the original servers still open, most at what? 25% population?

 

[FishinFool]

Not necessarily...shutting it down eliminates it as competition cause they still own the rights to it either way. Selling it, just leaves it out there for em to have to compete against when they roll out their next wondergame like Warhammer

It is extraordinarily rare for any company to sell off IP rights. It's practically unheard of outside of a merger or acquisition. All you have to do is look at everything EA picked up from the purchase of Origin... and what have they done with it? Absolutely... nothing.

Look at Sierra, a dessicated husk of a company - held on to the IP rights to LotR/Middle Earth for years and just would not let it go. It was worth too much to accept any money for and in the end it was wasted.

I get no joy from talking this way. UO has always held a special place with me, but it kills me to see what has been done with it over the years. We are years past a mercy killing, what we have today is something akin to a Season 15 of Sienfeld.

 

[DarkVoid]

From Kotaku.



Of course this is pretty much entirely due to the Warhammer MMO having been a complete trainwreck of a flop, but I do hope this doesn't harm UO too much.

Can anyone answer me a question on EA that has been bugging me ever since I read this thread:

Does EA have the usual portfolio of investments and diversify into completely unrelated non-gaming venues like investors do or have they got all their eggs in one huge gaming basket?

Because if they've got all their eggs in the gaming basket, and there is a big downturn in gaming in general, it'll be like sitting on a rollercoaster that has an infinite downhill track. As it gets closer and closer to terminal velocity it seems to increase the enjoyment for the riders - we just don't know when it will hit and shatter the eggs in the basket all over the place and wind up disappointing us.

 

[Cadderly]

Maybe I'm overly optimistic but couldn't this turn into a good thing for uo? Large cut in investments and overhead could lead to them focusing on increasing profit in what is already a established business?

Went threw it with the retail corporation I work with. They shut down all retail stores that were in faltering markets and boosted product in a established market. UO is pretty damn established!

 

[Merik]

Hmmm..... well Mesanna is still working here. If that makes anyone feel better. She just put this up at the Luna Fair grounds on Chesapeake.

 

[Myrkrid Ashen]

Now might be a good time for Richard Garriott to buy back his old, beloved franchise. I've heard rumors about it, but then, who hasn't?

What else is he going to commit himself to? Tabula Rasa failed. He's done the whole astronaut/space tourist thing. An explosive comeback to UO would certainly put crazy ole Garriott back in the limelight, which is where he thrives.

Besides which, Dawn appears to be single just as Lord British was. And the throne of Britannia will need an heir, eventually.. I say we get them together and let nature take its course.

 

[Viper09]

Now might be a good time for Richard Garriott to buy back his old, beloved franchise. I've heard rumors about it, but then, who hasn't?

What else is he going to commit himself to? Tabula Rasa failed. He's done the whole astronaut/space tourist thing. An explosive comeback to UO would certainly put crazy ole Garriott back in the limelight, which is where he thrives.

Besides which, Dawn appears to be single just as Lord British was. And the throne of Britannia will need an heir, eventually.. I say we get them together and let nature take its course.

Maybe he can have it so Lord British accidental flew his spaceship through a worm hole in Tabula Rasa that leads him back to Sosaria

 

[Maplestone]

Does EA have the usual portfolio of investments and diversify into completely unrelated non-gaming venues like investors do or have they got all their eggs in one huge gaming basket?

That's not really the way most companies work in North America. Here companies usually focus their attention on the industry they are in - it is up to the investor to diversify, not the company. EA does have a US$billion of reserves in investments (over and above an equal amount of "cash"), including in rival publishers, but for the most part they are the engine of their own destiny. It's a rough spell to be sure, but they've still got a lot of room to maneuver.

 

[AtlanteanAngel]

Our condolences, sympathies and empathies to all empolyees at EA (including Mythic) that had been laid off.

Depending on their families' financial situation, for many of them being laid off is far worse than having UO shut down for even the must die-hard UO fanatic.

The financial/economic system run by humans on this planet clearly has its limitations (the existence of which giving rise to the perpetual no-perect-winner-possible 'democratic capitalism' vs 'every other system' conundrum), and the lives of real human beings affected is all too real and (all too often) all too painful.

May everyone laid-off find another job soon, and may UO continue to survive.

Amen.

 

[Harb]

UO does not have a large team to begin with. Not like Warhammer which has (or had) dozens of developers. I would be surprised if any were let go for UO.

The biggest concern may be the cancellation of the Event Moderator program.

Good catch, suspect on target. My only worry is that Mythic has some say in what's cut, that makes me very nervous. I'd have to do more "digging" than I'm willing to do, but at the corporate level there seems an impression that UO garners more market share than it really does. We don't keep all the shareholder reports, but it's been a bit amusing over the years to see "honorable mention" of our game from the "top," who are either misinformed, better informed than we'll ever perceive, or have had the wool pulled over their eyes by folks like Darkscribe. There are two dogs in the hunt for me, the folks I don't know but have come to sincerely appreciate over the years on our dev team, and the game itself, my source of entertainment for well over a decade. Even taking a step back, it would be an error for EA to close us up, or even to scale below where we already are - quite small comparitively! Guess we'll see. Sakkarah, who I appreciate more than most, has spent a lot of time watching this thread, but hasn't commented. Of late, she has been our defacto voice here. Suspect strongly that much is not known even by the folks on the inside.

 

[Theo_GL]

Sorry to say it, but UO is not going any ware.

This game is a cash cow for EA. Even if UO has the least subscriber base then any other MMO, it still turns a profit.

Even if UO has 70k active "accounts" (each paying $15 a month) that translates to $1,050,000 profit a month. Do you really see em giving that up?

I DO see server merges happening at some point. It makes no sense to have all the original servers still open, most at what? 25% population?

This post needs some corrections...

First - I'd be VERY surprised if the active subscription base was any more than 50k TOPS. Even with Japan shards. In the US GL/ATL/PAC are fairly well populated - the rest are ghost towns. No more than 300-400 ppl logged in all day.

Second - It might be $1m REVENUE per month - definitely not profit.

Lets assume - 15 developers at an average cost of 100k/year = 125k fully loaded - Thats $2.25m/year.

Lets assume - 10 QA people at $60k - 80k fully loaded - 800k.

Lets assume - 5 graphic artists at $80k average- 100k fully loaded - 500k

Lets assume GM staff, Game Designers, Game Lead - another $1m.

There are $4.5m in costs right there. It is probably higher. Don't forget we had 80 names on pumpkins this year. If you assume average fully loaded cost of $100k - thats 8m in human costs.


Now lets factor in corporate allocations for office space, telephones etc.

Then you have to factor in servers and network costs. Yes, many of the servers might be paid for and fully depreciated - but do you think their network traffic and connections are free?

What about the IT staff to maintain the servers? Who do you think is doing the backups? Restores? etc. There is a cost to that.

Reduce your $1m/month to something more like $750k/month and now you are talking $10m for the year tops.

Once you take out allocations, personel and hardware costs - it would not surprise me if it were a breakeven before they start sellng 'add ons' like player transfer tokens and the expansion.

Assume 20k people took the expansion at $30 and that is a $600k boost this year.


It is cute though how you call it $1m in profit and assume everyone there is working for free and/or the game 'runs itself' with free computers, network connections and support.

 

[FrejaSP]

I hope our team is ok, we do have the best uo dev team ever and they are doing amazing thing for UO.
It would be so sad to lose any of them before the work start to pay off in more customers.
We all love SA, UO is still alive, I hope EA can see that

 

[Potgut]

If there are cuts at Mythic, I don't see UO closing, but I can see it go on cruise control for the next few years, kind of like it was prior to the Magincia events. That is, no more big updates or bigger gaps in between, no more big events, and back to holiday gift cards instead fresh new content like black cat statuettes and epic holiday quests. Also, considering the quality of support we have now, that will probably drop even more, GM's might go from endagered status to near extinction status again.

 

[JC the Builder]

Here is a post by someone which I've seen several links to.

Mythic laid off 80 people today, which is about 40% of the company and responsible for 90% of the content. According to a friend of mine who left before this happened, they're putting Warhammer into "maintenance mode."

I am not sure if there's been an official announcement, but my friend said that I was free to mention it, because it's surprising it's not out already. (I actually knew about it on Friday but not the numbers.)

Makes me a little sad, but mostly for the Daoc nostalgia more than anything else.

Source - http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?p=1961738#post1961738

Then Lum (I am assuming Lum the Mad) responded:

Don't know anything about numbers, but literally everyone I know who was still at Mythic outside of upper management is looking for work this morning.

I don't believe he knows many of the current UO team.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

I told you all but you wouldn't listen... they are leading us to armageddon, a whole agenda... merging the shards and playing with our minds...

Even if it has already happened... and lessons learned.

I hope I am wrong still, a little.

 

[Harb]

Then Lum (I am assuming Lum the Mad) responded:

I don't believe he knows many of the current UO team.

Wouldn't Lum, assuming the Mad, know TheGrimmOmen? What ever happened to Lum anyhows? I also think one of the gals that's there has been so since the beginning, but as a quiet type, I can't for the life of me recall a callsign/ handle (not even sure she had one).

 

[popps]

I told you all but you wouldn't listen... they are leading us to armageddon, a whole agenda... merging the shards and playing with our minds...

One thing I do not understand about merging shards, is how current houses belonging to active accounts which customers pay for, monthly, can be dealt with....

Take Luna Housing, for example.

When 2 or more shards are merged there can only be ONE Luna resulting and the houses in there. But what about all of the OTHER Luna houses belonging to the players of the other shards ?

Who is to say which players will keep the right to maintain a Luna House and who to loose it ? Some of those houses were paid dearly...... a merge could hurt VERY painfully many players.

And Luna is merely an example. How about a player having a House in a nice location, like no spawn area with sea front ? Of course chances are that the same area on other shards has houses belonging to other active accounts.

Again, who is to say which player has more rights than other players, all paying for their accounts, equally, to keep hold of that particular location should several shards be merged ?

Unless a compromise solution can be found about Housing that salvages ALL house owners' rights in some way, equally, I see a whole lot of problems potentially coming from merging shards.

 

[Potgut]

One thing I do not understand about merging shards, is how current houses belonging to active accounts which customers pay for, monthly, can be dealt with....

Take Luna Housing, for example.

When 2 or more shards are merged there can only be ONE Luna resulting and the houses in there. But what about all of the OTHER Luna houses belonging to the players of the other shards ?

Who is to say which players will keep the right to maintain a Luna House and who to loose it ? Some of those houses were paid dearly...... a merge could hurt VERY painfully many players.

And Luna is merely an example. How about a player having a House in a nice location, like no spawn area with sea front ? Of course chances are that the same area on other shards has houses belonging to other active accounts.

Again, who is to say which player has more rights than other players, all paying for their accounts, equally, to keep hold of that particular location should several shards be merged ?

Unless a compromise solution can be found about Housing that salvages ALL house owners' rights in some way, equally, I see a whole lot of problems potentially coming from merging shards.

I was thinking almost the same thing, I wanted to add that many have valuables in their houses, including items they have bought off from the uogamecode store, there would have to make a way to store everything and still be able to access it if shards were merged, and if people had to lose their houses in order to merge into another shard, many who don't currently play but pay to keep their houses might as well stop paying for their subscription for there would be no point to keep paying anymore.

 

[popps]

I was thinking almost the same thing, I wanted to add that many have valuables in their houses, including items they have bought off from the uogamecode store, there would have to make a way to store everything and still be able to access it if shards were merged, and if people had to lose their houses in order to merge into another shard, many who don't currently play but pay to keep their houses might as well stop paying for their subscription for there would be no point to keep paying anymore.

Another thing to consider, is that there are subscribers out there who keep maintaining their accounts active paying the monthly fees, but for a variety of reasons are not actually logging in the game.

Should the servers be ever merged, these accounts holders would be unable to take measures to protect their houses and stored items and, therefore, I would imagine that whatever merge should be 100% protective towards absent players who maintain active accounts, nonetheless...

For example, let's imagine that a player has a Luna House, pays the monthly fee maintaining the account active, but is not logging in the game, whatever the reason.

The vendors ? Rental contracts maintained by other players.

Now, should a merge come and players be asked to do something like move their Luna House to other locations or whetever else, an active, paying subscriber yet not logging in could not possibly know anything about it and be prejudiced by the merge.

Therefore, if a merge is ever considered it should be one that does not harm active accounts not logging players in any way and certainly does not require them to do anything in regards to their houses because there do are players who maintain their accounts as active and pay for them and yet, do not log in the game for extended periods of time.

 

[Malador]

SA took over two years to be released, some entire GAMES have been released in that timeframe.

I'm unsure what 'fat patches' you are referring to. It obviously has nothing to do with the EC client.

SA is a joke. They couldnt have developed a worse client if they had let the interns design it. Compare it to any other game client on the market and you have to wonder why they ever bothered. Its like two car companies where designs a shiny new sedan with all the bells and wistles. The other one pulls a 15 year old clunker out of the used car lot, lets the car wash guys spray it with dollar spray cans and tries to pass it off as a new car. The fact that they spent two years coming up with it is even more ludicriss.

 

[lucksi]

What´s this? Layoffs and they didn´t even raise the subscription fees beforehand for better service?

 

[Malador]

Nope. Someone from EA/Mythic will post that it's all fine, they are all staying, and the next patch will fix the problems we currently have in both 2d and SA

(You wanted optimism, right? )

They layed that person off.

 

[Malador]

Prefect solution to this mess...

Everyone go out to your local game store and Buy a EA game. Don't matter which one. Don't matter if ya ever going to play it or not. Just buy at least one.

If everyone did this then we spread the word around to our friends etc etc...EA stock would go thru the roof tomorrow and we would not have any more worries....

Or just keep talking about it on stratics

Yea ea's games are substandard in the industry. EA's customer service is also substandard. UO specifically is way outdated and full of bugs. Lets reinforce this kind of business practice by floating them.

 

[Maplestone]

Yea ea's games are substandard in the industry.

*looks at Malador's comments*
*looks at Malador's number of posts*

*scratches head*

*wonders what's provoking him/her to come out and kick people when they are down*