Already perpetually living in the shadow of industry giant GameStop, video game retailer Game Crazy is about to get even smaller after this Wednesday’s announcement: their parent company, Movie Gallery, is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again – the second time in three years.
After a massive closing of approximately 200 stores last year, Game Crazy will be axing another huge swath of locations, bringing them down to only 250 remaining when all is said and done. Hollywood Video, GC’s former parent before their purchase by Movie Gallery in 2005, will keep 545 stores open while Movie Gallery will retain 1,111.
Last week, we posted news that Pandemic Studios, creators of Destroy All Humans, Mercenaries, and December 8th’sThe Saboteur, was being shut down.
EA representatives confirmed that nearly 200 people would be laid off. These bright (and opportunistic) Pandemic folks decided to post this final farewell to the world on behalf of the studio and give EA a big ol’ middle finger. Enjoy.
(Ed Note: Do be warned, the lyrics in the song are NSFW, so don’t crank this in your workplace unless you’re about to burn the building down – R.T.)
Yesterday, EA representatives confirmed the closure of Pandemic Studios, makers of such titles as Mercenaries, Star Wars: Battlefront, and the upcoming The Saboteur.
While the process of shutting the developer down is still underway, it appears that the vast majority of Pandemic’s 200 regular employees were shown the door. CEO Andrew Goldman, President Josh Resnick, and Vice President of Product Development Greg Borrud were included in that list.
Yesterday Electronic Arts announced it plans to slash over 1,500 jobs by March 2010 as a cost-reducing measure. Since October 2008 EA has already eliminated over 1,000 jobs.
The world’s second largest video game publisher said it will concentrate its efforts on products bearing “higher margin opportunities.”
“This action will result in the closure of several facilities and a headcount reduction of approximately 1,500 positions, of which 1,300 are included in the restructuring plan,” stated the publisher. “This plan will result in annual cost saving of at least $100 million and restructuring charges of $130 to $150 million.”
“The entire Blue Omega team was laid off today (well, starting Friday). If anyone has job openings, send them my way and I’ll pass them on.” This is never a good way to start off a story, but such were the words from the Twitter account of Geoff Rowland, a programmer from the above mentioned developer, last week.
The development of Damnation, a title notoriously dogged by low review scores, seems to sit at the center of this issue. According to legal hooplah dug up by Shacknews, two companies that Blue Omega had contracted to do work on Damnation, Point of View and the rather awesomely named Velvetelvis Studios, both ended up in lawsuits with the developer. One such instance came when Blue Omega sued Point of View for damages after they were temporarily pulled off the Damnation project. Meanwhile, Velvetelvis supposedly missed deadlines for their contract work, leading to Blue Omega missing their own deadlines with publisher Codemasters.
Any way you slice it, it’s a messy situation. One has to wonder if this may have been responsible for some of Damnation’s problems. We don’t mean to kick a dog while they’re down, but we have a review of the game coming to CFD! soon. Don’t want to spoil anything, but…yeah. It’s probably not going to be exactly the most glowing of recommendations.
Yesterday Electronic Arts announced it plans to slash over 1,500 jobs by March 2010 as a cost-reducing measure. Since October 2008 EA has already eliminated over 1,000 jobs.
“The entire Blue Omega team was laid off today (well, starting Friday). If anyone has job openings, send them my way and I’ll pass them on.” This is never a good way to start off a story, but such were the words from the 
Zuri Grimm
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