EA Axe Staff from next Ultima title in favour of Family orientated online gaming
Ultima Online 2 rattles the can as EA focus on family gaming
A leaked email from EA chief John Riccitiello has emerged which sees the company’s justification for cutting another 200 members of staff and outlines its plans for family orientated online gaming and the development of Ultima Online.
“The acquisition of pogo.com put us two years ahead of schedule on our goal of having the leadership position in family-oriented online gaming,” said Riccitiello. “Pogo built a site that was judged by Media Metrix and others as one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the entire Internet. Integrating that content and expertise into our site resulted in some duplication in our Pop Channel, tech support, quality assurance and customer service in EA/Redwood Shores, Austin and EA/Virginia. The headcount reductions announced today in those locations reflect that consolidation.”
EA’s strategy in this department makes sense. Why bother wasting all that time on trying to create and innovate something when you can simply go and buy someone else’s work? This may make financial sense but cannot be good for the intellectual health of the company.
Riccitiello goes on, “We've decided to dedicate more focus on Ultima Online. After pioneering the Persistent State World genre in 1997, UO continues to amaze us by generating greater and greater numbers of loyal subscribers. Rather than create a second world that would compete with UO, we'll dedicate our resources to improving the core product. There will be new lands, new creatures and a world that continually evolves. Some of the people who had been working on the UO2 Team will be reassigned to UO in Austin and other PSWs in development at Redwood Shores, Maxis and elsewhere in EA's global studio system.”
What this effectively says is that EA sees no point in following the trend set by the makers of Everquest, in releasing a sequel to a successful game that can be easily upgraded via the Internet.
It would be fair to say that Verant is living too much in the present with its plans for Everquest. The need for suquels and add-ons is becoming less and less important, as in the not too distant future, a broadband enabled gaming community will be able to have updates applied to their game worlds in real time as they play.
“The acquisition of pogo.com put us two years ahead of schedule on our goal of having the leadership position in family-oriented online gaming,” said Riccitiello. “Pogo built a site that was judged by Media Metrix and others as one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the entire Internet. Integrating that content and expertise into our site resulted in some duplication in our Pop Channel, tech support, quality assurance and customer service in EA/Redwood Shores, Austin and EA/Virginia. The headcount reductions announced today in those locations reflect that consolidation.”
EA’s strategy in this department makes sense. Why bother wasting all that time on trying to create and innovate something when you can simply go and buy someone else’s work? This may make financial sense but cannot be good for the intellectual health of the company.
Riccitiello goes on, “We've decided to dedicate more focus on Ultima Online. After pioneering the Persistent State World genre in 1997, UO continues to amaze us by generating greater and greater numbers of loyal subscribers. Rather than create a second world that would compete with UO, we'll dedicate our resources to improving the core product. There will be new lands, new creatures and a world that continually evolves. Some of the people who had been working on the UO2 Team will be reassigned to UO in Austin and other PSWs in development at Redwood Shores, Maxis and elsewhere in EA's global studio system.”
What this effectively says is that EA sees no point in following the trend set by the makers of Everquest, in releasing a sequel to a successful game that can be easily upgraded via the Internet.
It would be fair to say that Verant is living too much in the present with its plans for Everquest. The need for suquels and add-ons is becoming less and less important, as in the not too distant future, a broadband enabled gaming community will be able to have updates applied to their game worlds in real time as they play.
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