Do we forget the human aspect in the gaming industry?

What goes up, must eventually come down and EA CEO John Riccitiello may need to find his parachute if 2010 isn’t any better. Layoffs within the industry has more to do with increasing profit margins for share holders as opposed to steeling themselves for a recessive market. EA’s failure to hit targets in 2009 may mean the chant of “tried and tested” as opposed to “innovate and create” will be on developers agendas in 2010.

And even when success is guaranteed, jobs aren’t.

Modern Warfare 2 has wowed the world with its amazing opening sales. Activision knew it would, the world knew it would but that still didn’t stop them from closing down Shaba games studios and halving the work force of 7 other developers in the month preceding Modern Warfare’s release in November.

Which brings me to the question. Do Activision and other big companies such as Sony and Microsoft really care about anything other than profit margins?

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Brian Shirk

January 19, 2010

I don't think they care. Unfortunately, most U.S. corporations only care about quarterly profits instead of looking at long-term profitability. Sadly, satisfying their shareholders seems to be a necessary evil, as they provide a large amount of financing.

The U.S. stock and derivative markets are a complete mess, and need to be revamped instead of serving the needs of a few billionaires.

Christopher Quach

January 20, 2010

I know what you mean, and that is where the pain lies. I don't really know much about John Riccitiello but the fact that he was willing to back new IP's must mean he is willing to broaden the scope. With shareholders caring only about profit margins, what we have is an industry that might regress because we, the gaming consumer, only back the tried and tested products. A viscious circle really - That's why I was pleased about LBP wining all those industry awards however it didn't hit those ridiculous numbers, innovation will always be second to profitization.