• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Layoffs at PopCap ? [Confirmed, expect to hire to reach same number by year end]

Stephen Colbert said:
OnLive, Facebook IPO, Zynga, PopCap - all this week alone.

Bubbles that go bust.

That's what happens when there is too much money in the hands of investors, and too little in the hands of consumers.

http://www.rebeccablood.net/archive/2002/incometable.html

Trickle down economics my ass. Tax cuts to the rich doesn't create demand for new businesses and services, disposable income in the hands of consumers does. Although I guess much of that income inequality is due to increasing efficiency due to technology enabling companies to downsize to fewer and fewer employees thus beefing up their profit margins for the investors at the expense of middle class employees.
Click to expand...

Do you really need to shit this thread up with politics?
 
Stephen Colbert said:
OnLive, Facebook IPO, Zynga, PopCap - all this week alone.

Bubbles that go bust.

That's what happens when there is too much money in the hands of investors, and too little in the hands of consumers.

http://www.rebeccablood.net/archive/2002/incometable.html

Trickle down economics my ass. Tax cuts to the rich doesn't create demand for new businesses and services, disposable income in the hands of consumers does. Although I guess much of that income inequality is due to increasing efficiency due to technology enabling companies to downsize to fewer and fewer employees thus beefing up their profit margins for the investors at the expense of middle class employees.
Click to expand...

stretch-armstrong-ng-1.jpg
 
Femmeworth said:
What have they done in recent times besides porting Plants vs. Zombies to every platform under the sun?
Click to expand...

Just 7 posts above yours....

Rlan said:
PopCap have released recently:

- Solitaire Blitz on Facebook (coming to iOS soon, actually very good)
- Lucky Gem Casino on Facebook (Slots game)
- Bejeweled 3 on XBLA and PSN
- Remade Bejeweled for iPhone, separated Bejeweled Blitz (New Bejeweled includes Diamond Mine mode, which is super super good, and both make a ton on iOS)
- Zuma's Revenge for iOS, XBLA and PSN.
- Announced a Pvs.Z "take care of your Zombie" app for iOS.

Their creative output hasn't been the best since Plants Vs. Zombies. However the actual creative teams Vs. distribution stuff (They do a lot of distribution for PC retail stuff) is probably more in the distro side of things, which EA probably needs less of now. I mean the original Plants Vs. Zombies was made by 5 people, I think?
Click to expand...

I like Popcap stuff, but I do wonder if much of their business model counted on Facebook and with more and more people using mobile to access the site, they are seeing the returns. No doubt they are popular on the ios app store though.
 
Be interesting to know the story for Black Dragon, if he's allowed to share. I know he's only been at the company for a little while but it shouldn't be hard to tell if the company grew too fast, or is going to start outsourcing assets to foreign markets.
No_Style said:
DICE?

I didn't find any definitive articles about layoffs from that particular dev.
Click to expand...
I heard DICE were unionised before they were sold off so there may be some protection there. Pinch of salt of course. Very sad affair that film and TV have these unions as standard but games and visual effects don't. And there seems to be little or no movement in that direction. Guess everyone's scared of losing their job in the process.
 
Berordn said:
Popcap hasn't released anything new since Bejeweled 3
Click to expand...
Yes they have. PopCap Vancouver makes a ton of Hidden Object games, not to mention all the stuff mentioned upthread.

PopCap have been hiring a ton in Ireland and such and the owners are really intent on making the revenue contingent $500 million bonus payout, and I don't see how they can do that without an excess of staff working on all sorts of projects.
 
Rlan said:
PopCap have released recently:

- Solitaire Blitz on Facebook (coming to iOS soon, actually very good)
- Lucky Gem Casino on Facebook (Slots game)
- Bejeweled 3 on XBLA and PSN
- Remade Bejeweled for iPhone, separated Bejeweled Blitz (New Bejeweled includes Diamond Mine mode, which is super super good, and both make a ton on iOS)
- Zuma's Revenge for iOS, XBLA and PSN.
- Announced a Pvs.Z "take care of your Zombie" app for iOS.
Click to expand...

Hmmm quite a bit for platforms experiencing a (sales) decline.
 
cuyahoga said:
Yes they have. PopCap Vancouver makes a ton of Hidden Object games, not to mention all the stuff mentioned upthread.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I forgot about their social games and I completely forgot they made the Hidden Object games, based on how low key they are.

I just want PvZ 2 or Peggle 3, really.
 
Mario said:
Hmmm quite a bit for platforms experiencing a (sales) decline.
Click to expand...

Though to be honest most of their XBLA and PSN titles have been developed by what WAS Gastronaut software. They ported Peggle over and I wouldn't be surprised if Plants Vs. Zombies, Bejeweled 3 and Zuma's Revenge all weren't done by them as well. Peggle's about to hit a million too. Bejeweled 3 and ZR have been slow starts though.

Bejeweled Blitz Live was made by Torpex Games, the guys who did Schizoid. They also pretty much own the PC retail space with their cheap casual titles, and as someone else mentioned they do make a lot of hidden object games that go unnoticed by us here on gaming forums, but get eaten up by the casual portal crowd.
 
Stephen Colbert said:
OnLive, Facebook IPO, Zynga, PopCap - all this week alone.

Bubbles that go bust.

That's what happens when there is too much money in the hands of investors, and too little in the hands of consumers.

http://www.rebeccablood.net/archive/2002/incometable.html

Trickle down economics my ass. Tax cuts to the rich doesn't create demand for new businesses and services, disposable income in the hands of consumers does. Although I guess much of that income inequality is due to increasing efficiency due to technology enabling companies to downsize to fewer and fewer employees thus beefing up their profit margins for the investors at the expense of middle class employees.
Click to expand...

so did the government build PopCap or did investors?
 
PopCap should have been easy to manage

EA could have just said "keep doin' what you're doin'" and let PopCap keep churning out the games they're so good at - these games didn't take years to make, they were based around simple concepts and occasionally one was good enough to get some buzz outside of the usual fanbase (see Zuma, Bejeweled, Peggle, PvZ)

Instead they've probably put them making Peggle 2/PvZ2 as some huge, bloated monster, which it seriously doesn't need to be whilst pumping out social website ports of their old games.

C'mon EA. What the fuck?
 
I dunno what happened to Popcap, but they haven't made an original or unique game since PvZ. When they get around to that, maybe EA can stop firing people at the company.

I'll be the first in line to call EA out on their bullshit when it comes to buying studios and then gutting them the minute they don't perform one time, but this is not one of those cases. Seriously, what have they done since PvZ (which was released over three years ago)? There was Peggle Nights, ports of PvZ to a bunch of systems, then what? Bejeweled 3? I'm sure I'm missing something, but it couldn't have been popular. That's jack shit for a company that was bought for a BEEELION DOLLARS.

And there they are, putting on parties at every major con and paying people to dance/walk in zombie costumes on show floors multiple times a year. They've been doing this for years with no new games to show us.
 
I'm expecting the next Popcap title to be riddled with dlc/in-app purchases. EA is too damn good at killing studios to actually let something good come out of its acquisitions.
 
Yeah. Someone's gonna need to edit the graveyard photo to include Popcap. And while they're at it, can sadly add Jeff Green too. Dude can't catch a break. EA's his mafia. He's joined and they won't let him escape.
 
foogles said:
I dunno what happened to Popcap, but they haven't made an original or unique game since PvZ. When they get around to that, maybe EA can stop firing people at the company.

I'll be the first in line to call EA out on their bullshit when it comes to buying studios and then gutting them the minute they don't perform one time, but this is not one of those cases. Seriously, what have they done since PvZ (which was released over three years ago)? There was Peggle Nights, ports of PvZ to a bunch of systems, then what? Bejeweled 3? I'm sure I'm missing something, but it couldn't have been popular. That's jack shit for a company that was bought for a BEEELION DOLLARS.

And there they are, putting on parties at every major con and paying people to dance/walk in zombie costumes on show floors multiple times a year. They've been doing this for years with no new games to show us.
Click to expand...

This is exactly it, though.

They were prolific - constantly putting out simple, cheap-to-make games until EA bought them and probably put them on some big projects like PvZ2 or Peggle 2 whilst wasting their time porting.
 
DaBuddaDa said:
For some reason, whenever layoffs occur in the development community, George is the first person to be contacted.
Click to expand...

i believe he used to run a game industry rumors site called fatbabies...probably still has inside contacts throughout the industry
 
What is with all these people shouting about a bubble popping? Popcap got big by releasing high quality original titles that were very addictive. The problem is they just haven't continued to release these high quality games (or any games at all).

That is why they are struggling not because of some imaginary bubble bursting.
 
Barkley's Justice said:
Everyone running off the "big surprise bubble popz" comments: popcap was founded in 2000. what bubble? they are 10+ years in the game...that's 2 console cycles, going on 3...get a grip.
Click to expand...

AdventureRacing said:
What is with all these people shouting about a bubble popping? Popcap got big by releasing high quality original titles that were very addictive. The problem is they just haven't continued to release these high quality games (or any games at all).

That is why they are struggling not because of some imaginary bubble bursting.
Click to expand...


Never liked them for shamelessly ripping off game designs without crediting or compensating the original authors.
 
Ingueferroque said:
Never liked them for shamelessly ripping off game designs without crediting or compensating the original authors.
Click to expand...

I don't really see what that has with the whole 'bubble popping' discussion. I guess you're implying that's why they ran out of ideas (i don't know much on the subject so maybe it's true) but that doesn't really have much if anything to do with what we were discussing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive confirms layoffs
5
106
winjer replied
Iron Galaxy undergoing layoffs due to restructuring
26
363
Magic-DEI-Hire replied
Ubisoft confirms layoffs at Toronto studio, but insists Splinter Cell’s remake is still coming
10
299
Ellis replied
WB Games Montreal seems to have been hit by layoffs
Rumor Business Game Dev 
21
354
ahtlas7 replied
2K confirms layoffs at Civilization developer Firaxis
2 3
112
2K
ReBurn replied
Top Bottom