Financial Crisis Impact on Games

The global economic crisis does not skip on the tycoons of the online games industry. Electronic Arts (EA), the publisher of the highly profitable Rock Band, has announced cutting jobs due to the slump in sales during last October. The financial crisis also caused the California-based online games publisher to lower its expectations for the upcoming holiday season.

rock band

The leading online games publisher Electronic Arts is planning to dismiss about 500-600 workers, about 6% of its total personnel in an attempt to save expenses. This terminal step is a direct result of the company drop in sales, which was fully felt during the month of October, about the same time the financial crisis was deepened and widened worldwide. 

By dismissing its employees, Electronic Arts, which similar to other Californian online game developers had spent the last year expanding its workforce, hopes to save $50 million a year to compensate for the $310 million loss experienced last month and the further losses expected from the drop in sales during the next holiday season, predicted to be slower than ever. 

While the economic crisis causes people to spend less money, if any, on video games, classic board games are going through a comeback. The Dallas Morning News reports on a late bloom of game nights, where homey card, board, table, pen and paper games, ranging from chess and backgammon to twister and battleship, that replace the traditional nights on the bar.

playing backgammon