The layoffs have me confused more then anything else. Help?

I'm no Blizzard fanboy and I don't own D3, but the problem with that is that if you're referring to the Annual Pass, you can hardly call it giving out the game for free.

That was probably a great business decision considering that it includes 12 months of guaranteed income during a time when people are most likely to at least temporarily cancel their accounts.

There hasn't been new WOW content for a long time and from a business perspective it's probably a great way to bridge the time period until MOP is released.

I'd bet that there are a number of people who would have actually saved money (calculated over 12 months) if they had been able to cancel their WOW accounts and just bought D3 at a store. Of course I don't know that for sure, but it seems reasonable to me.

EA also announced that the number of employees would be more than they were prior to layoffs by the end of the year. Don't cherry-pick announcements, now.

EA announces a lot of things that come to find out are not true. Thats why they are rated the worst company.

I believe it has had an impact. (Ok, people, don't go into cardiac arrest that I just said that.) And, I think, that's one thing John Riccitiello said that was closest to the truth: Investors placed too much importance on TOR, more importance than EA ever intended, and bought accordingly.

Now, I'm not discounting EA's hype of the game, I just think it may have been more effective than they gave themselves credit for. EA made it sound like TOR was in their top five, at least, when it never was. Hindsight is 20/20, and it's all too apparent to me that TOR never was there in the top 5.

And, no, don't go spouting how much the game cost to develop. EA has been known to spend almost as much on advertising campaigns alone.

And I wasn't commenting on the veracity of the announcement. Just that when a poster uses an EA announcement to back up his position, ignoring other EA announcements isn't a good idea.

I'm done arguing this point. You continue to seek facts in present when investing (and prediction) is about where things will be in the future.

Let me give you an example. Not too long ago, when Gil Amelio was CEO of Apple and share prices were down in the $8 range, I bought 2,500 shares of Apple. Why? Because rumors from good sources were around that Apple was looking to buy Next while the Apple Board was fed up with Mr. Amelio. So, I predicted that Apple was acquiring Next solely for the purpose of getting Steve Jobs back to take the helm of Apple. So, my 2,500 shares then cost me a little over $20,000 and I still hold those shares today, which are now worth a little over $1.4M. So, I have done alright because I was able to read the writing on the wall and act accordingly, not because of any facts stated at the moment, which in public companies are always in hindsight anyway.

Likewise, there is a similar situation here. We start with 2.1M box sales which captured 1.7M in subs (remember, all box sales came with a free 30 days) so 400k purchasers chose not to pay for a sub. Then, EA decides to give away a free month (As for the $18.2M, if you take the claimed 1.3M subs multiplied by a $14 average fee for the month you have $18.2M). Next, you drop to 1.3M subs in reporting. However, if this was indeed the case most players wouldn't have noticed the decline on their servers as much as this represents 1 in 4 players leaving. It is OBVIOUS, a lot less than 1 in 4 players are playing in most cases compared to what people witnessed in January.

You continue to try and argue statements and facts of present to reflect what others are stating from experience, observations and events. You can argue all you want, but when you are talking with individuals such as myself, with more than 20 years in the game, you are sounding a bit idealistic.

As I mentioned, I am subbed and haven't canceled my subscription. However, it doesn't mean that I walk around with blinders on either in seeing the degradation of population which is happening much faster than any other MMO I have played in the past.

Lastly, as for the statement about the EA President and 11M subs as the target, there is another thread (I think "Subs Down 25%") where someone linked to the press announcement.

The "fact" is, I sold my shares for $26.13 in November of 2011. Which is almost double what it is now and at the time, was one of the highest increases in 3 years.
The "fact" is, I don't need a little chart to tell me what I buy and sell my shares for.
The "fact" is, your last response is incorrect.


Things aren't all hunky-dory over there in EA land. Part of it is because of the expectations they had for SWTOR. The game has influenced the market value of the stock. You saying that SWTOR has absolutely nothing to do with the ups and downs of their stock value, is a farce. You couldn't be more wrong if you tried.

I have been a big fan of the game since launch and brushed aside all the naysayers for a while. I can't ignore the reality around me anymore. 30 people on fleet during peak. BW layoffs, I mean really, you lay off your community manager?? 1.3... no mention of ranked warzones or EC nightmare. I have a bad feeling about this.

I seriously think EA has put BW on notice, and the new layoffs are a direct response to the new sub forecasts, which do not look good. Forget what BW says, watch what they DO, and it doesn't look good.

Its not uncommon for a developer to let go some of their less vital support staff once a game gets through with its opening act; they put their best foot forward so to speak. I'd only be concerned if this trend turned into a habit, but I don't think that will be the case anytime soon if these server merges are handled with due care.

Well I am sorry but the stock market (NASDAQ) says you are wrong. Are you saying they committed fraud when reporting the stock costs? The whole stock market is in a conspiracy to make EA look worse than it actually is? Do you listen to yourself at ALL?