Mounting losses force EA to layoff 600 employees

Submitted by Tiberius Jonez

It seems noone is immune to the ill-effects of this Bush economy, and that includes industry giant Electronic Arts. The uber publisher announced its second quarter fiscal results and the news is not good. Coming off a first quarter loss of $95 million, EA announced a loss of $310 million for the period ending September 30. The loss comes despite the retail successes of Madden NFL 09 (4.5 million units sold), Spore (2 million units sold) and Warhammer Online (1.2 million units sold).

Due to the mounting losses, EA announced plans to eliminate roughly 600 employees, representing 6% of the company's total work force. While EA expects to make up some of the losses with upcoming holiday sales, we doubt that makes those 600 feel any better.

Assassin's Creed is killing at retail

Ubisoft announced that in the month since launch its love-it or hate-it epic Assassin's Creed has sold 2.5 million copies globally, making it the fastest selling new video game IP in US history. The company said the title has "greatly outstripped" its sales forecasts and they now expect to sell a minimum of five million copies of Assassin's Creed before the end of their fiscal year in March '08.

As a result, Ubisoft is raising its income expectation by 12%, increasing fiscal year projections by an extra €15 million to €840 million ($1.2 billion). The company also revealed that Tom Clancy's End War, Brothers in Arms and Far Cry 2 are scheduled for release during its next fiscal year, which begins in April. Ubisoft will lay out its complete games portfolio for 2008 on Jan. 23.