EA is shaking up it's International (mostly European) operations with it's recent purchase of Stockholm based Digital Illusions CE (D.I.C.E.), makers of the Battlefield title.
There have been a number of studio closures and moves starting with a small D.I.C.E. studio in Ontario, Canada. The 28 person office is now closed and the employees are interviewing for jobs in other places in E.A. such as their large Vancouver, B.C., or Montreal, Quebec studios. The Ontario D.I.C.E. studio was responsible for Battlefield : Vietnam and Battlefield 2 : Special Forces. The work that used to be done in the Ontario studio will move back to Stockholm, Sweden.
D.I.C.E. also had a development studio in Warrington located in North England, UK. Unfortunately for those employees, E.A. already has two other studio's in South East England, one in Chertsey and one in Guildford. To help unify and fortify development in South East England, E.A. is closing the Warrington location and moving all the employees to either Chertsey or Guildford. The Warrington studio most recently worked on Battlefield 2 : Modern Combat for the Xbox360.
The last bit of shakeup for E.A. in Europe is a relocation of their European Publishing Headquarters location. The Chertsey studio in South East England has been their International Publishing Headquarters since the early 1990's. E.A. has decided to move that office to more centrally located Geneva, Switzerland. The new location in Chertsey employees 90 people, many of which came from the former headquarters building in Chertsey, England. England was chosen as the Headquarters originally for language reasons but E.A. feels that as the company has grown, it should be Headquartered in a more central, neutral location in Europe. Since D.I.C.E.'s Headquarters is also in Switzerland, opening a new E.A. Headquarters in Switzerland makes a lot of sense.
I'm a big Battlefield fan even though the two releases for the Xbox have been riddled with problems. I'm pretty concerned that the quality of the game could drop with all this moving and shaking E.A. is doing to D.I.C.E. After all E.A. doesn't really make great first party titles especially for consoles. When was the last time you played a great E.A. developed console game?
There have been a number of studio closures and moves starting with a small D.I.C.E. studio in Ontario, Canada. The 28 person office is now closed and the employees are interviewing for jobs in other places in E.A. such as their large Vancouver, B.C., or Montreal, Quebec studios. The Ontario D.I.C.E. studio was responsible for Battlefield : Vietnam and Battlefield 2 : Special Forces. The work that used to be done in the Ontario studio will move back to Stockholm, Sweden.
D.I.C.E. also had a development studio in Warrington located in North England, UK. Unfortunately for those employees, E.A. already has two other studio's in South East England, one in Chertsey and one in Guildford. To help unify and fortify development in South East England, E.A. is closing the Warrington location and moving all the employees to either Chertsey or Guildford. The Warrington studio most recently worked on Battlefield 2 : Modern Combat for the Xbox360.The last bit of shakeup for E.A. in Europe is a relocation of their European Publishing Headquarters location. The Chertsey studio in South East England has been their International Publishing Headquarters since the early 1990's. E.A. has decided to move that office to more centrally located Geneva, Switzerland. The new location in Chertsey employees 90 people, many of which came from the former headquarters building in Chertsey, England. England was chosen as the Headquarters originally for language reasons but E.A. feels that as the company has grown, it should be Headquartered in a more central, neutral location in Europe. Since D.I.C.E.'s Headquarters is also in Switzerland, opening a new E.A. Headquarters in Switzerland makes a lot of sense.
I'm a big Battlefield fan even though the two releases for the Xbox have been riddled with problems. I'm pretty concerned that the quality of the game could drop with all this moving and shaking E.A. is doing to D.I.C.E. After all E.A. doesn't really make great first party titles especially for consoles. When was the last time you played a great E.A. developed console game?
