To the store team... «12345...Next Go

Cinderellimouse

I'm not sure what this means: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/30/the-sims-dev-ea-salt-lake-focusing-on-mobile-following-layoffs

but...



To the store team.

To anyone and everyone who has worked on the store team recently. Thank you so much for making a great game into an AMAZING game. I enjoy my game a million times more with all the great content you guys have made. Before I became a #StoreWh... *cough* #StoreAppreciator I felt incredibly frustrated with the series and I joined the forums to be one of those people who rant and rave about what the game SHOULD be.

Well, you listened! So did the expansion teams. But mostly you. And for the past year or so the store has been releasing content that has made me SQUEEEEE!!! with delight. The content you have produced has been so brilliant and I can finally say I have an almost perfect game! My DREAM game.

So, whatever is happening over there at Salt Lake. I love you all. And THANK YOU!

Chimark

My condolences for anyone who lost their job and those forced to move.

I enjoy Sims and thank you for your work too.

GoddessHekate

I can't access the link through the one provided and not even in a google search. Did ign take it down?

Pamhamlet

Cinderellimouse wrote:

...(snipped) The content you have produced has been so brilliant and I can finally say I have an almost perfect game! My DREAM game... THANK YOU!

I can't access the link either, but the above expresses my feelings exactly. Sincere thanks to all!

BatmanFanGirl

Oh, no. How sad. Does Copeland work at Salt Lake?

Cinderellimouse

The link still works for me.

Platinum Simmers just tweeted they're writing a post about it now. So you should be able to look there for info soon.

Cinderellimouse

BatmanFanGirl wrote:

Oh, no. How sad. Does Copeland work at Salt Lake?

Yip.

amiss

Cinderellimouse wrote:

To anyone and everyone who has worked on the store team recently. Thank you so much for making a great game into an AMAZING game. I enjoy my game a million times more with all the great content you guys have made. Before I became a #StoreWh... *cough* #StoreAppreciator I felt incredibly frustrated with the series and I joined the forums to be one of those people who rant and rave about what the game SHOULD be.
So, whatever is happening over there at Salt Lake. I love you all. And THANK YOU!

I completely agree! I just started to use the store items, and I keep finding new things that I want. Awesome content. Its always a sad time when a company starts layoffs =(

BatmanFanGirl

Cinderellimouse wrote:

BatmanFanGirl wrote:

Oh, no. How sad. Does Copeland work at Salt Lake?

Yip.

Oh, no! I hope he is going to CA? Oh, man. This is so sad. (((((

Cinderellimouse

BatmanFanGirl wrote:

Cinderellimouse wrote:

BatmanFanGirl wrote:

Oh, no. How sad. Does Copeland work at Salt Lake?

Yip.

Oh, no! I hope he is going to CA? Oh, man. This is so sad. (((((

Dunno. I might have to start playing dreaded mobile games. :x :-o :?

LatteCrab

Cinderellimouse wrote:

I might have to start playing dreaded mobile games. :x :-o :?

That IS a bummer! Layoffs! That's what they kept doing to my husband at his job! Laid off TWICE in past few years! SAME company..it's like a "yo-yo job:......cuz of "HIGHER UPS" grumbling about their PROFIT margins not high enough!

I can't get myself..to play...the mobile version. I took it off my tablet..put it back on...but haven't played it
It's NOT anywhere near the same. It's like going back to my Nintendo versions, BEFORE I discovered the PC versions I heard other raving about! :roll:

PLEASE don't tell me our games are going to suffer even MORE because of this?!

jcp011c2

Oh wow. I hope those who are laid off find something else very soon and, selfishly, that we'll still be getting some store content. I truly do appreciate what the store team has brought us especially of late.

I totally sympathize with this. At the beginning of this month everyone in my project division of my company was let go except for me. All the work has fallen on me, and of course I'm falling behind (with way too much to do and no way to really get ahead) and honestly quite worried about my own job security. The point relating to this is that I definitely understand worrying about your job's stability.

So my thoughts are definitely with you both you who are still with the company and those who are not.

Edit edit: never mind. The link I found after I clicked on it didn't work either..... :?

Cinderellimouse

The article at Platinum Simmers is up now for those who can't follow the other link.

http://www.platinumsimmers.com/articles/maxis-layoffs-and-the-sims-on-mobile/

stickykisses

wow terrible news. I hope SimGuruCopeland is not affected cos he's my favorite, sorry, I have favorites. But my sympathies do go out to those who are affected, it's not fair and I'm sure it feels like having the rug pulled out from under them. Hope they quickly find better jobs elsewhere!

The Sims Dev EA Salt Lake Focusing on Mobile Following Layoffs
All Play, Maxis affected.
by Mitch Dyer
January 30, 2014
Submit Tweet Share +1 Share

Electronic Arts has laid off numerous employees at its Salt Lake City, Utah office today, affecting both the Maxis and All Play divisions.

According to an IGN source close to EA, "all of Maxis is gone" in Utah, with approximately 40 former employees migrating to Maxis in California. Around 35 other Salt Lake employees have been laid off, including an estimated 20 at EA All Play.

EA Salt Lake was working on The Sims on mobile, which it will continue to do, and assisting on The Sims 4.

EA declined to verify the specific number of affected employees.

An EA representative told IGN, “EA Salt Lake is becoming largely focused on mobile development, including The Sims and other projects. Recent shifts unfortunately resulted in the reduction of a few teams. As we look to match skills with opportunities, some staff will be offered other positions at EA, while others will leave the company.”

EA Salt Lake opened in 2010, and has developed numerous console, Facebook, and mobile games, including Risk Factions, Littlest Pet Shop, Monopoly, and a still-ongoing undisclosed project. The studio also assisted on The Simpsons: Tapped Out.

Earlier this week, EA detailed the strength of its growing digital business, but expects a net loss of $130 million for the full fiscal year, which runs through March 31, 2014.

IGN wishes the best of luck to anyone affected by today's news.

BatmanFanGirl

I hope Copeland finds something better if not moving to CA.

alexspoom13

Oh no, that's very sad indeed. If we have indeed lost some more members of our beloved Store team I wish them all the best for the future and would like to thank them deeply for making our games so much more enjoyable.

jcp011c2

Is it wrong of me to still hope somehow we get more store stuff? :oops:

FrayedFlight

Cinderellimouse summed it up better than I ever could.

I am not unaware of the difficulties the Gurus/Mods work under (I am sure that a lot of things we have enjoyed in the past such as Seasons seasonal lots for new worlds are largely handled outside of official paying hours) and believe me when I say I place the fault for issues with franchise directly in EA's hands, despite any of my posts on the forums that may suggest otherwise.

stickykisses

jcp011c2 wrote:

Is it wrong of me to still hope somehow we get more store stuff? :oops:

"Hey kids, grandma is dead but at least she left us cookies!" Okay, whatever. The thing is, there's not much we *can* do about it, except perhaps, find out who the CEO is. And maybe the vice presidents. And guilt-trip them. while eating grandma's cookies cos she would still want us to enjoy them.

I don't have a handy link to verify for you all, but in the 1950's, in america, the average factory owner made 50 times per hour, the amount which was earned by the lowest paid employee. So 50 to 1.

Nowadays, that number is over 500. The average CEO earns 500 times per hour, what the lowest paid employee earns. The fat cats in the corner office are just unbelievably greedy and bleeding absolutely everyone to death.

BatmanFanGirl

stickykisses wrote:

jcp011c2 wrote:

Is it wrong of me to still hope somehow we get more store stuff? :oops:

"Hey kids, grandma is dead but at least she left us cookies!" Yes, it's wrong. Otoh, there's not much we *can* do about it, except perhaps, find out who the CEO is. And maybe the vice presidents. And guilt-trip them while eating grandma's cookies.

I don't have a handy link to verify for you all, but in the 1950's, in america, the average factory owner made 50 times per hour, the amount which was earned by the lowest paid employee. So 50 to 1.

Nowadays, that number is over 500. The average CEO earns 500 times per hour, what the lowest paid employee earns. The fat cats in the corner office are just unbelievably greedy and bleeding absolute everyone to death.

Now, now. they need to pay their mortgages on their multi-million dollar mansions and vacation homes! They need that 500 percent difference!

stickykisses

lol I edited my reply! Grandma would want us to enjoy her cookies, while we are busy guilt-tripping the fat cats who contributed to her problems.

Cinderellimouse

It's just so sad. I can't bear the thought of the sims main game losing out on so many talented people.

It's selfish of me to want them to stay with the main game. I just hope those that are staying on with the mobile games are happy and that they do well. There's a lot of money in mobile game, so I believe.

At least I have my baby TS3 to cuddle!

stickykisses

Skip over the "all of Maxis is gone" quote, cos it's hyperbole and distracting.

Electronic Arts has laid off numerous employees at its Salt Lake City, Utah office today, affecting both the Maxis and All Play divisions.

According to an IGN source close to EA, "all of Maxis is gone" in Utah, with approximately 40 former employees migrating to Maxis in California. Around 35 other Salt Lake employees have been laid off, including an estimated 20 at EA All Play.

EA Salt Lake was working on The Sims on mobile, which it will continue to do, and assisting on The Sims 4.

They are saying there is no more Maxis at Salt Lake, that everyone has been moved to Cali except for 35 who have been laid off. Of those 35 laid off, only 15 of them worked on either sims 3 or sims 4.

The chances of one of those laid off, being SimGuruCopeland, is slim to none. cos he's awesome and surely that's obvious to even his managers.

catloverplayer

BatmanFanGirl wrote:

Oh, no. How sad. Does Copeland work at Salt Lake?

I think Copeland's job is safe. He's one of the higher ups in the store. Shame their laying off. Now is when the store needs to be producing more content to tide us over to the Sims 4 and instead of laying off those employees should have been moved to the Sims 4 Store.

jcp011c2

stickykisses wrote:

Skip over the "all of Maxis is gone" quote, cos it's hyperbole and distracting.

Electronic Arts has laid off numerous employees at its Salt Lake City, Utah office today, affecting both the Maxis and All Play divisions.

According to an IGN source close to EA, "all of Maxis is gone" in Utah, with approximately 40 former employees migrating to Maxis in California. Around 35 other Salt Lake employees have been laid off, including an estimated 20 at EA All Play.

EA Salt Lake was working on The Sims on mobile, which it will continue to do, and assisting on The Sims 4.

They are saying there is no more Maxis at Salt Lake, that everyone has been moved to Cali except for 35 who have been laid off. Of those 35 laid off, only 15 of them worked on either sims 3 or sims 4.

The chances of one of those laid off, being SimGuruCopeland, is slim to none. cos he's awesome and surely that's obvious to even his managers.

I hope so! I feel bad for all those that lost their job but my gosh, Copeland truly is amazing and it would be ridiculous for them to let someone of his caliber go.

Writin_Reg

stickykisses


Well in order to appeal to someones conscience - they first have to have a conscience and I long ago concluded that EA CEO's and COO's are chosen for their lack of conscience, with just visions of grandeur and how they can most make the stock brokers happy. Unfortunately from my constant visiting their stock pages it is as if the Sims games are an after thought and are almost never mentioned at stock holders meetings. It seems all the stock holders know EA makes is MMO's, sports, and shooters and do not seem very interested in our beloved sims games. I know they know little to nothing about the Sims - you'd think they would from the massive amounts of money simmers spend just in the Sims store - but we are an afterthought. It seems all they support is what is going on with Madden, Fifa, and TW PGA tours. They speak of the "Battle " type games and of course the mobile type things. We are the afterthought that the EA reps do bring up, especially when new EPS were coming out, but since they are done with EPs and Sims 4 is in the works - I see zilch for info on Sims 3 period on the stock pages. The Sims store even seems linked in thought only with all the many games that have content made for them as a lumped together thing - with the Sims store itself not even being mentioned.

But that is the only thing the CEO's and COO's care about is what the Stock holders care about. We tend to think Sims is much more important than they do. If we had any importance you would think we would occasionally get a mention.