Oh the irony (more Ubisoft vs EA)

[Orochi Avlis]

This article (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7985) has snippets from a letter sent from somebody at EA to Ubisoft.

Here's a good part:

stop the illegitimate practice of forcing talented people to sign employment contracts that restrict their creative and economic freedom.



The irony is so thick, I can almost see it.

[Kristian Joensen]

That is what I call hypocrisy. The best part is that Ubi mostly doesn't even enforce the stipulation.

[PlayfulPuppy]

As amusing as the irony is of those words, EA has a damned good point here. Non-compete clauses make it a complete bitch to be in this industry, and are completely unfair on employees. Non-competes basically mean that if you leave a job in games for whatever reason (Including legal mistreatment, and under some contracts if you're fired as well) you can't get another job in games development for 6 months, a year or in some cases I've seen non-competes going on for as long as 2 years.

Is that fair? A lot of these people have built up their lives to get a career in games, and they're saying that these people are not allowed to work in the field they're best at for quite a substantial period of time.

My contract only had a 6-month non-compete clause, which is good. Uh, actually I just went over it and they've worded it incorrectly... no non-compete, woo!

[PlayfulPuppy]

Also, from what I've heard EA Montreal is actually a damned fine place to work. Most of the 'stories' come from their LA branch, I believe.

[Karthik]

What 'stories'? Share some with us.

[Orochi Avlis]

PlayfulPuppy said:
Also, from what I've heard EA Montreal is actually a damned fine place to work. Most of the 'stories' come from their LA branch, I believe.


I think they might have come from the Vancouver branch.

[IwantMORE]

I guess EA has been thinking about this a bit considering they have just laid off 5% of their workforce to help them make more money for the shareholders.

[avatar_58]

To me it just seems like Ubisoft are being pricks and someone is trying to do something about it.

[Kristian Joensen]

PlayfulPuppy said:
As amusing as the irony is of those words, EA has a damned good point here. Non-compete clauses make it a complete bitch to be in this industry, and are completely unfair on employees. Non-competes basically mean that if you leave a job in games for whatever reason (Including legal mistreatment, and under some contracts if you're fired as well) you can't get another job in games development for 6 months, a year or in some cases I've seen non-competes going on for as long as 2 years.

Is that fair? A lot of these people have built up their lives to get a career in games, and they're saying that these people are not allowed to work in the field they're best at for quite a substantial period of time.

My contract only had a 6-month non-compete clause, which is good. Uh, actually I just went over it and they've worded it incorrectly... no non-compete, woo!



http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=11558073

[Jokke_r]

Hmm Marvel, ex Remedy level designer worked for EA montreal last year, he left though.

[Orochi Avlis]

In a financial statement for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, EA reported net income of $259 million, a dramatic 31 percent drop from $375 million in the same quarter last year. EA saw third-quarter revenue of $1.27 billion, down 11 percent from last year's $1.43 billion.

Despite feeling the pinch of slow sales due to customer's holding off for next-gen hardware, Electronic Arts did see several of its titles become genuine hits. In the third quarter, Need for Speed Most Wanted sold more than seven million copies, while FIFA 06, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Sims 2 and Madden NFL 06 each sold more than two million copies. Finally, NBA Live 06, SSX On Tour, Tiger PGA TOUR 06, From Russia with Love, and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat each broke the million mark.

EA also nabbed a 30 percent market share for Xbox 360 software, after launching five titles for Microsoft's new console.



Looks like tough times for EA. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

[John]

http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Gaming is like the NBA now, with companies fighting over programmers like they were trading all-star players.

[MeatWagon]

Who did you work for Playfulpuppy?