Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Congratulations...you're out of a job!

Big news today is that DICE has decided to eliminate their New York office of 12 people. This team was basically the Trauma team that created the widely used Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942. It was understood (at least by me) that DICE bought them so they could utilize their talents with the upcoming Battlefield 2, a game in modern times...much like the Desert Combat mod.

I'm not sure what happened, but in many ways I see this as a "use you, abuse you and throw you away" type of deal. Not only does Trauma only get $300,000 out of the $500,000 they were promised (it was a 12-month collaboration deal), but they get the small token of being offered jobs in Sweden. Why didn't DICE offer them jobs at the Canadian headquarters, one they plan on keeping open?

Maybe Trauma's work didn't turn out exactly like DICE had planned or maybe it is a situation like I explained above. It is sad that on the cusp of the release of Battlefield 2 that the people that created the mod this game is conceptually based upon get canned. Could EA have been behind it too now that they own a majority of DICE stock? Who knows, it will be interesting to watch though (and remember, I'm not a big anti-EA person). I hope that if they don't take the jobs in Sweden that they find some other place they can utilize their talents.