[Gaming #1 /YCFRO #2] 96 jobs go as PopCap Dublin Closes

Original Article by GamesIndustry

So today, it was announced that the PopCap studio owned by EA in Dublin is to close with a loss of 96 jobs. PopCap Dublin specifically made video games for the mobile platform.

I am very sad that another great gaming company is closing their doors. (Yes, I am aware that PopCap in America is still going). PopCap Dublin made games for the mobile platform and had been a rumor that they were to close. Thanks EA(!).

Yet, this comes out less than a fortnight after EA was to create 300 new jobs in Galway for Bioware. Seems a bit weird huh?! Drop 96 because of cuts and then create 300 new ones? Something is fishy!

Is this all of suddenly a popularity contest? PopCap isn’t that well known but Bioware is, so you are going to shed jobs. I would like a word on who is behind the decisions of this and ask them why they are doing this?

I know I am a bit ranty about this, but this is absurd! PopCap has been the best in class when it comes to casual puzzle games such as Bejeweled and Zuma and now EA is just killing the studio so it can focus on “hardcore” games such as Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic (which is already dead).

As I am, writing this, I am getting more enraged at EA and their decisions on little development houses like PopCap. They are like the Facebook of the gaming industry. They buy a company and then they shut it down. This article shall also be a YCFRO post to EA.

EA. You can fuck right off!