Bonne nouvelle pour les 350 employés de l’entreprise: aucune mise à pied n’est prévue. La structure décisionnelle prendra toutefois une nouvelle forme plus décentralisée, autour de nouveaux projets qui seront divisés entre les différents studios de la bannière Visceral. EA Mobile, l’autre principale division d’Electronic Arts à Montréal, avec ses 400 employés, n’est pas affectée par cette restructuration.

Quant à Alain Tascan, un des poids lourds de l’industrie montréalaise du jeu vidéo, personne ne devrait être nommé à court terme pour le remplacer. Visceral Games, anciennement les studios Redwood Shores, est présentement dirigé par Nick Earl, de Californie.

Drôle de coïncidence tout de même, M. Tascan, à la tête d’EA Montréal depuis 7 ans, organise un dîner ce midi avec des grands patrons des autres studios montréalais afin de leur présenter officiellement Yanick Roy, le nouveau patron de BioWare Montréal – une autre division d’EA.

«Nos studios montréalais vont quand même conserver leur propriété intellectuelle et continuer de concevoir et de développer de nouveaux titres, conjointement avec les autres studios», assure M. Tascan, désireux de minimiser l’impact négatif de cette nouvelle. [...]

Lisez l’article complet sur La Presse…

Electronic Arts is set to close servers for a number of its games, removing the online component from titles like Godfather and Lord of the Rings: Conquest beginning in March.

Consumer weblog Kotaku located a full list of the planned closures — many are original Xbox titles, the service which Microsoft itself plans to close in April.

But next-gen multiplatform titles like The Simpsons are also included. Other shut-downs are more limited, such as the closure of Mercenaries 2 servers affecting the PC version only, and the closure of Army of Two occurring only on the Asia PS3 version.

The full list is as follows:

[…]

Read the rest on Gamasutra…

[…] Well that’s all partly thanks to a great Level Designer who help map out environments and decide where and when enemies appear. Level designers, like Visceral’s Rom Rodriguez,  are essentially the ones who "help determine the experience the player [should have] in a rough form," leaving the artists and animators to make it come to life.

My interviewee Rom here also draws, so read on if you’d like to see a piece of art that helped influence the original Dead Space.

Can you tell me your name, job title, and job description?
Romulo Rodriguez, Associate Game Designer, and I set up game play in Dead Space 2.

I know there are many different types of "designers" and what each of them do is different depending on what company you’re at. What exactly does an Associate Designer do at Visceral?

I am a Level Designer but the Associate Designer determines my level. I’d say I am a low level designer at the moment. My duties involve blocking a level based on the story and desired combat for that point in the game. I then pitch the ideas to my managers, the Lead Level Designer, and the Creative Director and make changes if needed. I later block out combat with simple enemy set ups to help determine the experience we want the player to have in a rough form. […]

Read the whole interview on EA Underground…

EA has announced that it made a loss during its third quarter ended December 31, 2009 blaming a lack of launches and the decline in boxed product.

GAAP [Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ] net revenue for the quarter was $1.243 billion compared with $1.654 billion for the prior year. Non-GAAP net revenue for the quarter was $1.346 billion, down 23 per cent as compared with $1.742 billion for the prior year. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $82 million compared with a net loss of $641 million for the prior year.

EA says the decline is due to several factors, including “fewer titles this holiday quarter versus the 2008 holiday quarter, and a weak overall packaged goods sector in Europe.” The firm says sales were driven by the launches of Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, and NBA Live, and catalog sales of FIFA 10, Madden NFL 10, and The Sims 3.

John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer, said, “EA is growing share in our packaged goods business and our digital businesses continue to grow rapidly. Mass Effect 2 is the first blockbuster of 2010 and we are looking forward to the launch of Dante’s Inferno and Battlefield Bad Company 2."  […]

Read the full article on Edge Online…

40 perfect scores. 2 million units. One pop culture phenomenon. BioWare, a division of EA, announced today that Mass Effect 2 has sold-in over two million units worldwide in its first week of release. Lauded for its intense shooter gameplay and deep, hand-crafted story, Mass Effect 2 has earned an average review score of 96- making it the second highest rated game of all time on the Xbox 360 platform. Mass Effect 2 has earned 40 perfect scores, amassed over 30 editor’s choice awards and has donned the covers of 45 magazines worldwide. On launch day, the term "Mass Effect" was in the top 10 trending topics on Twitter and most searched on Google News. MSNBC.com said, "Mass Effect will go down as one of the most influential video game series of all-time."

Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA said, "Mass Effect 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games of 2010. We could not be more proud of the game’s universal acclaim and early commercial success."

Mass Effect 2 launched this week hot on the heels of BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, the studio’s dark fantasy RPG which shipped in fall 2009. Dragon Age: Origins has earned an average review score of 91, making it the highest rated original intellectual property from EA in the last year. Mass Effect 2 follows in BioWare’s tradition of delivering excellence on every front: gameplay, story, character development and visuals. Mass Effect 2 is an epic shooter/RPG set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life and mysterious, uncharted planets. In Mass Effect 2, players step into the role of the heroic Commander Shepard, leading a crew of some of the most dangerous operatives from across the galaxy on a mission so challenging that it’s potentially suicidal. Featuring intense action, a rich storyline, space exploration and engaging character interaction, Mass Effect 2 delivers an unparalleled gaming experience. […]

Congratulations to the dev teams in Edmonton and Montreal!

Have you played this game yet? Let us know how you like the game in the comments.

EA is currently working on games for Apple’s upcoming tablet device, according to reports.

The publisher is said to have been enlisted by Apple to create games in order to show off the tablet’s gaming capabilities.

Apple has also embarked on discussions with book, newspaper and magazine publishers, according to the Wall Street Journal, talking to Conde Nast Publications and News Corp, among others, on how they can work together.

The iPhone creator’s next device is expected to be showcased to the media on January 27. An invitation ‘to see our latest creation’ was sent out on Monday, according to the WSJ.

Insiders have stated the device will have a 10-11 inch touch screen, and that its primary functions will be as an e-reader, internet browsing device and TV and games player.

[…]

(By the way, the image is fake)

Are you looking forward to the Apple tablet (whatever it will be called, iSlate, iPad, iTablet)?

Would you see yourself using it as a game device?

If you’re one of those people who want to work in the gaming industry and have that uncommon knack for both art and engineering, you may have considered becoming a Technical Artist. As this weeks interviewee Chris Trimble puts it, Technical Artist are the ones who "make the game do what no one anticipated trying to do."

Read on as The Sims Technical Art Director Chris Trimble discusses his career track and why studying Science and Math in school will be vital it the next 10 years.

So, could you tell me your name, job title and what you do at EA?

Chris Trimble, I’m a Technical Art Director on The Sims. The technical art director and technical artists help to build a bridge between the art and engineering teams. I’ve once heard technical artists characterized as "making the game do what no one anticipated trying to do." On Sims 3, I focused on the large number of assets we needed to create, and the processes around doing that.

For a position like yours, do you equally need a background in Art and Engineering?

We have people who come from either side-folks who went to art school who had more of a technical knack and folks who went into engineering who have an art knack. […]

Read the full interview on EA…

Few names carry as much weight in the gaming industry as venerated Edmonton-based developer BioWare—creators of Mass Effect, Baldur’s Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic—yet BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy has found himself battling for respect in the studio’s quiet first year of existence.

“I tried to correct a Wikipedia entry,” recalls the 38-year-old Joliette native. “The entry said Mass Effect 2 was developed in collaboration with EA Montreal. I changed it to BioWare Montreal, only to have the person correct me and change it back to EA Montreal. I thought ‘Well, if you say so.’”

One could understand the confusion, as BioWare Montreal does share a space with EA Montreal in their Place Ville-Marie office, and BioWare was purchased by Electronic Arts in 2007. But beyond real estate and the HR/PR departments, the 23 employees who comprise the BioWare Montreal staff are their own team, working exclusively on the highly anticipated role-playing game Mass Effect 2 alongside their Edmonton big brothers. BioWare’s third studio started with a few employees developing cutscenes for the sci-fi sequel in late 2008, but has since become responsible for all of the game’s vast uncharted worlds, and following the title’s January 2010 launch, will be busy creating downloadable content.

[…]

Read the rest at Montreal Mirror…