Tech

EA sacks 1,500, cans 12 unannounced projects

Glenn M. — 2009-11-10T14:57:52-05:00

Shortly after their acquisition of Playfish, Electronic Arts is set to streamline operations, sacking 1,500 employees from different levels, and canning 12 unannounced projects. Speaking in an investor conference call, chief financial officer John Brown gave out the details.

Out of the 1,500 employees to get the axe, 900 are positions in game development, 500 in publishing, and 100 for corporate level. Letting them go will save the company US 100 million annually. Laying off employees and closing facilities is never pleasant," said EA CEO John Riccitiello. "We have a lot of compassion for those impacted but these cuts are essential for transforming our company."

It was not clear if teams will remain intact, but Black Box, Redwood Shores, Tiburon and Mythic are all believed to be affected by the layoffs. "We think the cuts we have made are very, very aggressive. "We've cut teams, we've cut corporate, we've cut overhead, we've cut publishing but not to the point of hampering ourselves," Riccitiello said.

Apart from letting a lot of people go, EA was also forced to cancel 12 of its unannounced projects. These projects are the smaller, less profitable games. "So it is really, in a way, if you could array our title slate up knowing what we did about what we would have otherwise brought to market, we cut the bottom third of it."

Warner Bros offers to upgrade your HD-DVDs to Blu-ray

Glenn M. — 2009-04-24T10:20:37-04:00

From red to blu - that's the theme for Warner Bros.' new program which will allow you to upgrade your Warner Bros. HD-DVD titles to Blu-ray. If you're looking to upgrade your discs and start your very own Blu-ray library, then you might be interested in this offer.

For only US 4.95 per disc, plus up to US 8.95 on shipping in some states, the Red2Blu program will upgrade your Warner Bros. HD-DVD to Blu-ray. You don't even have to send your old HD-DVDs in, all you need to send is their artwork as a proof of purchase, then you can hold on to the disc to watch in another format.

Warner Bros used to ship its titles on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, but eventually dropped the latter to focus on Blu-ray. Leading HD-DVD supporter Toshiba has also dropped manufacturing for the format, so a lot of folks out there have HD-DVDs that they won't be able to get a new player for.

As an added treat, participating in the Red2Blu program also entitles customers to a promotional code, which will slash US 15 off your next purchase of Blu-ray titles amounting to at least US 50 at WBShop.com.

For program mechanics and eligibility, you may refer to the source link below.

App Store now home to 6,000 games for iPhone

Mabie A. — 2009-03-09T21:01:36-04:00

You want games? Then you'll get games! All 6,000 of them even, if you want. Yep, the iPhone has indeed accumulated that much game titles on the App Store, which then translates to 23.1 percent of all its downloadable content.

According to the website Mobclix, App Store is currently home to 6, 276 games , where 78.5 percent of the titles are paid-for content. And according to the numbers, it appears that puzzle games reign supreme, followed arcade titles, and then action, family, kids, educational, board and strategy.

While these may be on the more casual front, we're expecting to see far bigger things for the iPhone soon, especially with id Software's Quake and Wolfenstein and Konami's Metal Gear Solid installments.

December 18th is PS3 and Blu-ray day on Amazon Gold Box

Glenn M. — 2008-12-15T16:31:27-05:00

Christmas is just around the corner, and if you want to make yourself or a very lucky gamer happy this holiday season, then Amazon will be your Santa. Mark your calendars, the Gold Box will be opening this Thursday, the 18th of December. This will be an all PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray splurgefest.

Here's how it'll work: The first deal will be the "Gold Box Deal of the Day." It'll have a special discounted price, and will be available all day or until stocks last. Then starting 6:00 AM PST, a series of "Lightning Deals" will be offered only for a limited time during the day - either they run out or the next Lightning Deal is up.

Naturally, they won't say what the deals would be. Just be sure to check on Thursday, you might miss out!

Read up on more stuff for sale:

Blu-ray seeing record sales in Japan

Glenn M. — 2008-12-11T21:52:50-05:00

The latest GfK Retail and Technology in Japan figures show that Blu-ray Disc recorders have surpassed a 50 market share for DVD recorders in terms of unit sales. Blu-ray Disc recorders have dropped from 110,000 - 120,000 to 100,000 - 110,000. That's roughly around US 1,300 to US 1,000 since June of this year. GfK also expects prices to drop further due to the holidays.

Here's excerpt from Gfk's report:

DVD recorders exceeded 10 market share in the fifth week of April 2002 and continued to grow steadily, eventually surpassing 50 after 82 weeks in the fourth week of November 2003. In comparison, Blu-ray Disc Recorders exceeded 10 market share in the fifth week of October 2007 and after 53 weeks, in the first week of November 2008, surpassed 50 .

Another thing that contributed to the Blu-ray's growth is the rise of HD TVs. Blu-ray's ability to record in HD without a drop in quality makes it the best HD option available. Blu-ray replacing DVDs? Future's a bit foggy on this one, too many factors to consider. What do you guys think?

More Blu-ray news:

AT&T: Free Wi-Fi now available all over the US and Starbucks for iPhone users

Glenn M. — 2008-10-30T21:53:46-04:00

AT&T has announced that they will be free Wi-Fi service to iPhone users in hotspots and Starbucks outlets all over the US. Customers can locate the hotspots through AT&T's online tool.

To access AT&T Wi-Fi from your iPhone, just follow these steps:

Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone
Select "attwifi" from the list of available networks
Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy, then tap "continue"
You will receiver a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. You will not be charged for the text message.
The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested. Another request must be submitted when using another hotspot location.
Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot.

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