Record Breaking Battlefield 6 Sales Not Enough to Prevent Layoffs

This industry is so broken it’s insane.

I'm sure this is in no way indicative of the kinda pressures Bungie is under right now.

Well, this either shows how unsustainable live-service can be, or EA is making room for everything to be AI. Or they want operation costs to look more attractive to incoming buyers.

@RoomWithaMoose I’m glad I work in a field when I don’t have to worry about ai taking my job.

The last bf I played was bf v I want to buy this one but after v and 2042 I still have bug doubts
Nothing will beat Bf 1 for me

Layoffs everywhere Robots need Battery power but not coffee or ciggy breaks I can see the logic i'm off fishing.

Damn… even a story that doesn’t involve lay-offs makes it a unclear how much 💩 the industry is in rn.

Once the sale to the PIF is complete, you better bet there will be many more layoffs at EA.

Not saying it's a positive move but isn't this standard practice when a game is released?

Big studios often down size post launch from my understanding as they become unsustainable.

Well, with Saudi Arabia getting ready to take over EA, can't have any anti-terrorist propaganda, can we?

What a tragedy. I remember reading EA expected BF6 to hit 100 million players.

https://www.eurogamer.net/ea-reportedly-expects-battlefield-6-to-have-100-million-players-three-times-more-than-the-series-best-seller

"Obviously, Battlefield has never achieved those numbers before," stated one source, while another said: "It's important to understand that over about that same period, 2042 has only gotten 22 million."

I'm sure they'll get a handle on the delays and such with LESS people xD

@Yor-sama I loved Battlefield 1. Despite the hype, 6 seemed like a significant step down in every way besides gunplay. To be fair, I did only play the beta, but I reckon that was still highly reflective of the final project.

It could've sold double what it did and still have these layoffs.

This game died so quickly. Unfortunately once people leave they don’t ever really come back for long periods. Another huge live service flop.

@Yor-sama @RoomWithaMoose BF1 runs circles around BF6, in my opinion. I got back into BF1 after playing BF6 for a couple months and it really is crazy how much better BF1 is. I don't even think the graphics are all that much better in BF6. Pretty crazy, considering BF1 is a decade old.

@Afroducc they bulk up for development, make the push for release. Everyone got their bonus checks, then layoffs. The gaming circle of life.

@RoomWithaMoose bf was so good
The gunplay,maps, graphics and of course the destruction
That game truly looked a next gen bf
Ohh yeah and the mud on the weapons
10/10 for me

@wildcat_kickz bf 1 is still very active years later this proves that movings into more futuristic or modern wars doesn't mean success I know ppl want to play with a badass tanks or jet plane but nothing beats you your sword and your horse
I want bf to go back to WW1 or WW2 again

It had a good release, but they couldn't keep the momentum going some odd decisions also pushed the players away.

But I might point out that they only laid off employees once the player count hit the same numbers as Marathon is having right now.

BF6 launches to 750k concurrents on Steam, dev issues layoffs. Doesn’t bode well for Bungie/Marathon.

@wilky2988 Or maybe it says that Steam concurrents aren't everything and comparing Marathon to literally every other game on Steam isn't a productive use of anyone's time.

Game flops = Layoffs
Game succeeds both commercially and critically = Layoffs

Late stage capitalism logic at its finest.

You have to look at the detail.

What jobs are being laid off? Did they over-recruit staff during the pandemic, are a lot of the jobs more administrative/managerial rather than coal face?

Also high sales doesn't mean much as that's very simplistic.

As we discussed in a thread a few weeks back, imagine you were investing your life savings.

It's more than just about sales, it's about the return on investment versus the risk. If you are investing in the next BF game, you have to look at the odds of it being another live service flop (very high these days), versus what you stand to gain as a return on your investment if it isn't a flop (not that great).

At the end of the day you'd probably invest your money in something a lot safer and stable, as there are plenty of opportunities with similar returns but very little risk.

EA are trying to tip the scales more in their favour by reducing any unnecessary costs such that ROI is higher if the next game does succeed, to offset the risk and improve the equation.

Can't blame "late stage capitalism". As I say, feel free to go and invest your own savings in a game developer/publisher....

Actually for some of you, your pensions probably are invested in EA shares... What do you think the pension funds do with your contributions to turn it into something you can live off when you retire....?

Do you want them punting your pension on the next live service game, or into property?

More jobs for the AI machine 🙈

@wildcat_kickz I think the big missing element is we don't know why EA started layoffs. If it wasn't the direct result of BF6's ongoing profitability as a live-service, then yeah, there's no reason to relate this to Marathon.

If it IS the direct result, then there's more questions to ask. How much did BF6 cost? How much did Marathon cost? How many employees can both reasonably sustain? How many were they supposed to sustain? These questions keep the comparison from being 1:1, for sure. However, we can still look at this, assuming causation, and question if the numbers we're seeing for Marathon are really good enough.

Of course, that's still with the caveat that Steam concurrents ARE NOT the entire picture. At most, they might be indicative of general adoption. But I wouldn't be surprised to learn, in the case of BF, PC players started dropping it, but Xbox/PS players haven't seen nearly as large loss rates. And, for Marathon, it's very possible Xbox gamers nostalgic for Halo or PlayStation gamers invested in PS Studios' portfolio are significantly more interested in the game than the already pretty Arc-obsessed PC audience.

I do personally, however, strongly doubt console players are compensating for PC's ostensible lack of interest. And the Steam concurrents alone don't paint a great picture. But it is still too early to tell anything, really. And not a great use of anyone's time.

What a slap in the face to the workers.

@Boxmonkey it’s battlefield of course it died fast, lol. For some strange reason people actually thought that this game was gonna out last or be more popular than COD, when that has virtually never happened

My condolences to the people who got layoff, especially in this economy where everything became a lot more expensives thanks to the pointless war. I really hate that two mf's who thinks attacking Iran was a great idea.

@Jayslow More like poor understanding of capitalism. Losses (including jobs) are just as important as profits in a market economy.

@RoomWithaMoose But it's more fun to play armchair business person who loves to second guess economic decisions by firms.

Has EAs takeover been done yet ?? If so they are now what $20 billion in debt as that came with the take over

Not sure why people are saying this game has died ?
I play it every night on XBX and all maps and modes fill the 64 player count instantly ?
This isnt a live service game - its been this genre of multiplayer game since Battlefield 1942 first released back in 2002

Unfortunately no amount of sales or good press (& they had both),on the devs behalf was ever going to be enough for the incoming EA "Suits". ..Recall the buyout deal approved by the other EA "Suits"/investors to the Kushner/Saudi group involved saddling EA with a whole bunch of debt to finance said takeover? Then all the technobabnle of AI,AI,AI being able to take over for future games?
As always the Suits get nice payouts, golden parachutes etc.,& the new lot will get bonuses but the actual workers wear the consequences of these deals & impossible targets.🙄

I think the fiscal year is ending in couple of weeks so they need to cut some expenses to meet investor goals!

BF6 is a great game but it needs more maps as I got a bit bored and the BR mode didn't hold me long either. @wilky2988 do you guys get bored of the marathon bashing? I guess it's the new chew toy for the trolls.

@RoomWithaMoose Buckle up, boyo. You're about to get a lot, which isn't really fair, but I've got some pent up frustrations regarding the Marathon narrative.

BF6 had 4 dedicated studios working on it as their sole project. In addition, there were probably several support studios that aren't part of the "BF Studios" banner that contributed, as well. I'd wager there were well over 1000 devs working on BF6 at any given time, maybe over 2000, likely costing EA well over 500m to get BF6 from idea to release. I'm taking those numbers straight out of my ass, but I don't think the estimates are unreasonable.

Meanwhile, Bungie has about 800 devs in total, so you assume maybe 400-600 working to get Marathon out the door and probably a little fewer now that the game is released. Bungie has Destiny 2 to support and probably Destiny 3 in pre-production.

Yes, a game has to make enough money to justify its and the studio's existence, but I find it such a boring, low-effort argument when people say, "but look at these games with more concurrents!" Each game has their own targets to meet, completely divorced from looking over the fence at other games. As I said in another comment, Pepsi doesn't have to sell as much as Coca-Cola to be a successful business.

Marathon is a hardcore game. It does not have mass-market appeal, like BF6 or Destiny has. It demands a lot from you. I think it's much closer to Tarkov than it is to ARC. I'm sure Sony wanted a bigger game, but Marathon doesn't seem to be designed as a wide-net product and I don't think it has to be.

Maybe I'm wrong and Marathon performs so badly that Bungie gets closed, but I doubt it. I suspect that Marathon just filtered a ton of casual gamers that wanted the next Destiny. But I think word-of-mouth will drive a slow growth for Marathon and keep it sustained.

People keep pointing to concurrents on Steam for Marathon and comparing it to other games with no regard to context because people want Marathon to fail. They want the story. They want the schadenfreude. It's sick. It's lame. It's boring.