"EA shares jumped as investors cheered the potential positive impact of job cuts on EA's profits"

[brentspeak]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091109-719941.html

Was capitalism in America always like this -- governed purely by shareholder greed?

[chrisa]

1. "Game made by Electronic Arts."

Nooooo!!!

[NashVegas]

2. That's the Reagan Revolution

Still hard at work.

[TwilightZone]

8. Corporate greed has been around a lot longer than Reagan. The robber baron era comes to mind.

Reagan did, however, make it a lot easier.

[NashVegas]

9. Reagan and the Assholes He Rode In On

Ushered us to where we are now with all the massive de-regulation, union-busting, and tax cuts to build up assets for the leisure class.

[tridim]

3. I wonder if EA investors think that software writes itself?

Maybe they can just outsource it all and make the stock go up another point or two.

[NashVegas]

4. No, They Think

Software writers are over-paid hamburger flippers, is about what it comes to.

[TwilightZone]

5. Surprised? A corporation's responsibility is creating value for its shareholders.

Lowering labor costs is one of the fastest ways to do so. A wholesale whacking of jobs is almost always met with cheers from Wall Street.

[Occulus]

6. I believe that is what we call "the problem". n/t

[TwilightZone]

7. I guess it depends on perspective and circumstances.

If it's simply for profit's sake, then corporate greed is certainly a factor.

If demand for their products has decreased substantially and the alternative to job cuts is bankruptcy, perhaps one can see where layoffs might become a necessity.

[Occulus]

10. Well, demand isn't down, I can tell you that

Gamers are notorious for buying the Latest Shiny Thing. However, EA's offerings haven't been exactly stellar lately. Dead Space was awesome, but Spore was a flop, and Spore got way more buzz than Dead Space did.

IMO, the gaming industry as a whole needs to reexamine its roots and develop games along the lines of Baldur's Gate, the first Neverwinter Nights, and of course the classic shooters, while at the same time keeping in mind that their audience is more sophisticated now than ever before.

Gamers like innovation, and EA just isn't all that innovative these days. One thing EA could do is start developing flagship console offerings for the PC, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Of course capitalism was always like that

In America and everyone else. It's just an organized form of greed.