Instead of a preface
Official comment Electronic Arts In Russia regarding changes in the work of the company in the Russian Federation:
– We develop a publishing direction, creating a new central team focused on the distribution of products in various markets. In this regard, we transfer operational activities on the territory of Russia a team responsible for working with the expanded region of Eastern Europe – a separate office of the Russian unit in Moscow will be closed, and this is a logical step in the centralization of processes.
– Russia will be part of the United and Expanded region "Eastern Europe / Developing Markets". Russia remains a strong market for EA, and Russian players are very important for us. Changes will not lead to a decrease in the level of support and localization of EA games in Russia.
– Several employees of the Moscow office will join the new regional team to provide support for products in Russia.
– Changes will not affect the presentation of the EA games either in digital stores or in retail.
– We started the process of choosing partners to distribute games in Russia, and the final decision will be made over the next three months.
Alexander Kuzmenko, project manager "Games.Mail.Ru "
EA was the first major game office to open in Russia more than ten years ago and became the first to leave our country. This is a very disturbing bell for the entire domestic market. For several years now we have been switched from the sphere of affordable entertainment to, sorry, Laksheri-sector. With an average salary of $ 500, not everyone can buy FIFA for three to five thousand rubles. This is very sad, of course, but this is an economy, and EA is still a capitalist corporation and thinks first of all about money.
And in Russia there seems to be no longer.
Zakhar Bocharov, DTF Development Director
EA can not be loved for their decisions on business, some players are incorrectly wished for their evil. But there is nothing good in the closure of the Russian office: the local structure of the company, protecting its interests in our territory, disappears. Although support and localization should remain at the same level, there are many potential inconveniences – at least regional prices may disappear.
I remember the glorious time when we all rejoiced at the emergence of Russian branches of large companies. Opening of the office Ubisoft In Moscow, they announced on Gamere, the players were happy. Now it is folding Xbox , EA recedes, clouds go over Nintendo Russia. The good trend has risen on the diametrically opposite course.
The tragedy did not happen, but the news is unequivocally unpleasant for you and me. And the situation is alarming.
Georgy Kurgan, Video Grand Crossbar
The fact that Electronic Arts is experiencing a crisis is the secret of the postgraduate. Turbulent launch Battlefield 5 , The atmosphere of disappointment around Anthem… EA used to have a reputation of the company, which only knows how to oppress good ideas and replicate the same games from year to year, but now it has become somehow completely obvious.
In this situation, cost reduction is rather a sign of healing: the company's management is trying to concentrate and get rid of everything that can be neglected. The Russian office for a transnational corporation just falls into this category: the market is not the largest, but with the main functions of the regional representation (localization and work with the press) can easily cope with the compact staff of Russian-speaking employees sitting somewhere in Europe.
Of course, the era has gone … And all that is so, https://davincis-gold-casino.co.uk/ but if you look globally, then the behavior of EA inspires the hope that now they will finally wake up and focus on games.
Denis Mayorov, editor -in -chief "Canobu"
I do not want to play the sofa analyst, build guesses and pretend that I follow the EA directly in both eyes and read her financial reports. But the fact of dismissal of three and a half hundred employees around the world, for example, does not say anything. For a company in which it works under ten thousand people, this is the usual optimization of resources.
As for the Russian office, as far as I know, he was engaged exclusively with marketing. Many large companies work with a RU region through intermediary agents or entrust this issue to the European office-this option seems to work, so I am not surprised. The tragedy players should not happen: the company promised that support and localization will remain at the same level … and so far we will believe this statement. There is no specificity regarding the closure now – for ordinary Russian EA employees, this was the same surprise as for us. I can only say that it is purely humanly offensive to Tony Watkins, who has long become very meme and ours, and now he will probably be transferred from Russia somewhere. In addition, my good friend works in Russian EA – and now I'm worried about it.
Lev Levin, Gamemenia editor
I agree with Denis. Of course, it is a pity that gaming companies leave Russia – in the future it can promise big problems. But if we talk specifically about the departure of EA … I do not think that this will somehow affect the players. Russia does not stop doing Russia at all, we will have localization and, possibly, regional prices. It’s truly disappointing for Tony Watkins and other EA employees, whom I managed to get acquainted during the work in the industry, but, it seems to me, they will not disappear.
But on whom this will definitely affect, it is ourselves, employees of game publications. Most likely, now we will less often go to all sorts of early shows of the new EA games and tell you about them. Or we will, but not all, but to invite such events not five to ten publications, but one or two representatives from the entire Russian region.
In general, it will be a little more difficult for us to tell you about the novelties of EA simultaneously with Western editions.
However, these are our problems.
Sergey Epishin, Head of Social Media Gamemenia
As a person, on duty, spending the most time on social networks, I primarily appreciated operational contact with EA employees in VKontakte. I could always get from them a timely comment on a particular event, localized trailer and any other urgent information that is so important in writing news in social networks. As it will be now, I do not know, but the chain by which you can get a quick answer will clearly lengthen ..
As for the distribution, EA has long turned away from retail, especially in our country, so to transfer the remaining crumbs in this direction the same “SoftKlab” will be a logical decision. You should not wait for big changes here: buying disk and collection publications of the EA games can now become a little more complicated, but still really. Well, many publishers have long been supervised directly from Western offices. True, because of this, they sometimes “make a boom”, and in some translations the meaning of entire phrases and dialogues is lost, not to mention elementary grammar. At times, there is a feeling that we are returning during the times of especially expressive localizations of Fargus.
In general, I do not think that ordinary players will notice the difference between "with the office of EA" and "without the office of EA". Unless the most avid gamers will pay attention to even greater subsidence in localizations. But the media and shops specializing in EA games can now become much more difficult.
But so far these are only guesses.
Rodion Ilyin, editor -in -chief
To complete our conversation, I want one simple thought. Yes, over the past couple of years, EA made mistakes in the global arena and ended up in the center of several major scandals. But only one who does nothing is not mistaken. Closing the local representation of such a large market player is a tangible loss for the gaming industry in Russia, and in all the CIS. At least in the long run. The situation is never an occasion for firing and malicious comments about the former marketing mistakes of the publisher. Moreover, in general, the contribution of the EA to the game industry is colossal – how many cult game episodes recognized the world precisely thanks to this publisher!
In the leading markets, EA continues to work, and the Russian-speaking office, located in one of the Moscow-City skyscrapers, is being released. This is the internal problem of EA itself, and our common problem – the local market is not strong enough to spend money on a local representative office.