HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (AND THE NOT-SO-HAPPY VANCOUVER VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY)
This Halloween for work, I decided to dress up as Trevor Linden, campaigning to be Mayor. Trevor Linden has always been my favourite Canucks player. Check my previous post on the Canucks, for a picture of when I met Trevor 
I have a great “Linden for Mayor” t-shirt that I was holding up all day at work today but unfortunately I forgot to bring it home with me.
I didn’t have a lot of time to put together a costume this year since I just came back from my trip, so I kinda went for the lazy costume. However, it is my own jersey and all my own hockey gear, so I think that counts for something, right? 
It wasn’t this revealing for work; I was wearing opaque leggings
In past years, I’ve gone as Cortana from the video game Halo (I painted it on myself, and made the Guilty Spark too!), and some other typical ones like the schoolgirl and angel costumes. Fortunately, those cliché Halloween costume times are past and I’m hoping to do more creative and interesting video game costumes in the future.
Tonight, it’ll be off to a house party and I’ll see if I can’t modify my costume to be a little more “party” friendly. I’ll update this post later with pictures.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djking/64249598/
Now that I’ve got the Halloween stuff out of the way, let’s talk about the tech/video game industry and the Vancouver/world economy. Things aren’t looking so great these days, it seems the high tech industry is a little spooked (har har) this Halloween too. You can read more in my previous post on the Vancouver video game industry. And to clear up all the rumours… no, I don’t work at EA — and I never have.
It looks like Electronic Arts (EA) is going to layoff 400 to 500 employees over the next little while. Ouch. That’s a LOT of people. It’s not looking so great for the folks over at EA’s Burnaby campus, which makes up about a third of the company. In its last quarter, EA reported a loss of $310 Million. And the EA stock tanked today after that news, down almost 5% last time I checked.
And the makers of Just Cause (Avalanche Studios) are going to layoff about half their studio in Sweden after losing a couple contracts.
Retailers everywhere are projecting lower holiday sales and less shoppers/traffic in general, so it’s not looking good for many “boxed” video game sales. I’m sure we will see this affect other Vancouver video game companies and high tech companies soon, even though video game sales do traditionally quite well in economic slowdowns.
Where’s the opportunity though? Microtransactions and free-to-play games. Web and casual games. Companies who take advantage of this market may be better positioned for today’s and tomorrow’s economy.
Silicon Valley isn’t doing great either. It’s also been suspected that Yahoo! is going to layoff a ton of employees, perhaps as many as 3,000. But that’s not concrete and many expect it not to be that drastic. And Sun Microsystems posted a much bigger loss than expected. They are planning layoffs as well.
And the economy is also finally affecting the ridiculous Vancouver condo boom. Many Vancouver condos and housing developments are being stalled, including Concord Pacific’s West Georgia Cosmo, and Onni’s V6A condo development, that still has its sales office open and is selling to unsuspecting buyers. Oh man. Onni is doing some seriously criminal stuff.
That’s it for today!
Tags: Angel, Avalanche Studios, Concord Pacific, condos, Cortana, Cosmo, costume, economy, Electronic Arts, Halloween, Halo, layoffs, Onni, School girl, Sun Microsystems, Trevor Linden, V6A, Vancouver, Vancouver Canucks, video game industry, Wings, Yahoo
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November 1st, 2008 at 1:07 am
While you were running for mayor, we needed you really, really badly to settle a shootout marathon.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
Haha yeah I know, blowing a three goal lead is pretty bad but that shootout was epic. Hey, at least we won
November 1st, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Hey, welcome back! Hope you had a blast in the Far East.
Poor video game industry though! I’m doing my part to support them – I just got Red Alert 3 and can’t wait to play through the campaign.
November 1st, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Welcome back to Lotus land Allie! Cool costume
And yes the worlds economy is doomed for the next 12 to 18 months atleast :S
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Thanks Moe! Haha yes, do your best to support. I just pre-ordered Gears of War 2 and I’m pretty excited to get my grubby little hands on it!
Thanks Urban Dweller! You’re such an optimist
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:13 am
The industry might be lookin down, but gesh, my wallet has been hurting for the past two weeks on games. The next three weeks don’t look good either.
If you need someone for Gears of War 2 horde, you can always ring me up.
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I feel compelled to make a correction to one of your statements. The original story published on the news regarding Onni was misleading and wrong. Onni is threatening to sue them (I think it was CTV) unless they correct their story.
“And the economy is also finally affecting the ridiculous Vancouver condo boom. Many Vancouver condos and housing developments are being stalled, including Concord Pacific’s West Georgia Cosmo, and Onni’s V6A condo development, that still has its sales office open and is selling to unsuspecting buyers. Oh man. Onni is doing some seriously criminal stuff.”
What happened here is the same thing that has happened to every developer in Vancouver. The banks lending money have put a freeze on their loans until every complex being built has pre-sold a certain number of suites. This is why the Sales Centers remain open but construction has stopped. Once they have met their target, construction will continue. Onni is not bankrupt.
It is a tough business for developers today and some companies will fall due to this. However, they just have to get clever with their sales pitches. Some companies are giving away a free car with a purchase. Others are take up to $40,000 off their sales prices (which means nothing to the developer since they are just re-adjusting for the future market).
All I can say is… good for the buyer.
November 4th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Maybe so, but here’s the interview from CTV with Onni’s VP Beau Jarvis with Shannon Paterson. It would appear otherwise…
” Jarvis: We’re postponing the project until the market changes. We’re not going to go build a project and have no one to sell it to.
Paterson: Why is the pre-sale office still open and still selling?
Jarvis: Well, uh, is that against the law? We’re still testing the market I guess, right?
Paterson: So someone who would’ve walked in there today would have no idea that what they were buying into has been put on hold?
Jarvis: That could’ve been the case, yeah.
Paterson: Is that going to change?
Jarvis: It probably will change.”
Sounds pretty sketch to me!
November 4th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I remember hearing about layoffs when I worked at EA. I went into work happy as ever, hoping to be one of the lucky ones to get the week off and a sweet severance package.
November 4th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Yeah, severance packages are awesome but are becoming less and less common.
In other news, THQ just closed down 5 game studios the other day and laid off a ton of employees.
:S