After weeks of speculation PopCap Games has confirmed the closure of its Dublin office with the loss of 96 jobs. The Seattle-based company had already cut 50 positions at its head office and announced in August that a review of its global operations was underway, putting up to 500 jobs at risk.
Established in 2006, Popcap’s Dublin office served as the company’s European, Middle East and Asia headquarters where it employed personnel in marketing, PR, game production and engineering. A statement by the IDA said it was consulting with staff on finding alterative arrangements either within PopCap’s other operations, parent company EA or its domestic technology partners.
PopCap made its name as a publisher of (mainly) offline casual games like Plants v Zombies, Peggle and Bejewelled.
Concerns were raised in August when co-founder John Vechey said the Seattle-based company’s worldwide operations were under review following changes in the games market favouring new business models relying on subscriptions, advertising and ‘freemium’ options where free-to-play games are augmented with the option to buy additional items in-game to improve users’ voerall experience.
PopCap was acquired by EA, the world’s largest games publisher, last July in a deal valued at $1.3 billion split between cash, stock options and earn-outs. Any suggestion that the new owners were responsible for the restructuring were refuted by Vechey, who said: "The decision to reorganise was 100 percent made by us, with no pressure from EA. EA has a diverse business with games on consoles, PCs and practically every other platform under the sun."
The closure of the Dublin office was broken by associate producer of PopCap mobile JP Vaughan on Twitter with the message "And it’s official, Popcap Dublin is now closed".
A statement published on Computerandvideogames.com from EA confirmed the closure but also said PopCap was still hiring and would proceed with the release of new titles next year "through centralised services operated form our North American offices and through the extensive European EA network."
The loss of Popcap will be seen as a significant set-back for Ireland’s nascent games industry, which was expected to employ up to 2,000 people by 2015. A report by Forfas also advocated the creation of a ‘global games hub’ where publishers and developers could co-locate. The Cluster Development Team charged with making the project happen is chaired by Popcap’s now former general manager Paul Breslin.
EA announced the creation of 300 jobs earlier this month in its ‘customer experience centre’ in Galway, bringing the headcount there to 400 providing multi-lingual support for series such as FIFA and Medal of Honour.
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