The recession did not go around the publisher giants Electronic Arts – on the contrary. They had to cut some jobs but it now appears that more drastic measures will follow. The company has reported losses of $641 million for the third quarter only – some huge losses, compared to the 33 million lost during the same period last year.

Therefore, EA will have to close no less than 12 of its facilities (no further details were offered, though) and increase redundancies to 1100 members of staff. Also, they plan to focus on less games – 50 for the 2010 fiscal year, compared to the 125 planned ones.

“Our holiday quarter came in below our expectations and we have significantly reduced our financial outlook for fiscal 2009, a clear disappointment,” commented John Riccitiello, CEO. “We delivered on game quality and innovation in calendar 2008, with 13 titles rated 80 or above – more than any third-party publisher. We expect to build on this great quality record in the year ahead while delivering more profitability.”

We did notice Electronic Arts’ increase in quality and saw it finally started heading the right way in 2008 – we named it the surprise company of the year. Hopefully they will continue the good work and get some profits to prove them that’s the right way to do it!