Kotaku - Allegations Of Sexism, Bullying, And Burnout: Inside The Microsoft Studio Behind State Of Decay 3

[Sparda3g]

@CallMeCraig

Awful stuff there. Nobody needs this shit at the workplace. At least they report that its improving now. Xbox involvment seems late, they should review their process here. Microsoft likes data, maybe do and track anonymous employee surveys more often.

Perhaps when Microsoft announced going all in is when things start to become different.

[leburn98]

@TheBrightestSun

So basically when Microsoft HR became involved directly the problems started to resolve? Then it means Microsoft is doing a good job.

I do wonder then if Microsoft should have the unified HR department for all Xbox studios.

Then you will have articles and people complain that Microsoft is laying off 100s of HR staff.

[Shakez]

@Failwood

I mean, we know there are internal deadlines set by Microsoft and that Microsoft is making studios use new tech. It really seems people are falling hook line and sinker for the narrative created by the VCG article, because since then everyone seems to be complaining that Microsoft is too hands-off and needs to reel their studios in.

Some studios are better off than others, some need more support than others, it’s impossible to know what happens at each studios, but it’s obvious that some need a little more help than others that have already proven themselves over time.

Undead Labs was an AA studio making the transition to AAA, a close eye on them seems obvious to me…

[QuietGamer90 (Tawsif (Rafee))]

@Thebaconlife

Im not trying to sound negative hear but if microsoft can’t stop this kind of stuff from happening at 343, undead labs and who knows where else in its own studios how are they gonna fix it at blizzard? You cant just fire people and expect to have the issue fixed. They can’t be hands off with them.

343 was more about game development issues, nothing to do with toxic workplace culture (crunch aside)… Two different situations here.

People say that Microsoft is too ‘hands-off’, but that is not quite true. Reading this article, they stepped in and things are starting to change, even if it may be slow.

The Initiative? They stepped in and got Crystal Dynamics as co-developers.

It seems that Microsoft’s involvement will vary depending on the issue within a particular studio.

I am not saying that there are no issues, but issues in various studios will continue to occur as Microsoft go through the process and learn to manage all these studios under one umbrella.

[mr_sexy]

1. so state of decay 2 live service support slowed development on SoD3 (which is why I hate the idea of MS making so many live services, less sequels and more time to get them)
2. Bad management slowed it even more(while I do feel some of it is exaggerated since it was only 12 devs interviewed, I think it’s still bad)

3.A game that started development mid 2018 is still in pre production in 2022

I guess we probably won’t see this game until 2024. I don’t even wanna check twitter I can bet PS fanboys are gonna run with this.

[Joe_Sinister1 (Joe_Sinister)]

State of Decay was actually supported extremely well throughout its lifetime and is still a great game with a dedicated fanbase. Also since what is SOD a "live service " game?

[Doncabesa (Jesse Norris)]

@Joe_Sinister1

State of Decay was actually supported extremely well throughout its lifetime and is still a great game with a dedicated fanbase. Also since what is SOD a "live service " game?

Live Service means you continue support on something. Games as a Service means you try to continually monetize a game while it is a Live Service.

[QuietGamer90 (Tawsif (Rafee))]

Also, with regards to Activision-Blizzard, expect growing pains related to changes in workplace culture (assuming the deal goes through).

[MasterChief]

@BRiT

So how’s the thread about the most recent claims against Sony? I bet it’s crickets or locked or deleted.

The one from a few weeks ago? still there, don’t want to derail this thread talking about all of that though.

[TheBrightestSun]

@BRiT

So how’s the thread about the most recent claims against Sony? I bet it’s crickets or locked or deleted.

Well, it certainly gains traction slower. Just like with Insomniac.

[BRiT]

@MasterChief

The one from a few weeks ago? still there, don’t want to derail this thread talking about all of that though.

Yeah, the latest or newest claims from March 17th. I don’t want to derail this thread either, but I’m sure their community behavior is vastly different between the two discussions.

Anyways, onto something or anything more worth our time…

[Boosted_Gear]

Just went home from work. So basically, there was/are issues that were/are being fixed by Microsoft, while at the same time the article potentially used Glassdoor reviews. It’s sad to see these issues across all the gaming industry, but it seems MS is taking the steps to make things better.

[ParkerPetrov]

They do this already but maybe have Microsoft HR available as an outreach in case employees don’t feel comfortable for whatever reason going to the local hr.

[power]

The expose doesn’t seem justified. It read like one of my university reports when I had a page count to meet.

[rtansey]

Seeing a lot of takes like well there goes Microsoft cleaning up Activision. But this report literally says when Microsoft stepped in things improved for the better according to current employees.

[deSynq]

@mr_sexy

1. so state of decay 2 live service support slowed development on SoD3 (which is why I hate the idea of MS making so many live services, less sequels and more time to get them)
2. Bad management slowed it even more(while I do feel some of it is exaggerated since it was only 12 devs interviewed, I think it’s still bad)

3.A game that started development mid 2018 is still in pre production in 2022

I guess we probably won’t see this game until 2024. I don’t even wanna check twitter I can bet PS fanboys are gonna run with this.

I don’t understand your point 1. Are you saying that SoD2 didn’t deserve to have the continued support and patches that it has received? It seems a bit of a fallacy to claim that resources invested into SoD2 were taken from SoD3 when continued support for SoD2 was baked into the team structure to begin with.

It also ignores the fact that SoD2 still has a large enough community to support multiple YouTube channels (Git Gud Fox, Sunny Games, RvidD and Brian Menard to name 4 I visit) as well as their own development streams run by Geoffrey Card, who also streams the game on his personal channel (deRangutang) and is very transparent and open about the development process of SoD2. It’s one of the reasons we know that “Class 4” was abandoned prior to SoD2 because the community, the people who actually play the game, didn’t want an MMO.

The team from SoD2 have been transitioning over to SoD3 and they have been hinting on their development streams at a slower patch cycle for probably a year now, and some of the development was outsourced, specifically the latest graphical redesign of the maps. The SoD2 team continues to come out with new changes that spice up the game, like the latest infestation update. There is also an unlimited mode akin to Breakdown coming to SoD2 soon (read: eventually) as well as ways to use your legacy pool of survivors. This -might- point towards some delays in the production of SoD3 as the SoD2 team continues to release quite significant upgrades to mechanics of SoD2.

More on topic: I am wondering if the SoD2 team was less impacted by these issues as they have often included women in key positions on the development team openly talking about their contributions.

My biggest take away from the article is that all HR departments under Microsoft should be integrated into the main HR system so they have more oversight. This should avoid making people redundant, they still need the capacity to oversee their own studios, but make them report all instances to HR HQ so you don’t get cases like this where a lack of direct reporting allows abuses to fester.

Development is a studio thing, human resources are a whole organisation thing. In the ideal utopia that exists in my head, that would allow for greater mobility of talent among the different studios within the organisation.

[Jeans]

I think the more stuff like that get out, the more we are aware of it and the more quickly it’s taken care of.

Still sad to see. I watched some of their live Dev updates for SoD2 and they seem like a bunch of cool guys and girls.

I hope for the best. MS seems reactive at least.

[Mort]

@rtansey

Seeing a lot of takes like well there goes Microsoft cleaning up Activision. But this report literally says when Microsoft stepped in things improved for the better according to current employees.

Agenda > facts.

[Solidevolution (Brandon B)]

@Thebaconlife

I understand that they want to be hands off but they need to have one hr person at each company who reports on this stuff so they can nip this when it starts

The other HR lady at Undead Labs didn’t do anything

[Solidevolution (Brandon B)]

@Daniel

I think Matt Booty might need more help, they should hire another person to help out it must be hard for him to manage this many studios. I hope MS fixes the issues which it seems like they are on track of doing but use this as a lesson to do more and continue to do more. Also not saying this is Matts fault at all, far from it but I do think trying to manage that many studios will be stressing for one person to shoulder.

Matt has a team it’s not just him. It’s just the leadership sucks at the individual studios