Probably going to outsource more.
1 Like
That did wonders for halo.
1 Like
I feel like Media outlets are mad about this because its microsoft despite lots of companies doing it but I think its gonna reflect in xbox game reviews. Im getting quantum break era vibes
Also its pretty interesting there is all this outrage now but not all year when all the other companies were doing lay offs
1 Like
Yeah, I have a bad feeling they let go of talent to outsource workers to save money. I could be wrong, but logically that’s the only way I see them sustaining the COD factory, and I am sure what new IPs or dream games will be made, but my hope got shot about new Starcraft experiences
they dont understand shit
343 moving the next Halo to Unreal has the benefit of being a well known tool that more contractors will be familiar with. Hopefully they’ll have a better go at the next game.
Probably something the nearly 21,000 remaining employees can handle.
The CoD people let go arent going to be making a CoD til 2027 or 2028. Plenty of time to hire more
Also…the switch version isnt a high priority. Its a contractual necessity for 9 more years. Not art.
No-one will even care in 6 weeks. It would be different if they shut down 6 studios totalling 1900 people, but this isnt that this is trimming the fat after a merger.
Not saying layoffs are good, but this isnt any where near a brand collapse.
yeah thats how it happens but still weird why they let go devs i can understand the overlaping stuff but weird they let go many devs
1 Like
Contractors can work really well and save on cost. In my several years at a fortune 10 company, we went through a multi-year effort to reduce the size of the workforce and migrate many specialist jobs to contractor roles.
Those contractors were just like full time employees in the sense that they worked 40 hours and were in the building right beside us. The only difference is that they were employed by a talent sourcing agency/company that had a contract with the business.
I worked with some amazingly talented contractors. The transition sucked, but it did end up working well/fine for a lot of roles after some time for people to adjust. Heck, in a lot of cases FTEs were told the position was eliminated, but they could reapply immediately to fill the role with the talent sourcing agency. Sometimes that transition happened without skipping a beat and in some cases they even made the same salary.
1 Like
but in game development things r different my guy
For me, this was just kind of the last straw.
1 Like
Not sure if serious?
You hear about a lot of studios working with other studios. It’s no different.
Look at the way The Initiative is operating or how the Age of Empire team (Forgotten Realms/Worlds?) works with other studios. I believe Obsidian has several different studios helping on Avowed.
Contract roles and outsourcing work are nothing new in gaming.
1 Like
Its the little things that broke me
1 Like
ABK was at 11K in January 2022. They ballooned up to 17K near end of 2023. Even if all 2K was from ABK, thats still more than they had in 2021. They’ll do fine with releases.
14 Likes
Broke? It’s just games coming from a giant corporation. If they suck you don’t give them money until they stop, easy peasy.
8 Likes
I’m not sure what you mean. I saw several people on Threads showing their disappointment and anger over the Riot layoffs.
1 Like
Any insight into why they ballooned up? Was it all for CoD?
The things I personally find a bit disgusting in the reactions to this are the fact that some here are using this as an excuse to console war and spread Xbox dooming when this is literally a common occurrence for every publisher atm. If you think Sony is done laying people off even without buying an ABK level publisher, I have news for you (as does Sony… again it’s literally in the insomniac leaks ffs). We live in a shitty reality where growth and shareholders are all that matters; it’s no different for any other company.
Yes, this is a terrible situation but the devs are the ones affected, so seeing people bandy about “Xbox identity is lost” and all the other baseless drivel I’ve read to try and paint this for something far more than it is, and worse as a means to condemn every thing Xbox does and conflate this occurrence to slippery-slope logic the OtherEra narrative, is beyond disappointing and more than a little gross imo.
As I have said from the get-go, it’s absolutely normal and acceptable to be pissed (I am) and to vent, but this constant hyperbolic dooming every other week from some of you has gotten beyond old for the mods and clearly plenty of the community. Making this less about you and your brand attachment is a start.
25 Likes