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Im Zuge der Schließung von Bioshock-Entwickler Irrational Games, hab ich mir gedacht, dass wir hier einen Thread bräuchten, der sich allgemein mit passenden Geschehnissen im Bereich der Spiele-Industrie beschäftigt.
Reaktionen dazu, Spekulation über die Ursachen und alles andere was dies betrifft kann hier diskutiert werden.

Der Thread soll aber bitte nicht ein Ort zum haten von Spiel X von geschlossenem Studio Y werden. Das ist der so ziemlich schlechteste Zeitpunkt Kritik zu einem Titel zu äußern.

Viel "Spaß"!

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Solange die Mitarbeiter im Anschluss wieder einen Job finden, ist die Schließung eines Studios eher weniger relevant.
Meistens verlieren Teilhaber und andere Shareholder an einer Schließung.
Was hinzukommt ist natürlich die Frage nach dem Verbleib bzgl. der Verwertung von Rechten an IPs.
 
Originally Posted by Colin Moriarty
Reliable sources have confirmed to IGN that there were layoffs at Sony Santa Monica Studio today. The Sony-owned, exclusive developer – founded in 1999 – is best known for its God of War games. The extent of the damage remains unclear, though there are indications that one of the projects the studio was working on has been cancelled alongside this round of layoffs.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/25/layoffs-hit-god-of-war-studio-sony-santa-monica

Kommt bei dem Studio unerwartet :ugly:

Update: Sony has provided the following statement to IGN, confirming what our sources have told us:

SCEA can confirm that we have completed a reduction in workforce at Santa Monica Studio. This is a result of a cycle of resource re-alignment against priority growth areas within SCE WWS. We do not take these decisions lightly. However, sometimes it is necessary to make changes to better serve the future projects of the studio. We have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease transition for those impacted.
 
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Santa Monica? Warum das? Bin gespannt ob man was vom gecancelten Projekt sehen wird.....
 
Mercury Steam - Entwickler von Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2 - entlässt 35 Mitarbeiter; offenbar herrschte ein komplettes Chaos bei der Entwicklung von LoS2.

Well, I would like to shed some light over the development of this game... Working with Mercury Steam -and I would like to tell this anonymously- is about an everyday frustration. Here's to every guy that has experienced hell during the development of this game, but especially to those who have led this to the mess that Lords of Shadows 2 is:

- Kojima had little to nothing to do with the development of the first game, he came by, set a seal, visited the studio, signed some things and that was it. He had even less to do with Mirror of Fate and LoS2.

The vast majority of this team is aware that the game we've done is a real piece of shit that has nothing to do with the first one's quality and production values... Nobody is surprised by the low reviews we've got.

- If there's someone to blame here, that's Enric Álvarez. He is the person who has led a broken development based on his personal criteria, completely overlooking programmers, designers and artists. Despite his nice look to the press, often considered as some sort of creative "visionary" in the looks of David Cage and Molyneux, this guy has serious problems. He is a mean and naughty guy, and since the "success Lords of Shadows 1" his ego has grown to the point of not even daring to say 'hello' when you meet him in the hallway.

His distrust to his own workers is enormous. Most of the development team often found out features of the game through press news, rather than from the studio's head - unbelievable. And there is no corporate culture here at all... this is just a handful of people working blindly and at the disposal of an alleged visionary.

- The studio's internal structure is archaic, still based on the old partners of the Scrapland days. I'll give you an example so you can see the full picture: the studio's signature engine (one with many flaws) was solely coded by two guys, one of them being a founder of the company and Enric's confident. Access for the new programmers to the source code to update or refurbish the engine is denied, so things are still done in a 10-year-old fashion.

- Many of the studio founders are people with zero abilities for running a studio. Often here newbie developers know more than their own bosses. This structure only leads to a slow, messy and absurd development process, with the end result of Lords of Shadows 2 being a perfect example of what happens due to that.

- Absolutely every design idea has to be monitored, taken away and mutilated by Enric Álvarez. Several game designers have grown tired of this and have abandoned the studio.

- The art direction for this project has been erratic and beheaded. After Enric dismissed every idea and core decission from our main art director for the previous projects, he decided to just leave. It was a battle of egos unleashed by Enric (something that he has carried over with since his times in Rebel Act). Our now former art director is still working in Madrid, now with the Tequila guys making RIME.

- Many others have just turned to other studios offers, sick of the situation here. Almost every month we see fellow devs packing up and getting out of here looking for a new job abroad -that's sad-. It's amazing how the biggest AAA game developer in Spain is not even willing to make its workers a counteroffer. This company does not think highly of its talented workers and their good work. There has never been any kind of salary bonus or anything that remotely resembles it. Not even a single "Good job team!" acknowledgement.

- The production management for this project has been terrible, way often the heads of each department dismissed every production deadline and imposed their own criteria. As a result, the development was delayed for six months, and that investment only came out of MercurySteam's pockets.

Many can't help comparing this situation to something similar that already happened in a company in which many of us worked: Pyro Studios (the team behind the Commandos saga). The QA department is treated like cattle, with shameful wages and almost everyday bullying.

- Expectations for our future are quite bad... with a publisher like Konami really upset after the mediocre game we've made.

- After completing Lords of Shadows 2 MercurySteam has fired 35 workers, and it's embarrasing that no website or journalist is talking about that. More firings are expected to come in the following days.

- And finally, because not everything is bad in here, I wanted to say that the real team behind this company is an incredible bunch of people. If all those guys who are not allowed to be promoted due to our Jurassic studio leads had the chance to set the course of the company, our future would be so bright. There's just so much passion and talent here, more than I've ever seen anywhere else, but it's completely held back. I really hope that those who read this understand what we've lived here. Someone has to say this so it is not lost in time after the game's launch.

Thank you for reading me.
@NeoGaf.

Yesterday afternoon a forum post was publicized on various spanish gaming websites, the post was of one supposed developer at Mercury Steam, he told of a large series of problems during the development of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. I spoke today with sources that have formed part of the development of the game. Vadajueges is in the position to confirm the story and to clear up some details.

We can confirm that the development of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was very problematic for leadership problems and communication within the company. "The development problems were basically what was said in the forum post. [In Mercury Steam] talent is bountiful; the problem is that it isn't where it should be, which is in the leads [team leaders]", our source assured us. "There are a few leads that have been here a while...will actually end up doing [the work], but most preoccupy themselves brown nosing Enric [Alvarez, the CEO of Mercury Steam]".

Our sources can confirm that all the decisions during the games development went right through Alvarez. "It is complicated to be creative there, because all the ideas that people have never make it out the door. It is definitely not looked upon favorable to give your own input or ideas." This situation has made a good number of employees at Mercury Steam to leave the company: "there have been some great staff that have left. The art director [Rafael Jimenez], left for Tequila, because of these problems. They had him completely locked down, and he couldn't do anything, to which [Jimenez] said: Then you can stay with your ideas"...

These conflicts happening with key staff members have been, in the opinion of the team at Mercury Steam, the cause of a few of the problems that they game has. "[Jimenez] is the one who did all of the art for the first Lords of Shadow, which was really cool, and this follow up is a Frankenstein because there has not been an art lead at all. One would arrive, then another, then there would be a minor power struggle...some phases were nice, others not at all. This Castlevania has come out a bit weird because of that: each one threw their own 2 cents into it. Each department did its own thing, no one spoke to anyone.

The lack of communications was another of the elements that were the root of many of the problems. "They treat people as...untrustworthy. It is a really weird environment, it isn't conducive to creativity at all. They don't trust in people.", Asking about the example of the phases of infiltration, our source assured us: "we would said: What the hell is this? Are we actually going to release the game with this in this state? All of these bad things pointed at now are things we talked about internally and we would actually say, we are we turning into a rat?" As told to us by our source, this negative environment has been around for at least two years, but they also mention that it wasn't always like this.

The lack of communication that we have commented on is derived from the fact that there were "no meetings" and that things were found out through "the press". That is why, out of everything that has been mentioned since yesterday there are two elements that must be questioned according to our sources: First, the supposed poor reaction from Konami at the root of the game. "That could not be known" they tell us. "I don't know if they're good or bad". Regardless, the rumors reassured that the delays had caused Mercury Stream to pay out of pocket to finish development; our sources assure us that the delays were not significantly larger from those of any other AAA game development, and that nothing similar was ever communicated to the team.

We will continue considering that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is a good game, as it can be seen in the critiques that Jose Carlos Castillo brought up in Vadejuegos. In Merucry Steam there is a lot of talent, regardless of the problems, and we expect to see more games in the future of the studio. We have written to Enric Alvarez to see his version of the story, we will post that information if it is necessary.
@NeoGaf.
 
Noch nicht offiziell bestätigt:

Big Layoffs At Thief Developer Eidos Montreal - Thief developer Eidos Montreal has just laid off a number of employees, according to multiple Kotaku sources. We've heard differing numbers, but they're big—one source says 30-50; another says 20+. Those people requested anonymity while speaking to Kotaku.

@Kotaku

/Edit:

Wurde leider offiziell bestätigt:

UPDATE (4:15pm): Thief developer Eidos Montreal laid off 27 employees today. Here's the full statement from Square Enix:

Yes it is true we've let 27 people go today, unfortunately it's something that every major studio has to do sometimes in order to ensure you have the right set up for current and future projects. It's never a nice thing to do but we are genuinely trying to offer as much support as much as we can. We're trying to re-locate as many people as possible into other roles here or at our other studios and we've been in touch several studios in Montreal to arrange a career day for those affected by this. We're very thankful for all their hard work and we sincerely wish them well.

 
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Kannst Du bitte den Text kopieren, die Seite der Quelle wird nicht angezeigt bzw. man muss sich einlogen.
Danke

bei mir funktionierts aber :confused:

GLENDALE, Calif. — Disney’s struggling video game and Internet division laid off roughly 700 employees on Thursday, or 26 percent of its global staff, in a major retrenchment that includes a shift in advertising strategy at Disney.com.

“These are large-scale changes as we focus not just on getting to profitability but sustained profitability and scalability,” James A. Pitaro, the president of Disney Interactive, said in an interview.

Layoffs were long expected in the unit, but not on this scale. They came as a result of Disney’s decision to combine two businesses: booming mobile games (those played on iPads and smartphones) and sagging social games (those played on websites like Facebook). In a major shift in strategy, Disney also decided to significantly scale back in-house development of games of all types. It will now rely much more on outside licensing.

Disney Interactive, which published roughly two dozen games last year, including disappointments like Where’s My Water? 2 and Stack Rabbit, will cut annual game output by as much as 50 percent.

On the Internet side of the division, Disney will close two smaller websites called BabyZone.com and Spoonful.com. It will also move Disney.com, the company’s main portal, toward sponsorship-based advertising instead of banner ads.

“We’re not exiting any businesses, and we will pursue licensing partnerships in which we retain a lot of creative input,” Mr. Pitaro said. “But this is a doubling down on mobile and an effort to focus much more intently on a core set of priorities.”

In other words, what is working. Disney Interactive, which has suffered more than $1 billion in losses in recent years, has finally turned a profit in the last two quarters largely because of Infinity, a combination video game and toy line that has sold more than three million copies worldwide since its August debut.

Disney Interactive also has a thriving mobile business in Japan, where Disney-branded mobile devices and games have recently become a minor cultural phenomenon. Tsumu Tsumu, a mobile game, has been downloaded more than eight million times since its Jan. 29 release and is the No. 1 app in Japan.

“At the same time we are reducing our focus in some areas, we are making strategic investments in others, and the Japan business is one,” Mr. Pitaro said.

What has not been working is social gaming. Thursday’s actions — the latest of several as Disney has scrambled to keep up with a fast-evolving digital media marketplace — are in some ways an admission that Disney’s $563 million acquisition of the social game company Playdom in 2010 was a bust.

At the time of the Playdom purchase, Facebook-based social games like Zynga’s FarmVille were skyrocketing in popularity. But that business has fallen off as consumers moved with greater speed than anticipated to smartphones and other mobile devices. Playdom has not had a breakout hit since Disney purchased it.
 
War doch eigentlich eine gute Nachricht, dass drei Entwickler an CoD arbeiten, also drei unterschiedliche, die dann jeweils drei Jahre an einem Spiel sitzen. Nun sind es wieder nur zwei? :neutral:
 
Entlassungen sind in einer Firma manchmal leider legitim. Es kann allerdings auch positiv sein, wenn es bedeutet das alte Gesellen zu einer anderen Firma wechseln und dort ihre Erfahrung mit einfließen lassen, währenddessen in den alten Firmen neuer Wind einkehrt. An einer Veränderung ist im Grunde genommen erst einmal nichts Schlechtes.

Schlimm wird es nur, wenn Firmen aufgrund von Insolvenz und dergleichen dicht machen müssen. Psygnosis wurde ja zum Glück wiederbelebt, doch um Ascaron trauere ich heute noch. Mal sehen ob das neue Sacred an den Glanz der alten Teile heranreichen wird.
 
War doch eigentlich eine gute Nachricht, dass drei Entwickler an CoD arbeiten, also drei unterschiedliche, die dann jeweils drei Jahre an einem Spiel sitzen. Nun sind es wieder nur zwei? :neutral:

Ne wieso sind noch immer drei, nur einer von denen wurde eben größer :)

Infinity Ward ist jetzt mit Neversoft fusioniert und heißt weiterhin Infinity Ward
Daneben gibt es noch Treyarch
und eben Sledgehammer die das diesjährige COD releasen.
 
Ah ja, okay. Habe da den Durchblick verloren, danke. :)
 
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