Trion fired more staff! I hope this doesn't effect the console gamers in specific :(
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Trion fired more staff! I hope this doesn't effect the console gamers in specific :(
I'ts the same with every game put out, they just got more light than most because of the announcement of Rift going free to play. IGN started this with the rumor from an unnamed source. When a game company brings teams in to develop a title they understand they are there till release. So no this won't have any effect on us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue MTS
As a long-time industry veteran, I will tell you that you are not correct, it is not the same with every game. Games that have a successful launch with additional content and sequels do not lay off staff.
Examples include:
- Rockstar
- Blizzard (all games)
- Call of Duty developers (there have been a few in the last decade)
- Konami
- Valve
- Bioshock Developers
- Battlefield Developers
...etc
Successful games have sequels or follow-up content, unsuccessful games start to cut their losses depending on how bleak the outlook is. That is how the industry works.
No judgment regarding Trion, just clarifying some information for you.
what about THQ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Doomsaw
And reading the small print on Rift, it's only the first twenty levels that are ftp
Keep up with the news, Rift is going completely free-to-play in June.Quote:
Originally Posted by Malgiliath
Really, let me know when ninteno stops doing that, because they do it every cycle.Quote:
Originally Posted by Doomsaw
It's a system. Bring in mass talent. Use them for things needed, then keep the good ones on as consulting.
Successful games do in fact have sequels but not all do. And many that do; do not have the same talent working on them.
It's funny you've mentioned Blizzard, a company reknown for source and cutting talent. Valve keeps it's employee's for a bit but cuts them easily when needed. Two of the three companies I mention operate right outside of my city here.
Long time doesn't matter anymore. It's a entirely different model from the one seen before. Games are simply not as profitable.
As for this one: Mmorpg's do in fact mass source talent and cut folks on finish, they are of no use. They have very little ROI after the game is made. You are paying 55k a year for someone to sit and fix things as needed, or you multisource the talent.
It's very simply from the business side of things easier to source and cut.
You may be a tech or whatever but from the business point. It's all about trimming the belt in this time. Companies are buckling down for round two of economic duress.
And Trion has already responded to these statements stating the layoffs did occur and are greatly exaggerated in terms of numbers. They have also stated they have no effect on upcoming projects. More than likely they are letting go redundant staff that are not needed any longer after the launch and emergency patching of the game to bring it up to speed. I imagine there may also be a lot of marketing people included since the big ad push for the game has also subsided.Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamingNinja007
It's very clear to me that you do not have first-hand understanding of the things you are saying, from the quantity of inaccuracies contained in your post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Random
However, it's not possible to educate someone on the internet.
So, I will agree to disagree with you.
Simply put, some companies cut staff after a game, some companies don't. When massive cuts are made, it's a very common sense indicator that the game is not expected to be a long-term success with significant revenue coming in. Nothing wrong with that, many games fail to turn a profit, that's just life.
Have a good day!
Quite a bit wrong with your reasoning and deductions here. It has been quite normal for many years to have a crunch time followed by layoffs when a game is released. It has been happening for years and always gets blown out of proportion by the doomsayers. DLC has curbed some of this as it keeps some of the developers working on things between projects after the title has gone gold.Quote:
Originally Posted by Doomsaw
And your examples are poor as well - all of them have encountered some sort of layoff in the past. Valve recently cut a bit from their staff. Blizzard also had a fairly recent layoff as well. And you can't realistically compare CoD developers (IW or Treyarch) to this situation as they are perpetually working on Call of Duty and it's DLC - they have no downtime.
Furthermore, Trion has commented on the situation stating that the numbers reported are greatly exaggerated and it has no effect on any upcoming project.
As a long time set, backdrop, and concept artist for game companies since Battlefield 1942, and gaming veteran since Doom 1993. I stand by what I say. I could elaborate, though as you said (even if I disagree), " it's not possible to educate someone on the internet". I'm not attacking you, just making sure that everyone understands that your response to me was incorrect.
Now to everyone else:
You don't keep all your personal on hand after launching a game, successful or not, story writers, concept illustrators, engine designers, the list goes on, these people did what they came to do and they move on to the next title. Just because they don't publish their layoffs on the front page of a magazine, doesn't mean they don't. Now something that most people don't know, when a sequel, add-on, or a new title from the same company comes up they sometimes hire back many of those key people to help. I hope this makes things a bit clearer as to why companies do this. Now I'm not saying this is what Trion is doing, but it does fit the scenario. We'll have to wait and see if Trion makes a public announcement, if they don't, who cares.
the only TRUTH we know is that there were some lay-offs. Speculating the whys doesn't do any good. It would be nice if Trion would just come out and tell us what the deal is so we can put an end to all this and just get back to playing...however, why do we even care? Does the game still work? Yes. Are they still fixing and patching? Yes. Until something changes for us, the gamer, then nothing changes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue MTS
Holy passive aggressiveness.Quote:
Originally Posted by Doomsaw
Quantities (I love magic numbers, you use them quite a bit).
You have either repeated very obvious things that really have no value (IE some companies keep/some cut)
You've used a funny magic number "Massive". (What is massive? A sizable mass, that is not a number sunshine,once again~).
Meanwhile I'm sitting here looking at a copious amount of turn over jobs (Temp positions) at Nintendo, Valve and MS.
So while I applaud your use of game industry veteran (for whatever that may be) I call bull.
Cheers.
Edit: Hell I'll even be fair. Generally you keep the good coders, you dump the monkies. This how it is across IT all over.
Games, software, pron even. Just look at the practices of EA, that my friend is standard operating.
There are jobs in gaming that don't need to be there after awhile from marketing to testing. Lets not pretend the industry isn't cut throat and savage.
The value of an employee is what they output and how good it is. It does not matter if the game is good or not or sold well. People get laid off all the time and it's just polarized with gamers because we're like all "Oh no".
People have already been working on dlc and what most developers seem to do is move talent to the next project. I don't know if these guys have another project right now, so no work for people to do.
I love lamp!!!
I also like when he says that the game is not expected to be a long-term success...Um, Hello! They are filming season two already and we are only on episode six of the first season. Let's not forget that the game and show are tied together...What about that indicates that they don't expect long-term success?Quote:
Originally Posted by Random
For the old school gamers: Defiance is not Doom. It's thousands of times larger and more complicated. It's not even close. Mind you, I will always love Doom.
From the scope of Defiance, it seems to me that they must have had an entire team dedicated just to map design, and other teams for other individual aspects. These people were likely contracted on a temorary basis to do a single thing, like design the co-op maps or individual towns etc. And likely paid a nice severance and given a letter of recomendation when they completed their contract.
Think of it like building a hotel from the ground up. Once the building is finished, the construction workers are no longer needed for your project and move on. And then you focus on service staff and maintainence Defiance is brand new. They had to build its foundation. Now that the bulk work is over, they don't need all of the original staff. Staff who likely knew that their appointment was temporary.
These people are called contractors in other professions. The game industry is taking on more large scale games, and is now starting to structure itself like other industries.
Calm the heck down and stop listening to rumors. This probably isn't as bad as it sounds. What kind of wacky world is it when I'm not the most cynical person in the room. Good grief!
Or maybe I could very well be wrong and we're all doomed.