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thecowardlyantoine
Joined: 04 Aug 2023
Posts: 24
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 Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 10:07 am
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Is there a list of companies somewhere because I've heard this but none of the games I pay attention to or play seem to have been part of the layoff hits. I'm guessing it's mostly the AAA industry or western companies? I mostly play smaller Japanese games. The biggest I probably play is Nintendo stuff and I don't think I heard of them doing layoffs. I think they even offered payraises recently.
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Vanadise
Joined: 06 Apr 2015
Posts: 531
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:01 am
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It's almost entirely Western AAA developers who are affected by layoffs. Amazon, Ubisoft, Niantic, Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Unity, and more all did it. Layoffs are, in general, something that happens in large, publicly-traded companies, because by firing a bunch of people at the end of the year, they can slash their operating costs and make themselves look much more profitable to shareholders and investors in their Q4 reports. After they've sold more stock or attracted more funding from investors, they can hire more workers to "replace" the ones they fired. You'll note that it's actually pretty rare for layoffs to happen because a company simply can't afford to pay its employees; in fact, many of these companies report record profits. It sucks!
Culturally, it's not really a thing in Japan. Nintendo in particular has a policy of not doing layoffs. Smaller devs also cannot afford to to do layoffs, because throwing away that many skilled developers would cripple their ability to do anything.
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jdnation
Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 2108
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 12:18 pm
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| Vanadise wrote: | | It's almost entirely Western AAA developers who are affected by layoffs. Amazon, Ubisoft, Niantic, Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Unity, and more all did it. Layoffs are, in general, something that happens in large, publicly-traded companies, because by firing a bunch of people at the end of the year, they can slash their operating costs and make themselves look much more profitable to shareholders and investors in their Q4 reports. After they've sold more stock or attracted more funding from investors, they can hire more workers to "replace" the ones they fired. You'll note that it's actually pretty rare for layoffs to happen because a company simply can't afford to pay its employees; in fact, many of these companies report record profits. It sucks! |
While that is a thing, I don't believe it is true this time. Companies usually just handle that by contractor positions versus full employees. But in any case, layoffs are happening across tech, not just gaming, as well as desperate cutting of employee luxuries from cafeteria services to benefits that made these places attractive.
Cost of living and operating and hiring in Califofnia, where many of these places are, has also skyrocketed due to various government policies. Higher salaries for employees, often leads to firing many to benefit the ones that remain. Also governments locking people down drove overoptimistic long term growth projections in digital and entertainment services that failed to play out and which drive over-hiring that is now being fixed. GAAS has also become a red ocean where only the strongest and well established survive.
I don't believe record profits accurately describes a wide area of these places. Record revenue, certainly, but costs are also at record highs. Lengthier development periods are making game costs higher. So while certainly a game may generate recird revenue, there are fewer of them as the ones that release are more costly and longer to develop. Many operate at ŕazor thin margins.
The AAA industry has a lot of long term issues ahead. Same for animation and tech. I don't see it getting any better in the years ahead.
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AiddonValentine
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2341
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 5:30 pm
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When it's gotten to the point where over a third of the industry has been affected by layoffs, then things are terminal. Seriously, the industry cannot function like this. At some point things are going to break and this time I doubt Nintendo and the rest of the Japanese gaming industry are going to bail a lot of companies out for their refusal to learn from their mistakes
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NeverConvex
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Joined: 08 Jun 2013
Posts: 2511
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 10:53 pm
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| AiddonValentine wrote: | | this time I doubt Nintendo and the rest of the Japanese gaming industry are going to bail a lot of companies out |
What are you referring to when you say this?
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Tanteikingdomkey
Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2350
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:59 pm
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| NeverConvex wrote: |
| AiddonValentine wrote: | | this time I doubt Nintendo and the rest of the Japanese gaming industry are going to bail a lot of companies out |
What are you referring to when you say this? |
How the Famicom (family computer entertainment system) saved the gaming industry and restored some public faith in it after the atari video game crash in the 1980s. They actually were not called a video game system (same with rob) because atari had poisioned the market so much with it's boom and bust.
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King Chicken
Joined: 13 Aug 2022
Posts: 129
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 1:10 am
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Could it also just simply be a result of these companies releasing unsuccessful games? I did not hear good things about the latest Saints Row at all, so the entire team being dissolved for it's financial failure simply seems like the standard consequences to releasing a bad product in a competitive market.
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NeverConvex
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Joined: 08 Jun 2013
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 2:00 am
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| Tanteikingdomkey wrote: | | How the Famicom (family computer entertainment system) saved the gaming industry and restored some public faith in it after the atari video game crash in the 1980s. They actually were not called a video game system (same with rob) because atari had poisioned the market so much with it's boom and bust. |
How does that help specific (western?) game developers laid off at the same time...?
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AiddonValentine
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2341
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 2:53 am
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| King Chicken wrote: | | Could it also just simply be a result of these companies releasing unsuccessful games? I did not hear good things about the latest Saints Row at all, so the entire team being dissolved for it's financial failure simply seems like the standard consequences to releasing a bad product in a competitive market. |
Untrue; many of the most successful games are from studios that have done big layoffs.
Heck, Volition's closure wasn't really due to Saint's Row, but because of Embracer Group's mismanagement from buying up too many companies.
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BadNewsBlues
Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 6275
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 1:05 pm
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| King Chicken wrote: | | Could it also just simply be a result of these companies releasing unsuccessful games? I did not hear good things about the latest Saints Row at all, so the entire team being dissolved for it's financial failure simply seems like the standard consequences to releasing a bad product in a competitive market. |
Volition’s particular case was likely influenced by their previous output likely putting them in the position of succeed or die. The second to last game before the reboot was Agents of Mayhem which you can tell failed given how frequently the game goes on sale for less than 6 dollars most months.
But for it’s worth while the reboot had its problems it was nowhere near as bad as the fanbase made it out to be. It’s glitchy though not as bad as Cyberpunk was at launch, the story is predictably linear but the main cast is likeable which the original Saint’s Row cast was not.
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