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I am so happy for them and proud of them. This is the correct response to unnecessary layoffs or any other worker abuse. I hope more people in the industry will follow their example!
unnecessary
I hate to have to justify layoffs but it’s at least true that lots of studios are unexpectedly (from a couple years ago) hemorrhaging cash right now. anytime inflation is so high for so long, discretionary spending on entertainment is near the first to get cut from consumers budgets. people aren’t sitting at home like we were in 2021 only buying digital entertainment anymore.
bit of a strawmans argument you’re refuting here.
EPIC is laying off 900 people so Tim Sweeney can follow his stupid dream of a Meataverse. He even said this in his “apology letter” where he writes, that he spends too much on metaverse, so he has to lay off people, but then he ends with the promise to continue to overspend on the same thing going forward.
He lays off 900 people, 1/3 of them even core people making his game(s).
It is stupid decisions like this that make the layoffs “necessary”, not anything actually related to the development of games, when it comes to these big developers/publishers.
Don’t let them fool you that this could not have been prevented.
https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/layoffs-at-epic
For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.
and
About two-thirds of the layoffs were in teams outside of core development. Some of our products and initiatives will land on schedule, and some may not ship when planned because they are under-resourced for the time being. We’re ok with the schedule tradeoff if it means holding on to our ability to achieve our goals, get to the other side of profitability and become a leading metaverse company.
He is totally fine with crunch because he on purpose understaffed his core development teams, he is happy for an upcoming community event while having laid off all the staff for that and will continue to make the same mistake again, while laying off 900 people at a time where getting a new job is hard and where many of them rely on finding a new job or losing their working visas.
Fuck him! Do not defend him!
I’m not just taking about epic, there were layoffs in basically every gaming company that exists the past few months
see this for more: https://lemmy.myserv.one/post/2907340
unity, naughty dog, Ubisoft, EA, Amazon games (twitch) and much more.
Well that’s nice. Games industry is not known for treating it’s employees fairly. Or even humanely. I don’t know what the situation is in Poland, but I hope this is a positive development for them.
Reports of months of crunch before Cyberpunk’s release make the image pretty clear. There’s bunch of small indies and some midsized contractor companies in Poland, but not many on AAA level. Techland, CDP and People Can Fly (I think they are independent from Epic again?) are the only ones I can think of. Oh 11bit maybe.
Finally, some gaming news that are not about layoffs💪
good news for developers means good news for players too so: good news all round
I’m all for unions. But I’m not sure how it translates to good for players. Unions exist for fair wages and working environment, not direction of how games should be made.
Less crunch, more realistic deadlines, less unnecessary scope. Makes better games
Realistically this just means games get released with less or unfinished features/content.
No, it doesn’t. Pushing people to burn out doesn’t make more or better products, it just burns people out. People are more productive when they have work life balance
Seems like people who are being fairly compensated in a comfortable work environment will make a better game than people being underpaid and overworked?
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. The reason wages are low is because the games industry attracts a lot of talent, so companies can get good talent for less. So I don’t expect unionizing to help in terms of quality of work produced, but it should improve wages and working conditions.
Quality of a product is not just a result of quality of talent (see: “I hate sand.”). Management, direction, and quality of life of the talent has a profound impact. If you want the highest quality product, especially in an industry that requires collaboration, you want your talent to be happy.
Maybe, but I feel like any quality gains would be minimal since people are already passionate about their roles (else why would those roles be so desired?). Then again, the Valve model really works, so it really depends on whether unions can change company culture, or if they’ll just secure better working hours and pay. The culture is the problem, and I’m not convinced a union can fix that.
They have the ability to raise the standards of quality of the finished product.
not direction of how games should be made
Of course unions can and do have more power in the direction of the game. Employees can also voice concerns to managers and owners without the fear of a bullshit termination. They’re pretty awesome for everyone.
“How can I make this about me?”
good for them!! glad to see more and more places forming unions these days
Not just at CD Projekt. This is a trade union!
Omg that’s so important.
They could sense the layoffs coming
That’s great, I hear CD Projekt has some real problems with overworking their employees.
Edit: (right before cyberpunk released)
Employees at CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio behind the game, have reportedly been required to work long hours, including six-day weeks, for more than a year.
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