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Might as well call the show "This week in video game layoffs"
Lovely timing once again, Bethesda just announced FO:NV and FO3 remasters, said they are planning FO5 and working on a FO project with Obsidian 😂
A significant reason as to why an employer may inform their labor force of imminent lay offs is to incentivize their employees to quit on their own, which reduces the amount of prolonged benefits, as well as the number of severance packages, this employer would possibly have to cover otherwise.
Crazy that just getting rid of, like 5 executives would've probably covered about the same cost as the 1600 people laid off and had WAY less impact on the studios.
6:00 discord notification jumpscare
I think it's easier to be specific about cuts when it's not an employees market - they don't fear employees leaving for other AAA studios at this time, I imagine, because there are no jobs.
10:08 Uhh, the original Black Flag was the one that introduced these "time saver microtransactions" back in 2013 and it did sell skin packs for the multiplayer. Origins did introduce selling materials for crafting though, I'll give you that.
I really appreciate that you keep covering layoffs despite the horse being well and truely beaten. It's really important that people stay aware of this for as long as it continues happening. Just watching this show once a week has kept me so clued in on the industry for years and I'm very grateful
I think Ralph is missing the factor where if you tell people you’re making cuts they might start planning / looking and leave on their own accord and you won’t have to pay severance.
What i have seen over the years....and there are many many examples, time is money and there are so many development cycles even for good games time is wasted due to lack of leadership, poor management and lack of cohesion and no concrete plans and changing of minds and i think that does need to change. If a game is in development for years with little to show that is a big problem. Destin did a video saying that he would have thought if people knew they were to be laid off he thought they would still work hard as sense of pride or something along that lines, i disagree completly i have never ever seen it where if someone knew they would be let go they would work harder as there really is no point.
So SkillUp, notice how Ubisoft are giving out sales numbers for Black Flag Resynced? Sales. Not vague engagement numbers. They haven't been confident enough in a game to do that since the original release of Black Flag over a decade ago.
Not game related, but pour one out for acting legend Sam Neill. Star of perhaps the scariest movie/prequel to the Warhammer 40K universe, Event Horizon.
Thousands more must go!
Man, the proof is in the pudding here, of the value of unionizing and having worker organization when a moment like this happens.
Last time I was this early, Microsoft had thousands more staff and studios....😢
Holy shit, when you said Luis Donaldo Colosio, it stirred my core memories. For context, Luis Donaldo Colosio was a presidential candidate who got assassinated in 1994. It was a huge thing in Mexico, as he was very much rallying against what a big portion of his party were pushing behind the scenes. He was essentially a shoe in for the presidency and got assassinated. I've been living in the US for 15 years so I did not know his son was a senator. Ik, who cares, but it just jossled my memory so harshly.
Videogames now exist in an industry were "record profits" get touted just as often as "difficult business environments", requiring mass lay-offs. Hugely succesful games make billions and the developers behind them still get the shaft. Make it make sense.
0:37 Ikr, i also hate having to stay up late playing video games for my job.
They announced the Fallout 3 remake, the Fallout: New Vegas remake, Fallout 5, and a Fallout 76 DLC literally one hour after this video.
Going through FFX remaster right now for the first time. It absolutely holds up to this day; excluding the unskippable cutscenes.