EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: layoffs
Staff cuts at three of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Seattle-based game development studios have been confirmed, as Monolith (FEAR), Snowblind Studios (Death Tank) and Surreal Software (The Suffering) are affected by reductions, which have been explained as efforts towards consolidation.
[Updated] Jason Kingsley, CEO Rebellion, has sent out a message: “No-one has been made redundant by Rebellion in more than a decade, and the Derby studio is very much still open while we conduct the review.
“We are currently undergoing a process of consultancy with our staff to get their ideas, and establish the best possible future for the Derby studio.” [End of Update]
It’s being strongly rumoured that the studio formerly known as Core Design (creators of Tomb Raider), and more recently going by the name of Rebellion Derby, has been closed down following the poor reception of Shellshock 2: Blood Trails and Rogue Warrior, both of which had been handled and developed by the studio in some capacity.
In the wake of rumours hitting yesterday, and as part of EA’s recent round of layoffs and restructuring plans, it’s been announced that Pandemic Studios has been closed.
Responsible for games such as Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, Mercenaries and the upcoming The Saboteur, Pandemic Studios was founded in 1998 by way of an equity investment by Activision. After opening a satellite studio in Brisbane, Australia in 2000, Pandemic entered a joint partnership with RPG stalwarts Bioware in 2005, with investment backing from Elevation Partners.
During EA’s earning’s call on Monday, it was announced the publisher is being forced to cut 1500 jobs across all of its studios, which is necessary, says CEO John Riccitiello, to “transform the company.”
“EA is performing well, with quality, sales and segment share up so far this year,” said Riccitiello during the call. “We are making tough calls to cut cost in targeted areas and investing more in our biggest games and digital businesses.”
Commenting on the poor performance of the videogame industry in general, Riccitiello continued:
In what was purely rumour material two days ago has now been confirmed as truth: Activision Blizzard has closed the doors on Spider-Man: Web of Shadows developer Shaba Games, putting roughly 30 employees out of work.
Shaba Games has been around for twelve years and always had a bit of an ‘extreme sports’ background, having worked on console ports of the Tony Hawk franchise, Wakeboarding Unleashed featuring Shaun Murray, Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX, Razor Freestyle Scooter and Grind Session, as well as various licensed games such as Shrek Super Slam.
On the back of the news that Wolfenstein developer Raven Software has been hit with a round of layoffs, it’s also been revealed that The Sims and Spore developer, and internal studio at EA, Maxis, has also been forced to reduce its staff in order to respond to “business conditions,” says a statement from EA.
The exact number of staff affected by the cut is unknown, but internet rumblings post the figure in the dozens, as opposed to lesser measurements. The full statement from EA regarding the Maxis layoffs reads:
Raven Software, an internal development studio at Activision Blizzard, and most recently responsible X-Men Origins: Wolverine and last week’s Wolfenstein, has been hit with a round of layoffs, continuing the industry trend of expanding during peak periods of development, and then reducing the team size when in planning stages for their next game.
In the case of Raven, though, work continues on their recently delayed first-person shooter Singularity, while no other announced titles are known to be in development at the studio.
After unconfirmed rumours began to speckle the landscape of the internet regarding the possible closure of Swedish game developer GRIN, the news has unfortunately been announced that the company has indeed shut its doors due to “cashflow” problems, following the less than stellar reception of the studio’s last three games.
After twelve years spent working on games such as Ballistics, Bandits, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2 on the PC, Bionic Commando, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, and Terminator: Salvation, studio founders Bo and Ulf Andersson posted on GRIN’s website, confirming the closure:
You would have hoped that, ever since Midway and a sizable number of the company’s assets were bought by Warner Bros., news of corporate drama would be reduced by at least 80 percent, but unfortunately this is simply not the case.
It’s being reported that all 60 employees at Midway’s corporate offices in Chicago are to be let go, which represents roughly 20% of Midway’s worldwide. The affected employees have been given 60 days notice as of Monday this week, as the layoffs are said to be in effect from the beginning of September.
Midway’s head of corporate communications, Geoff Mogilner has confirmed to Gamasutra that the publisher’s UK studio, Midway Newcastle, has unfortunately been closed, affecting some 80 employees who worked there. Mogilner said:
“We can confirm that we closed the Newcastle studio unfortunately. We had a period of time that was required by UK law to notify the employees of the pending studio closure.”
“During that time, we made every effort to find a buyer for the studio, and we were unfortunately unsuccessful at that. Today was when we had to close the studio.”
It’s been revealed that all of the developers at Blue Omega, the team behind the recent third-person action shooter Damnation, have been laid off, following not only poor sales of the title, but a multitude of legal conflicts as well.
After two sub-contract developers (Point of View and Velvetelvis Studios) were hired to aid development on Damnation, Codemasters (who handled publishing duties) forcefully removed Blue Omega (the original developers) from the project via official documentation early this year – documentation that Blue Omega dismissed - while one of the sub-contractors, Point of View, would continue to work on the game.
Crystal Dynamics, the San Francisco based developer responsible for the resurrection of the Tomb Raider series, has been forced to let go a further 25 members of their staff, as a spokesperson confirms the bad news:
“We can confirm that Crystal Dynamics has made a reduction of approximately 25 people at the San Francisco studio. This decision is a reflection of the continued drive to focus resources at the studio.
“We would like to thank all of the employees affected by this difficult decision for their hard work during their time at Crystal and we wish them all the best in the future.”
This news comes after a rather tumultuous time for the developer and operating publisher, Eidos, after Crystal Dynamics saw layoffs due to an underperformance of their latest title, Tomb Raider: Underworld, while Eidos itself was acquired by Japanese gaming giant, Square Enix.
Source: Kotaku
It’s been revealed, by way of independent market analyst Wanda Meloni, that 8450 game industry professionals have lost their jobs since July 2008.
In a blog posting on industry site Gamasutra, Meloni says that 75 percent of the industry workers laid off since mid-2008 are from North America, making up for a whopping 6300 of the total, while the rest are formed from Europe, the UK and Asia.
Meloni also notes the tough economic climate, as a multitude of studios have closed over the last few months, while other studios are “on life support, operating with a skeletal workforce and actively looking for buyers,” writes Meloni.
The blog post does go on to suggest that there is indeed a positive spin that could be put on the dire situation, as Meloni says that “the talent is there” to go on to create a “Gaming Renaissance Movement” as laid off industry workers are able to form new studios with “creativity, vision and sheer grit.”
Be sure to read Wanda Meloni’s full blog post over here.
After the revelation late last month that THQ was set to either close or sell off Rise of Nations developer Big Huge Games, more bad news surrounding the developer has begun circulating, regarding lay-offs that have hit studio.
THQ have confirmed the lay-offs, but say they will continue with their announced plans for the developer, as a spokesperson relays the bad news:
“Yesterday, some of the staff were notified that they were not going to be part of the future direction of the studio. We are not providing exact headcounts at this time.
“We continue to pursue a sale of Big Huge Games.”
THQ have confirmed reports that internal developer, Volition, will see redundancies in their Quality Assurance department, as over 80 percent of that division will be let go. A THQ representative said:
“Today we notified 86 of the 102 employees in the Volition quality assurance department that they will be let go. Our quality assurance will now be primarily conducted through THQ’s centralized QA facilities, with a small staff remaining on-site in Champaign.”
These layoffs form part of THQ’s announced cost-reduction plans, and as such are not new, unscheduled company reductions. The spokesperson further clarified the positions of the individuals being let go:
“The layoffs include 47 temporary employees who will not be having their service extended. Unfortunately, fluctuating headcount among the temporary staff is common based on when our games ship. In addition, 39 full-time staff will be laid off.
“All laid off employees (both full-time and temporary) will be given at least sixty days’ notice. We will do what we can to assist them in finding work in the community or elsewhere in THQ.”
Volition are the developers of fan-favourites Descent and Freespace, while currently working on Red Faction: Guerrilla and continuing the Saints Row franchise in Saints Row 3.
Source: Kotaku
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