EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: layoffs
Following quick-fire rumours (and denials) late last year regarding the shaky future of id Software and the continued development of DOOM 4 (or ‘the next DOOM game’), it’s been confirmed that a number of developers have been let go from the studio.
As has become du jour, the news sparked on Twitter as 3D artist and Polycount.com editor Adam Bromell posted:
It’s just been confirmed that the developer behind racing games Pure and Split/Second, Black Rock Studio, is set to close its doors, following staff reductions at owner Disney Interactive Studios earlier this year.
The news arrives as a result of Black Rock Studio’s next game failing to get the green light for production. An official statement from Disney read:
A perfectly good day had to go and be ruined by an awful round of news from the world of game development, didn’t it?
It’s been revealed that the New York-based Homefront developer Kaos Studios is shutting down, while UK-based studio THQ Digital Warrington will suffer the same fate.
Reports started to fly around very recently regarding layoffs at SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive, and Sony has unfortunately confirmed these reports, attributing the redundancies to “normal business practice.”
During this week’s episode of the El33tonline Podcast, Lisa, Oliver, Tom and debut (official) guest Wayne dig into the games that they’ve been enjoying over the last few days including Crysis 2 (singleplayer and multiplayer), a handful of 3DS games, Yakuza 4 and Top Spin 4.
We also discuss the week in videogame news with topics ranging from the new Xbox 360 disc format and new game announcements (like Resident Evil and Spider-Man), to major studio layoffs and game cancellations.
As always, we also let you know about the massive range of competitions currently open on El33tonline for you to enter, so that you stand a chance of winning fantastic games and prizes!
It’s packed!
Listen in to the El33tonline Podcast for the week of April 4th, and let us know your thoughts on our thoughts below.
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Following in the wake of similarly upsetting news regarding redundancies at Sony Online Entertainment’s range of in-house studios, THQ has today confirmed that layoffs have hit two of its developers – Kaos Studios and Volition.
16 employees at the Champaign, Illinois-based Volition Inc. have been let go in an effort to “adjust [THQ’s] workforce to fit the studio’s current needs, which is a relatively common occurrence in the game development industry.”
Following rumours and reports across the internet recently, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has confirmed the closure of its development studios in Denver, Seattle and Tucson.
As a result, 205 employment positions at SOE have been made redundant while the long-in-development massively multiplayer online action game The Agency has been cancelled in order to “focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games.”
Following frantic internet rumours and reports that Activision had laid off a number of employees across at least two of its internal studios, while cancelling two high profile projects currently in development, the news has just been confirmed by Activision proper in the publisher’s latest financial report.
According to a number of reports doing the rounds, Disney Interactive Studios has begun a company restructuring process and will aim to realign its efforts in the videogame publishing arena by focussing on digital distribution and online games, rather than packaged goods games for retail.
“As part of setting a strategic direction for future success in the digital media space,” read a statement to Variety, “the Disney Interactive Media Group today began a restructuring process.”
This new direction obviously puts major questions over the future of Disney’s current game studios, including Junction Point (Disney Epic Mickey) and Black Rock (Split/Second), and it seems as though some of those questions have already been answered with reports of layoffs across the company.
High Voltage Software has confirmed reports that 25 employees were recently let go, just one month after the release of the studio’s Wii-exclusive fighting game, Tournament of Legends.
Speaking to IGN, a studio representative said:
After unsubstantiated rumours of redundancies at Rockstar’s San Diego offices (responsible for this year’s Red Dead Redemption), Rockstar itself has confirmed that a “typical” round of layoffs has taken place at the studio “in order to continue to develop games as effectively as possible”
Studio Manager at Rockstar San Diego, Steve Martin, wrote in a statement:
Developer of the acclaimed Civilization series of strategy games, Firaxis Games, has been affected by a round of staff layoffs, as 20 members of the 130-strong team leave the studio.
Firaxis owner Take-Two said that the cuts were made to “maximise the overall performance of the studio,” and assured fans that work on neither the upcoming Civilisation V, nor the in-development Civilisation Facebook game, would be affected by the layoffs:
According to internal memos obtained by LA Times reporter Ben Fritz (and later confirmed by an Activision spokesperson), Activision Blizzard has quietly gone about reorganising its internal structure to effectively divide itself up into four discrete segments, each focussing on its own brand and market.
A single division will focus on Call of Duty (as noted in the recent Infinity Ward scuffle), another will handle owned properties such as Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk, yet another will centre around licensed properties (such as games based on movies, cartoons and comic books), while the fourth division will be the independently run developer, Blizzard Entertainment.
Japanese developer Cing, creator of fan-favourite titles such as Another Code, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Little King’s Story, has filed for bankruptcy in Japan after suffering liabilities totalling roughly $2.9 million.
The liabilities, described as “insurmountable debts that the company will never be able to pay,” resulted in the filing being made on March 1st, and almost certainly brings to an end the studio that was founded in April 1999, and comprised less than 30 staff members.
It would certainly be a nice gesture if, say, Nintendo, swooped in and came to the rescue on this (seeing as how Cing have created some great showcase titles for the publisher’s platforms), even if that meant Cing became an internal developer, but I don’t see that happening, unfortunately.
[Update] According to Vince Zampella’s Linkedin profile page, it appears as though he has now become the ex-Studio Head and CEO of Infinity Ward, and has left the company, following fellow co-founder of the studio, Jason West, in leaving the developer. [End of Update]
When most people were focussed on the drama of the PS3 and PSN lockouts, a drama of another type was playing out at the headquarters of Call of Duty developers, Infinity Ward.
The story begins yesterday, when frantic, “freaked out,” and “confused” messages began spilling out of the studio from developers currently working there, as a “bunch of bouncer-types” (which I can only take to mean muscle-bound ‘henchman,’ or security guards) showed up outside of the Infinity Ward offices unannounced, after what insiders at the studio describe as a ‘tense’ time between publisher and owner Activision, and Infinity Ward.
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