Larian publishing director on mass layoffs: 'None of these companies are at risk of going bankrupt'

Speaking with Game File at the Game Developers Choice Awards, Larian director of publishing Michael Douse gave his take on the current state of the industry, including some sharp criticism on the wave after wave of mass layoffs we've been seeing.

[LG_Fox_Brazil]

My point exactly. These companies have to start wondering if it is so acceptable to pay 9 digits to CEOs instead of creating a reserve account for safety and to secure the company's future in the long run

[thorstein]

Layoffs have are a short term solution to a long term problem. If these companies don't have anyone doing the actual work, they can't grow. Profits have skyrocketed at the expense of the in the chair devs.

Those are highly skilled employees. The quality of AAA(A) games are going to plummet.

[Extermin8or3_]

Or it means they hired more people to meet pandemic demands. Demands that aren't as high anymore so they need less staff.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

layoffs were a thing before covid and covid hasn't been a thing for a good 2 years

[aaronaton]

Someone gets it, also interest rate were close to 0% during the pandemic, whilst they are above 5% now, at the time it seemed a no brainer to expand, but i think some companies took it too far.

[shinoff2183]

Larian has been killing it. They are saying all the right things and they are listening to fans. I'm extremely happy with their decision to actually doing a physical release was super dope. Alot of studios could learn from them

[anast]

The investors want their money. Let's deal with this issue along with the greedy management issue as well.

[jwillj2k4]

A lot of this stems from the players buying remastered/live service games. If companies can put minimal effort into making a product that sells well why not cut the fat? Games come out broken, drm ridden, incomplete and players still buy them. I have over 650 ps3/ps4 games and about 10 ps5 games. I’m still mostly playing ps4 games. The qualities gotten that bad (across the board). Make these companies start caring about their products buy voicing your opinions with your wallets and they’ll feel obligated to keep more devs on payroll.

[Tacoboto]

Gamers have their options.

We chose Hogwarts Legacy - WB wants MK1 and SS in spite of SS's failure. We chose BG3 - Larian doubles down and even rejects DLC that would've been basically free money. Naughty Dog rejected GaaS, Spider-Man GaaS got cancelled. Microsoft invests years into a short Hellblade 2, while expanding a positively-received GaaS Sea of Thieves and Grounded abroad. Ubisoft thinks Skull and Bones is AAAA, but that ship is sunk by Early Access Palworld and budget-priced Helldivers 2.

There are clear bad actors in the GaaS arena but some are doing it right while still balancing traditional experiences.

[shinoff2183]

The remasters isn't the problem. Atleast imo. Hell most remasters I'm glad have happened. Baldurs gate 1 and 2 dope, torment dope, commandos dope, hopefully suikoden soon dope, I could go on and on. Remasters arent the problem

[MrBaskerville]

Even the first remaster of Tlou was neccesary. Not of all of us has a ps3 ready to use.

Also Dark Forces, Quake, Doom and so on. I like that older games are finally being made available. It's a good thing.

[Tody_ZA]

Exactly, and I'll keep repeating the reasons these triple A games fail:

- Oversized budgets for unrealistic sales expectations
- Over staffed (I mean, did you read the instances of development chaos of Starfield due to the size of the team?)
- Bloat in game design
- Delays due to failure to meet targets
- Trying to make every game a franchise or have mass appeal thus over extending on advertising and marketing
- Succumbing to trends that don't fit the target audience of the game
- Alienating the target audience
- Poor release timing
- Mediocrity and cash grab games made without passion
- Milking franchises to death

Layoffs are simply a short term cure and in other instances like Sony or Microsoft it's consolidation for long term sustainability, certainly not indicative of anything falling apart.

[Demetrius]

I agree

[MrDead]

Yep, a lot of that but also the way large publishers have to operate. AAA games are failing because of shareholders, marketing, producers, CEOs and large TRADED corporations not able to grow. Stacks of cash, just not more cash so job cuts.

Marketing researchers and producers are the ones that add the sterile elements that are demanded by the CEOs, the people that make and write the games then have to butcher the vision to add mass appeal, microtransactions and season passes.

This is why I support third party exclusive support over buyups, you keep the studios independent, games release truer to their original vision (Steller Blade, Helldivers, etc) and the industry healthy for the workforce instead of servicing the wealthy and shareholders.

[MrDead]

Meant to say executive producers.

[WolfSeed]

It's clearly a substitution of AI's new capabilities. It'll get worse before it get better, as new features are implemented. Mark my words.

On the bright side, more and bigger games will be published with less required developers.

[Inverno]

I hope the guys don't live long enough to see themselves become the villain. But this guy's has been saying all the right things in my opinion, and I hope they keep that attitude and their next game is quality and is successful. The industry needs a company showing that the opposite can be done and still succeed.

[shammgod]

Yeah, but the CEOs need another lake house. Think about the CEOs!!!!!

[RhinoGamer88]

The risk is the Executive team not getting their bonuses and stock grants. Pure greed by the leadership that failed their staff.

[Demetrius]

Exactly smh

[kaos89]

Unfortunately stock holders are the reason for layoffs, if a company does not post growing revenues quarterly and yearly to make stock holders happy they will resort to layoffs to show they are trying to save the company money By having less people do more work... Stock holders cause layoffs when things are not booming with infinite growth during tough economic times, it sucks. BTW infinite growth is an illusion.

[hard joe]

if you want to pay CEOs more
you gotta lay off workers
where do they think the increase is from?
it's from workers' wages

[TiredGamer]

The game industry is in a period of consolidation after publishers went all-in during (and even before) the pandemic. The reality is that the market hasn't grown significantly, and ROIs have actually eroded due to the declining dollar, inflation, and competing forms of entertainment and subscription models. Publishers can see that continuing to pump more and more money into their projects is futile, and there is a sense that a pullback, both in scale and quantity, needs to happen.

The market is simply too oversaturated and the costs of doing business are greater than ever. Layoffs will continue until there is a sense that a "balance" has been restored, and this balance may come in different forms. My bet is on the retraction from AAA games towards smaller AA and A experiences that will cost exponentially less to make, and this makes sense with the wave of layoffs that is happening.