Summerfall Studios co-founder David Gaider speaks in favor of industry unionization and his studio's four day work week.
Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams blasted execs behind layoffs as "greedy, greedy people."
Wccftech interviewed Nathan Yu from Inworld AI to discuss the dynamic NPC tech's applications to games as well as potential issues like costs.
Saad from eXputer: "After Arkane Austin & Tango were shutdown, Xbox President Sarah Bond spoke with Bloomberg in what I believe to be utter corporate fakery."
im not really surprised by that, shes always been more a "let me talk about something else than what u want to know" kinda gal
"Shareholders" I call them cancer, they are already rich to begin with but need more and more. It's like a disease, with no cure.
If you have a pension then you are likely to be a shareholder in these big tech companies yourself. To demonize them as 'heartless rich people' shows you have no idea what you're talking about.
I own shares in game companies. I'm not anything near a major share holder. I just want them to make good games and be successful because of that. I think it's the senior management that's the problem. They are the ones that should be making it clear to the shareholders what creates growth and ensures a future of their business. Not this weasle words garbage that she did on the interview. It was horrific. I don't know a shareholder that would be happy with any of them for this.
Same and I'm not rich by any stretch like most people's I'm just trying to keep my head above water these days most company's shareholders are made up of everyday people it's amazing how companies think we want something but the reality is we don't.
Disney are probably the worse at the moment it's shareholders voted on ending a lot of the crap and outing the current execs the execs turned around and said no we disagree with the shareholder vote
I meant at the rich fucks who have millions in the bank already. They are making so much per year, that if they don't make what they are expecting they go into a panic, when in reality it will not even hurt them at all. Those are greedy assholes.
"you have a pension then you are likely to be a shareholder"
Pensioners don't make any decisions about anything. Obviously that is not what this is about.
Yea, it was and it’s insulting that they think we’re dumb enough to fall for this. Look, the truth was you took a gamble on these studios and while they released some games to critical praise and great reception they just aren’t bringing in a ROI. Be transparent, you’re not a politician.
Just tell everyone you spend money on projects big and small and when money isn’t being made you go over the potential of revenue a studio can bring in vs those that can’t and make the hard decision to chop them.
She says this whole thing about “success” doesn’t fit one meaning for each studio. Well yea, a small budget production isn’t going to expect to sell the same as a large budget production.
One thing I wish they did though was let Tango be an independent studio.
disheartening to see no regard for the human cost of business anymore
the bad decisions and judgements of these CEOs severely impact the frontliners
these fake responses are just salt on wounds
imagine havin the audacity to say "we need more games like hifi rush" right after closing the studio that made it lol
followin up with this show of "deflecting every question" was in poor taste
Firaxis veteran Jake Solomon hasn't seen mass layoffs like this in his whole 25-year career.
Alot’s changed in 25 years. We have games with $300 mill budgets, people not interested in games other than Fortnite and Minecraft, the older generation of gamers giving up the hobby or dying off, a period of super bad inflation where the industry decided to hike up prices on games, Gamepass harming game sales, GaaS games being pushed left and right with obnoxious monetization and worse looking/playing (Suicide Squad vs Arkham Knight).
The industry is just shite right now. Games ain’t selling, games cost massive amounts, businesses can’t bleed money and this is what happens. Part of it is on them and part of it is on consumers not buying.
Consumers ain't buying because of what they're selling; There is no new SSX or Burnout, everything is now Online Required, everything is 'service', etc.
Indies are still delivering the goods, perhaps even better than ever, because those are often the guys and gals who know what they want to make and just make that and hopefully we dig it as well and support it ...
... but when you look at those multi-million budget AAA games, are they improving on what we have had before? Is the new Forza Motorsport better than a Forza Mototsport 4? Is Halo Infinite better than Halo 3? Is Dragon Age 2 such a huge improvement over the first Dragon Age? Etcetc.
Yeah, graphics have gotten better, worlds have gotten better, but I think a gaming generations stands or falls with diversity and experiences, and a few gens ago we had access to whatever we wanted, so if we wanted a boxing game we picked up one of the boxing games, if we wanted snowboarding we'd pick up one of the snowboarding games, if we wanted to do a rythm game we had DJ Hero, or Guitar Hero, or Rockband. If we wanted to sneak around we had Splinter Cell or MGS or whatever.
We had variety and we had options, and that makes or breaks a generation, imo. You're in a foodcourt of games and they're serving all kinds of different cuisines, and so you'd pick and choose whatever you felt like that day.
Right now, you're in a restaurant, and you're only allowed to pick from one menu, and there's a dress-code, and you have to register, and you have to stay in your seat, etc etc.
Well with people it depends on which studio are we talking about, Rockstar can hold a live execution and someone will say "I also got executed in my job it's alright"
Sometimes developers want to work overtime because they are passionate about what they're creating. No one should be forced to do it, but it shouldn't be frowned upon. Keep crunch going for those that want to do it, but don't ostrasize others in the dev team for choosing not to.
I’m so tired of this argument. I hate to break it to you people who still live in your parents house, but in the real world people work overtime. I’m a coatings technician and I work 70 hours a week to take care of my family. I’m so sick of companies getting ridiculed for expecting hard work from their employees. When I hired in to my company they made it clear there would be overtime and I agreed to it so it is what it is. The attitudes of people born in the last 25 years is everything that is wrong with our country. How about instead of getting paid nothing to be an advocate for laziness and government support of everyone who has “depression” you actually do something productive.
PS
If you’re so appalled at these companies then stop buying their games.
The entire industry just seems like a problem is been eating itself since lockdown ended globally thinking that this infinite growth was forever and making investments on the back of that.
Now everyone's back to their normal lives games are still popular but since people can get outside they still obviously decline.
During lockdown globally people were playing live service titles constantly as a form of socialising now that's not as needed and despite still being popular they are declining yet every publisher is banking heavily on them. I don't play live service games much but during lockdown like everyone else I played warzone with friends every weekend for hours on end as a social activity
I'll be honest this last few months I've spent far more time playing earthbound on NSO for the first time than my ps5 which I haven't really touched since Spiderman 2 and re4 VR late last year. To me this generation feels like an everlasting dry spell broken by the occasional good game but followed by another long stretch of nothing.
Point is these live service games seemingly take more resources and manpower to develop they rely on crunch and exhausting employees to breaking point with a traditional game that ends or slows down at launch but a live service game that's where it only ramps Up
Wake up. Lots of businesses and corporate jobs deal with overtime especially when it comes to deadlines. Shut up with this bullsh*t.