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[zackmorris]

SCE Japan Studio already had a "reboot" with a new studio boss for that very reason over 2 years ago.
See here
Allan Becker is the boss there now.
Before he took control, SCE Japan Studio was a mess.
They had over 40 (!) projects going at the same time. Just imagine that!
Employees did what the fuck they wanted there.
See Ueda and his "hm.... let's see.... hm .... I like that, hmm.... let's change everything again....hm... do this, do that..... hm... let's scrap everything again" attitude.
So Allan Becker has a time table now for every project. Which makes sense, if you have a brain, common sense and you're running a business/company.
Ueda realized he has lost his "paid vacation" job and left for that very reason.
(now a freelancer)

Long story short:
SCE rebooted the japanese studios first (see SCE Japan).
Then, they did the same with some european studios (Cambridge, London Studio)
And in the end, some american studios had to change (see Sony Santa Monica Studio).

Yeah I know all that. You may say Ueda is a freelancer, but Sony is still paying him. They are still paying him and his team money to work on a game that should have been done years ago. I'm not sure what your point is. Doesn't really have anything to do with what I said.

 

[Nightengale]

I have witnessed periods between 3-6 months before some people updated their profile. Not very indicative I'm afraid except for a general picture.

Well, unless we're like element and have direct Facebook/contact details of many SP-devs, LinkedIn is still the best source when it comes to scouring the size of studios and the scale of lay-offs.

Twitter works too, but I count like 10 Sucker Punch devs actively listing their job bio on Twitter, and only a few like Jason Connel, Billy Harper and Josh Rife are quite active on them.

 

[Pound_lb003]

Yeah they were but let's not let sense get in the way of "Sony Sucks" posts

No... It's pretty simple, you don't staff up on the pretense that you're going to lay off.

If you DO that you should hire contractors.

To be honest I don't know how they get around it, it should be a law that hiring and letting someone go in a short space of time should cost more than a contractor.

Having said that, letting go of those Sly guys will have been expensive in terms of redundancy pay.

 

[dragonbane]

my guess is that they were overstaffed purposely to hit the deadline for second sons and now that they are going back to regular developmental pace they're cutting staff.

Only sucks for the senior employees.

Well, unless we're like element and have direct Facebook/contact details of many SP-devs, LinkedIn is still the best source when it comes to scouring the size of studios and the scale of lay-offs.

Twitter works too, but I count like 10 Sucker Punch devs actively listing their job bio on Twitter, and only a few like Jason Connel, Billy Harper and Josh Rife are quite active on them.

Yeah. Just saying we can't make any conclusions based of that alone.

 

[Nightengale]

Only sucks for the senior employees.

Given how volatile the industry is, sometimes I wonder how strange it must feel.

Studio : "hey, we hired this superstar lead designer who has shipped all these blockbuster games!"

Current lead designer : "Awesome, it'll be great to work with you!"

Studio: "well, the cycle of lay-off is here, and we don't need two lead designers... sorry, veteran, but you gotta go instead of newbie there."

Yeah. Just saying we can't make any conclusions based of that alone.

Naturally.

Jakobb Minkoff was listed as ND even as of last month even though we know he left ND months ago. ( his LinkedIn, Twitter and personal website was left unattended for 6+ months, it's like he went off the grid ) and LinkedIn is still counting Justin Richmond as part of ND's staff count, so it's not entirely reliable.

 

[cebri.one]

If they hire 20 people tomorrow. Will it make it to the news?

 

[Pound_lb003]

There might be news depending on when we find out who their new director of engineering is, in terms of new hires, that could be potentially notable.

In fact that listing only recently went down, maybe they decided not to hire someone else. Just seems strange as it was first to go up, and there's still other listings. It's not like they've stopped hiring.

 

[Steverulez]

If they hire 20 people tomorrow. Will it make it to the news?

Well if they made it known somehow that they were expanding (if thats what 20 people would be considered as) then yes I'm sure it would be?

Why?

 

[Rogue_Ledr]

DAMN! That's like a third of the company.

I still wonder why they chose now to have all these huge layoffs.

 

[Pound_lb003]

Well if they made it known somehow that they were expanding (if thats what 20 people would be considered as) then yes I'm sure it would be?

Why?

Trying to perpetuate the idea these layoffs are only reported on or noticed because it's an internal Sony studio, I suspect.

Which is not the case, layoffs get reported on whenever, Sony has just been particularly partial to belt tightening recently.

 

[JumpJeff84]

Was just playing Second Son last night. Fun game.

 

[Karl Hawk]

Well if they made it known somehow that they were expanding (if thats what 20 people would be considered as) then yes I'm sure it would be?

Why?

We don't hear employees getting hired in gaming companies as often as we hear employees getting laid off.

Granted, layoffs at gaming companies gets more attention than people getting hired at gaming companies.

 

[Bundy]

Yeah I know all that. You may say Ueda is a freelancer, but Sony is still paying him. They are still paying him and his team money to work on a game that should have been done years ago. I'm not sure what your point is. Doesn't really have anything to do with what I said.

Well, you were talking about "studio that do their work" and then you listed studios like Evo or Studio Japan, which aren't really "doing their work", according to you. So this was unfair to you, as it seems.
My point is: They were simply restructuring their WWC to improve them (quality-wise or financially-wise). First in japan, then in europe, finally in the US.
Has nothing to do with being unfair, etc.
It was simply time for some restructuring as it seems + games were finished.
For a "one game" studio, stuff like this happens.

 

[Salex_]

If they hire 20 people tomorrow. Will it make it to the news?

No. Guerilla Cambridge, SSM, London Studios, and Bend Studios were all hiring a bunch of people over the past few months and I don't remember seeing any articles about that or any of the people they hired.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

If they hire 20 people tomorrow. Will it make it to the news?

50/50