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[Chinner]

Riot has multiple projects going on. Let's just say that recent rumors about a card game were... Not less than accurate.

supposedly the working conditions there are not very good either.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I don't understand how anyone could say this happens all the time.

Can anyone show me one other time in any other major publisher where so many creative directors, the best of their studios, leave in the span of a month like they have at Sony cause I can't recall anything like this ever happening.

The only equivalent I could think of is what happened to Capcom.

In the last while, there was the whole Irrational games thing, Tretton, SSM, Any Hennig, Corrine Yu, Steve Balmer left, Double Helix games bought by Amazon, Richmond left, Col Rodgers left, Don Mattrick left, last year MS shut down their "MS flight" and "project columbia", a few months ago MS shut down its Victoria studio with 30 layoffs, go back a bit further and last year Activision had 30 layoffs, square enix had 20, Visceral games had 150, Valve had 25, Codemasters had 80, 200 over at Lucasarts, 150 at IO interactive, the list goes on. While i understand these few people with high status have left in a short span, its not really panic worthy IMO.

 

[Concept17]

Nothing is going down. People leave companies for other opportunities. Many people have left Microsoft as well.

It has become more and more common in the industry, and burnout is a very real thing, especially if you're working on one franchise for a long time. Given the quality level of titles from ND, I imagine many would get burnt out after some time.

 

[ShinobiFist]

In the last while, there was the whole Irrational games thing, Tretton, SSM, Any Hennig, Corrine Yu, Steve Balmer left, Double Helix games bought by Amazon, Richmond left, Col Rodgers left, Don Mattrick left, last year MS shut down their "MS flight" and "project columbia", a few months ago MS shut down its Victoria studio with 30 layoffs, go back a bit further and last year Activision had 30 layoffs, square enix had 20, Visceral games had 150, Valve had 25, Codemasters had 80, 200 over at Lucasarts, 150 at IO interactive, the list goes on. While i understand these few people with high status have left in a short span, its not really panic worthy IMO.

But those studios didn't have that nasty rumor of one of the staff members getting escorted out of the building(Like the Infinity Ward I believe). Down sizing happens, and I agree that people are overblowing the trimming that SONY is doing, and I'm happy they started doing that. But what's happening at Naught Dog is too much of a coincidence.

 

[Famassu]

People getting laid off, people leaving.. what the FUCK is going on with all the Sony studios?

Same kind of exodus happend during the early days of PS3, it just wasn't as well reported as they are now.

 

[Truespeed]

I've seen these patterns before. Sony is positioning itself for an acquisition - according to my tarot cards.

 

[Fredrik]

supposedly the working conditions there are not very good either.

Lol that would be hilarious if true considering they have this posted on their website.
"RIOT SCORES #3 ON GREAT PLACE TO WORK BEST MEDIUM WORKPLACES LIST"

 

[LookAtMeGo]

But those studios didn't have that nasty rumor of one of the staff members getting escorted out of the building(Like the Infinity Ward I believe). Down sizing happens, and I agree that people are overblowing the trimming that SONY is doing, and I'm happy they started doing that. But what's happening at Naught Dog is too much of a coincidence.

Naughty Dog must be really important to SONY though. I would imagine they would have done anything to keep these people unless they were positive they were not needed. Not saying something aint up, but I doubt its going to ruin the studio.

 

[Putty]

FamousMortimer has this to say:

@PSTrueGamer Orchestral Media who? He left because he was going to get fired. He decided to make an indie startup - which is smart.

...20+ yrs in the industry with nearly 400 projects completed, THAT'S who. Complete lack of respect to me, and to Col and pretty much everyone as long as he gets his fix. I used to like him, I followed him on Twitter but sorry, I don't follow trouble makers.

 

[Truespeed]

But those studios didn't have that nasty rumor of one of the staff members getting escorted out of the building(Like the Infinity Ward I believe). Down sizing happens, and I agree that people are overblowing the trimming that SONY is doing, and I'm happy they started doing that. But what's happening at Naught Dog is too much of a coincidence.

How many people have left ND? 2? Is that even 1% of their workforce? A lot of companies can only dream of that turnover rate. My guess is that changes were made for UC4, roles were shuffled and some people left because they didn't like their new positions.

 

[Kenshin001]

Mort, Col Rogers left Evo for personal reasons in Feb, he wasn't pushed, he left on his own terms, and certainly wasn't replaced and let go. I know this because he's a friend of mine, so please be sure next time of the accuracy of your information.

...20+ yrs in the industry with nearly 400 projects completed, THAT'S who. Complete lack of respect to me, and to Col and pretty much everyone as long as he gets his fix. I used to like him, I followed him on Twitter but sorry, I don't follow trouble makers.

Man, that is exactly why I take these "insiders" with a large grain of salt. That is damn shameful, borders on slanderous.

 

[Vire]

How many people have left ND? 2? Is that even 1% of their workforce? A lot of companies can only dream of that turnover rate. My guess is that changes were made for UC4, roles were shuffled and some people left because they didn't like their new positions.

To be fair, that's the equivalent of saying a prominent director on a film, say I dunno, Spielberg or Nolan, leaving mid production and then claiming "well it was only 2% of the production crew".

You have to look at who is leaving.

 

[EDarkness]

i do wonder why riot is sucking all this talent in. at the moment they're basically the league of legends company, they must have something else in development.

I'm wondering the same thing. They seem to be luring people in for some reason or another. I didn't know they did anything else outside of LoL.

 

[Brakke]

Riot has multiple projects going on. Let's just say that recent rumors about a card game were... Not less than accurate.

Can confirm multiple projects.

 

[Valnen]

This sounds disastrous. Two key people have left mid development.

 

[MormaPope]

Mort, Col Rogers left Evo for personal reasons in Feb, he wasn't pushed, he left on his own terms, and certainly wasn't replaced and let go. I know this because he's a friend of mine, so please be sure next time of the accuracy of your information.

...20+ yrs in the industry with nearly 400 projects completed, THAT'S who. Complete lack of respect to me, and to Col and pretty much everyone as long as he gets his fix. I used to like him, I followed him on Twitter but sorry, I don't follow trouble makers.

Damn.

Mort either needs better sources or stop spreading FUD on a personal level.

 

[Putty]

Man, that is exactly why I take these "insiders" with a large grain of salt. That is damn shameful, borders on slanderous.

Well some of the "insider" stuff is...interesting to read, but sometimes, well...I mentioned earlier i followed him on Twitter, he also followed me. #knowyourfollowers

 

[sono]

Positive Speculation: Perhaps when you are working on the 4th in a series it is time for a career change to avoid too much repetition.

Negative Speculation: Seems coincident with a lot of other senior changes, including Tretton - is there a common reason ?

 

[Yaoibot]

In the last while, there was the whole Irrational games thing, Tretton, SSM, Any Hennig, Corrine Yu, Steve Balmer left, Double Helix games bought by Amazon, Richmond left, Col Rodgers left, Don Mattrick left, last year MS shut down their "MS flight" and "project columbia", a few months ago MS shut down its Victoria studio with 30 layoffs, go back a bit further and last year Activision had 30 layoffs, square enix had 20, Visceral games had 150, Valve had 25, Codemasters had 80, 200 over at Lucasarts, 150 at IO interactive, the list goes on. While i understand these few people with high status have left in a short span, its not really panic worthy IMO.

You forgot the Bioshock Infinite studio shitcanning; and at least a few more. I can't believe the overreaction in this thread. Sony cleaned house last gen too and still picked up a new studio or two. Resources and staff move around all the time. The only speculation I might make is that the Uncharted departures were on account of another Barlog style Albatross that Shu or someone just said WTF to. You're only as good as yoir last success, and TLoU was universally acclaimed, so Druckman and co probably carry more weight and value on account of that.

Amy Henning was never that great of a writer either, its just that video-game writing has such a low threshold of quality that even grade school stuff feels like Shakespeare. That's my take, anyhow.

Edit: Wait, Irrational were the Bioshock people, I think.

 

[MormaPope]

You forgot the Bioshock Infinite studio shitcanning; and at least a few more. I can't believe the overreaction in this thread. Sony cleaned house last gen too and still picked up a new studio or two. Resources and staff move around all the time. The only speculation I might make is that the Uncharted departures were on account of another Barlog style Albatross that Shu or someone just said WTF to. You're only as good as yoir last success, and TLoU was universally acclaimed, so Druckman and co probably carry more weight and value on account of that.

Amy Henning was never that great of a writer either, its just that video-game writing has such a low threshold of quality that even grade school stuff feels like Shakespeare. That's my take, anyhow.

Edit: Wait, Irrational were the Bioshock people, I think.

Legacy of Kain man. If you think that's grade school material I don't know what to say.

 

[lupinko]

They got druckmanned.

http://youtu.be/LcGXR00x1ro

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

News: The game director just Left!

Me: It's just a little airborne! It's still good, it's still good.

 

[Truespeed]

To be fair, that's the equivalent of saying a prominent director on a film, say I dunno, Spielberg or Nolan, leaving mid production and then claiming "well it was only 2% of the production crew".

You have to look at who is leaving.

It's rare that the same director gets to make 3 sequels in a row. There's probably a reason for that. Sometimes the best way to shake things up and get a new perspective is to get a new director.

 

[Tripon]

It's rare that the same director gets to make 3 sequels in a row. There's probably a reason for that. Sometimes the best way to shake things up and get a new perspective is to get a new director.

You do that in pre-production though. UC4 has likely been in production for at least a year, and Sony has been pimping Henning and Justin Richmond as the leads of the game since the reveal last year. Fast forward 4 months and they're both gone?

Not even Hollywood fires directors in mid-production, they let them finish and take the loss on a bad movie.

 

[Kenshin001]

You forgot the Bioshock Infinite studio shitcanning; and at least a few more. I can't believe the overreaction in this thread. Sony cleaned house last gen too and still picked up a new studio or two. Resources and staff move around all the time. The only speculation I might make is that the Uncharted departures were on account of another Barlog style Albatross that Shu or someone just said WTF to. You're only as good as yoir last success, and TLoU was universally acclaimed, so Druckman and co probably carry more weight and value on account of that.

Amy Henning was never that great of a writer either, its just that video-game writing has such a low threshold of quality that even grade school stuff feels like Shakespeare. That's my take, anyhow.

Edit: Wait, Irrational were the Bioshock people, I think.

Great post. You seem to have mixed up Stig's game with Barlog's and don't know Irrational made BI. You are truly a fountain of wisdom.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

You do that in pre-production though. UC4 has likely been in production for at least a year, and Sony has been pimping Henning and Justin Richmond as the leads of the game since the reveal last year. Fast forward 4 months and they're both gone?

Not even Hollywood fires directors in mid-production, they let them finish and take the loss on a bad movie.

I hear ya but if Speilberg left mid production and James Cameron was going to take over I wouldnt be worried.

 

[ShinobiFist]

How many people have left ND? 2? Is that even 1% of their workforce? A lot of companies can only dream of that turnover rate. My guess is that changes were made for UC4, roles were shuffled and some people left because they didn't like their new positions.

True that...

 

[IAmRandom31]

Nothing is going down. People leave companies for other opportunities. Many people have left Microsoft as well.

They still got Corinne Yu so all is well in the world.

It's funny because back in December and January the Sony studios were growing and had stories of more growth coming. Killzone sells 2 million copies, the most of any next-gen title including Call of Duty and even Knack does respectable numbers. All looked well.

Then this slow trickle of news about layoffs and leads heading out the door. Naughty Dog, SMS are considered by many to be some of the finest places to work. No one expected people, especially the head people, to walk out the door. I think it is more of a shock effect of it even happening in the first place.

All will be well though of course. Once that first Uncharted 4 gameplay footage is shown, or even cinematic in game trailer, all this will be forgotten.

 

[Triple U]

To be fair, that's the equivalent of saying a prominent director on a film, say I dunno, Spielberg or Nolan, leaving mid production and then claiming "well it was only 2% of the production crew".

You have to look at who is leaving.

Yeah and looking at who is leaving, its more Michael Bays than Spielbergs.

 

[daniels]

Amy Henning was never that great of a writer either, its just that video-game writing has such a low threshold of quality that even grade school stuff feels like Shakespeare. That's my take, anyhow.

Dude ... :/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFiLNc46jAM

"Tumbling, burning with white hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the abyss. Unspeakable pain, relentless agony, time ceased to exist. Only this torture and a deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell. An eternity passed and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me. Yet, I lived."

 

[Neff]

Amy Henning was never that great of a writer either, its just that video-game writing has such a low threshold of quality that even grade school stuff feels like Shakespeare. That's my take, anyhow.

I agree. As a writer, you can go very far in this very young industry by being articulate and stuffing your script with purple prose, gratuitous melodrama and/or zingy one-liners, simply because nobody expects much more, and nobody really wants more either.

 

[Alienous]

Dude ... :/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFiLNc46jAM

"Tumbling, burning with white hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the abyss. Unspeakable pain, relentless agony, time ceased to exist. Only this torture and a deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell. An eternity passed and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me. Yet, I lived."

To be fair that reads like something I'd write at age 13 when I wanted to write something with a bunch of words.

 

[daniels]

To be fair that reads like something I'd write at age 13 when I wanted to write something with a bunch of words.

 

[Bollocks]

Nothing is going down. People leave companies for other opportunities. Many people have left Microsoft as well.

Yes and for a reason.
This doesn't look good for Sony.

 

[Kogepan]

Yes and for a reason.
This doesn't look good for Sony.

People change jobs all the time.

You really expect Naughty Dog to retain all of their staff? Their staff probably get really good offers all the time based on the success of their games.

 

[Kosma]

Riot has multiple projects going on. Let's just say that recent rumors about a card game were... Not less than accurate.

Wow that would be huge, especially if they have a bigger pool of cards then hearthstone and less of a grind

 

[Qvoth]

riot? wat?

 

[dr_rus]

I like the three uncharted games much more than TLOU. I am not even a huge fan of Uncharted to begin with.

You're not alone.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Let me just say that without going into details Sony is behaving like no other studio to certain theatres lately. I think they are really reevaluating every damn facet of their company.

 

[Interficium]

Naughty Dog to Riot is probably the biggest culture shock you could possibly comprehend, within the same industry.

Wonder how long he'll last.

 

[blazinglazers]

Let me just say that without going into details Sony is behaving like no other studio to certain theatres lately. I think they are really reevaluating every damn facet of their company.

This sounds interesting, if off-topic. Can you share a link?

 

[iceatcs]

Naughty Dog to Riot is probably the biggest culture shock you could possibly comprehend, within the same industry.

Wonder how long he'll last.

Yeah Riot games is so massive. Only LoL keeping them alive.

 

[Marvel]

To Riot? that's surprising...

 

[DemonNite]

Let me just say that without going into details Sony is behaving like no other studio to certain theatres lately. I think they are really reevaluating every damn facet of their company.

But that doesn't make headlines on IGN and Kotaku!

It has to be something more serious, like "The end of PlayStation?".

Anyway, it's Druckmanns fault

 

[paradise_circus]

Yeah Riot games is so massive. Only LoL keeping them alive.

LoL is massive and a pretty damn big cash cow.

 

[Ikuu]

To Riot? that's surprising...

Pretty surprising that someone would want to work for a company that makes (one of) the most popular games in the world.

 

[lupinko]

But that doesn't make headlines on IGN and Kotaku!

It has to be something more serious, like "The end of PlayStation?".

Anyway, it's Druckmanns fault

Quick alert gamescoops!

Lol jk

 

[Interficium]

Yeah Riot games is so massive. Only LoL keeping them alive.

Let's get this out of the way first, Riot is doing fantastic, they have real profits. LoL is not merely keeping them alive.

However, ND and Riot are completely different, culturally. While both take after Valve's flat structure Riot is over 4x the size of ND and is VERY production/producer driven, while ND has always sought to reduce production's influence.

 

[scsa]

Some thing smells fishy with people leaving left right and center.

 

[Terbinator]

Yeah Riot games is so massive. Only LoL keeping them alive.

Yeah, how bad can it be that your "only" output is the world most popular game that just keeps growing and growing. It's like saying Valve only have Steam.