Mister Wolf
Member
Gotta cut the fat.
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Insider Gaming: 30% of Sledgerhammer Games has been laid off
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
How are you still running this line when they've pretty much killed the crash and spyro team lmao
Mr Moose
Member
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Sarah Bond. Matt Booty, Phil Spencer.
I remember this. How MS was going to "free studios from COD". Cutting 30-40% of the studio workforce just makes me think they're going to concentrate on nothing but CoD now.
The delusion of the Xbox Warrior Force was always amusing. Thinking that once Microsoft owns ABK, suddenly a bunch of new games would be greenlit, the entire back catalog would appear on Game Pass, and now with Microsoft's infinite resources and infrastructure, all these studios would thrive... the Call of Duty studios could finally be set free to create new IPs and revive old one.
only if they knew the worst is yet to come.
twilo99
Member
I also think that big boy Phil can handle everything on his own
Nydius
Member
The same thing Microsoft has always done. They did this long before they even thought of Xbox. I remember the days when they'd buy up small developers because said devs had something Microsoft wanted to integrate into Windows. Microsoft would buy them, add them to the staff, get what they wanted added to Windows, then shitcan the team that originally developed it.
Buying stuff then gutting the staff has been Microsoft's modus operandi for at least three decades.
Mr Moose
Member
The industry is a blood bath right now, there is a reckoning happening. It won't be long until we are paying $99 USD for games, or everything is locked behind a monthly subscription just to access games. This isn't just exclusive to Microsoft.
But Microsoft definitely doesn't need much encouragement to make cuts. Just another move to streamline, reduce costs and move to that sweet all digital future.
Executives keep winning.
But Microsoft definitely doesn't need much encouragement to make cuts. Just another move to streamline, reduce costs and move to that sweet all digital future.
Executives keep winning.
Mr Moose
Member
I'll wait for a sale.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
I'll wait till they're on gamepass
azertydu91
Hard to Kill
Yup they've been doing sony's job while Jim Ryan stood back playing lemmings.
Mr Moose
Member
AeonGaidenRaiden
Member
Their last two COD games were turds and MW3 as well. Again these layoff news are just drama bait. If you think that no other company, non-gaming isnt laying off workers you must be living in a parallel dimension. Coming here you would think gameing industry CEOs are bad...news flash, it happens everywhere. they don't fire people because they don't like them, they fire them to keep their costs down and profits up. Its called business 101, any industry or company can be affected by this if they are doing poorly.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
You have Gamepass?
Used too. Then they banned my ms rewards account for botting
AeonGaidenRaiden
Member
Oh I donno, maybe because they dont have a plan to keep 400+ people employed while no new Spyro or Crash game is on the horizon? Those two games have been out for years, keep them around for what exactly if they dont plan to make anything besides a Spyro trilogy remake. Maybe you thought there was a Spyro 4 coming but obviously wishing something doesnt make it a reality.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Hawking Radiation
Member
YeulEmeralda
Member
What studio has thrived since Microsoft bought them? Someone help me out here.
The delusion of the Xbox Warrior Force was always amusing. Thinking that once Microsoft owns ABK, suddenly a bunch of new games would be greenlit, the entire back catalog would appear on Game Pass, and now with Microsoft's infinite resources and infrastructure, all these studios would thrive... the Call of Duty studios could finally be set free to create new IPs and revive old one.
only if they knew the worst is yet to come.
Raonak
Banned
I see MS didn't fire their astroturf shill department
IAmNotFromDelaware
Member
I don't know this for a fact but I would assume a lot of their layoffs are mostly HR, IT, some mid level leadership, and very few people involved in the creative process.
At least that's what usually happens when large companies buy smaller companies. It just makes sense to remove employees who already exist in the big company. Again, I'm just guessing maybe I'm completely off here.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Completely off
cinnamonandgravy
Member
purchasing and mismanaging.
as is tradition.
it's like the middle eastern oil tycoon princes that order a dozen different supercars then forget to pick up a couple of them, fully paid and everything.
IAmNotFromDelaware
Member
Ah.....ok. Did you forget to post the link in your reply or was that it?
Cuz if you say I'm completely off without a reference, then you're just guessing like I was.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
You don't need to assume shit. We're seeing who's been laid off on twitter. Keep up
Mibu no ookami
Member
I think you've largely misunderstood.
Having to put the game on PlayStation doesn't mean they can't put it on GamePass. They can offer it to sony for PS+ as well, but there is no cost qualifier that works for Sony in that sitaution. It doesn't have to be free on PS+
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
easily the worst studio making COD games. How they even get allowed to take full control of annual releases on the same billing as IW and Treyarch making games is a mystery.
AeonGaidenRaiden
Member
Call me when you own a business instead of sitting in your man cave without having to worry about anyone else but yourself. Yeah, companies all over the world just keep unecessary staff lol.
Raonak
Banned
"Unecessary Staff" - corparate talk for we wasted 70 billion dollars and need to fire a bunch of people because we our studio management sucks.
Call me once MS fires you. I can point you along to some better companies.
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TransTrender
Gold Member
How's "Compulsion Games" doing these days?It's over for call of duty
Fredrik
Member
They’re doing it to not have the red numbers in the earnings reports to calm investors so the stock numbers don’t go down during a recession. Simple as that. It’s extremely short sighted. Nobody is going to want to be acquired now. It stops here. And devs will jump ship. Now the only way is down. And if they get rid of physical games for Xbox without a meaningful hardware upgrade from a new generation getting people hyped about something…
Well, good luck.
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The Fuzz damn you!
Gold Member
Rumor - Insider Gaming: 30% of Sledgerhammer Games has been laid off
Sledgehammer Games will be closing its main office in California to relocate to a smaller office space, Insider Gaming has learned. Following on from today’s news that Microsoft has laid off 1900 employees from Activision Blizzard, Insider Gaming understands that 30% of Sledgehammer Games...
Yeah, completely off.
They are custom-ruining their newly acquired studios just like they ruin all their studios. Look what Rare became after they were acquired, the list of ruined studios just goes on and on.
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Fredrik
Member
It’s short sighted like all mass layoffs and only done to make earnings reports look better. It’s never a good idea. Will lead to lower morale among those left, worse games because the collective skill level on the team is lower, more people will leave because they’re pissed or because they want to keep working with a buddy who will go somewhere else and say it’s so much better there, etc. Seen it so many times in other industries. It’s all about the money.
TransTrender
Gold Member
Maybe they're sabotaging CoD while Sony can still get it.
what would you do with unlimited free time and no income?
Felessan
Member
These people will mostly stay. And some people will do 3 people job instead of 2.
TheThreadsThatBindUs
Member
What they do best.
twilo99
Member
Ye, making money.
Stooky
Member
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Under normal situations, typically the company getting acquired gets the most layoffs.
Unless there is special reasons to prefer keeping them over the big head office employees from the acquirer, the bigger company's management and personnel will have a higher chance of sticking around when it comes to culling the fat. Maybe for game companies it's different, but for other industries the bigger company employees typically have more responsibilities and product lines to cover. And those bosses will upstage the smaller company so they will naturally choose to keep their own people more. Also, it makes sense to add to their plate the smaller company's tasks, then to do the reverse and keep the smaller company guy and tell him he's getting the big company's products and responsibilities tripling his work and expectations.
In this case, it's a weird one because Activision is huge with tons of employees compared to MS's gaming department. But company wide, MS is way bigger.
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Barakov
Gold Member
I'm pissed that a Hexen shirt was made just for that shitty xbox direct.And the absolute bellend does this. Dudes got played like a fiddle
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Raven Studios freed up to return to an indie scene on PC making an original new ip?
That would be a beautiful thing.
SEGAvangelist
Member
Dazraell
Member
Numbers has to look good for Q1 report
SEGAvangelist
Member
Rare was rocky early after the purchase but has become quite successful since Spencer took over. Obsidian seems to have done well too under MS. Double Fine put out their best game ever after the acquisition. Playground was already awesome, and continues to be. Mojang's success can't be denied. Most of the studios are up in the air, though. We'll see what happens with Ninja Theory soon. Undead Labs has had their issues. Compulsion has yet to release a game, but it looks cool. InXile's game looks interesting too.
On the Bethesda side, things look good overall. Thoughts on Starfield are mixed, but a lot of people did enjoy it. Tango put out an incredible game. Machine Games is working on something they're good at and Indy looks awesome. TESO and Fallout 76 are getting continued development, and we don't know much about id Software right now. Arkane Lyon seems set with Blade. Arkane Austin seems to be the real dud so far, but hopefully they refocus on what they're good at. Problem is what's left of the Prey team (and if they got hit with these layoffs)?