Video game companies are bad | Phoenix Labs sack circa 100 staff

Supporting My Local Mule Sanctuary Since 11/11/2014.

Monkey Man wrote:
PlayStation’s Visual Arts appears to have suffered layoffs

VISUAL ARTS HAS SUPPORTED SOME OF PLAYSTATION’S BIGGEST FRANCHISES

Among them, former senior level designer Daniel Bellemere wrote: ”Unfortunately, following a wave of layoffs last week was my last at PlayStation. While this is certainly not the news I was hoping for, I’m grateful to have had a chance to work amongst extremely talented colleagues on incredible projects and I’m leaving with good memories of my time there.”

Bellemere is based in San Diego, and was working on an unannounced project. It’s unclear if he was based at PlayStation’s Visual Arts Group, or Sony San Diego.

The San Diego-based Visual Arts Service Group was founded in 2007 with the goal of growing some of PlayStation’s biggest franchises.

Visual Arts Service Group was recently brought to prominence for its work on The Last of Us Part 1, work that reportedly saw the game be brought in-house at the original studio Naughty Dog to finish the project.

Another former employee, Matt Barney, wrote: “Goodbye PlayStation / Sony Interactive Entertainment, it’s been real! For the past few months, I knew this layoff wave was coming I love PlayStation & I always will… I mean, I stayed when I had the chance to leave, so obviously!

Other developers have posted on social media about their contracts with PlayStation’s Visual Arts Group ending, but it’s unclear if this was the natural conclusion of the contract term, or a layoff.

Rigging artist Sean Teo, who worked on The Last of Us Part 1, wrote on his LinkedIn page: “Hey everyone, my contract at PlayStation Visual Arts has unfortunately come to an end. I am currently looking for a new role and I am flexible with working on video games, cinematic films, and commercial work.”

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... d-layoffs/

They're making money handover fist with the PS5, this is strawberry floating outrageous. Thank christ the CEOs will get their bonuses though, phew.

Dreams and LittleBigPlanet studio Media Molecule is reportedly laying off 15-20% of staff

Dreams and LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule is to lay off 15-20% of its staff, according to a new report.

Sports Illustrated‘s GLHF says the studio held an internal meeting today and told staff that it planned to lay off around 20 of its 135 employees.

The news comes a month after Media Molecule ended support for Dreams, which was released in early access in April 2019 before officially launching in February 2020.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... -of-staff/

Monkey Man wrote:
Dreams and LittleBigPlanet studio Media Molecule is reportedly laying off 15-20% of staff

Dreams and LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule is to lay off 15-20% of its staff, according to a new report.

Sports Illustrated‘s GLHF says the studio held an internal meeting today and told staff that it planned to lay off around 20 of its 135 employees.

The news comes a month after Media Molecule ended support for Dreams, which was released in early access in April 2019 before officially launching in February 2020.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... -of-staff/

Never played Dreams but loved Tearway (Got both Vita and PS4 versions)

Great studio, hopefully this doesn't effect their next project and ends up with the studio closing completely. Hopefully as well those effected now land on their feet.

twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1719034212945109053

Got to pump those numbers for shareholder profits!

twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1719445792505647373

twitter.com/PaulTassi/status/1719409410148081950

that sounds brutal

Missing revenue targets by 45% is insane.

Destiny 2 seems to be rather messy in terms of understanding what is available and what to buy. It's probably all cool for folk who are into the scene but for noobs looking at the digital stores it's not straight forward. I bought Destiny 2 and an expansion but I believe that expansion was gotten rid of (which put me off) and then the base game was made free-to-start... but with multiple expansions added in various packs.

Far more important, of course, is that 100 people have now lost their jobs. Maybe the confusing structure of the game has contributed to this with lower sales.

I look forward to seeing how these constantly increasing video game development periods are improved by having less staff available to make them.

Supporting My Local Mule Sanctuary Since 11/11/2014.

Buy a company and then get rid of its most important 'assets', in order for a line on a spread sheet to go the 'right' way, makes perfect sense. Honestly strawberry float this industry.

Longer dev times, increasing costs, layoff’s….surely the industry is unsustainable if things don’t change.

2023 the worst year in gaming confirmed

Hexx wrote:Missing revenue targets by 45% is insane.

Isn't Destiny 2 6 years old now? Probably time to stop milking it....

Gaming industry job losses continue, with Ubisoft Montreal announcing that they're sacking 75 staff.

Eurogamer wrote:Ubisoft Montreal is the latest company hit by ongoing cuts as 75 members of staff have been laid off at the Canadian studio.

Eurogamer wrote:That's in addition to layoffs across the company back in May, which included employees based in the UK from Ubisoft's Customer Relation Centre team.

Indeed, the company's latest earnings report stated the company had reduced its headcount by over a thousand people over the past year.

Very difficult times for so many people at game development studios.

I don’t understand how there are so many layoffs, is this over staffing during COVID?

Shareholders and CEO's need all the money!!!!

Ubisoft has confirmed that alongside cuts in their Montreal team, cuts will also be made to their Global IT team, resulting in a total of 124 job losses.

Yeah but the new Assassin's Creed is a return to the old style of the series, so who's to say if they're good or bad?

Video game companies are bad | Phoenix Labs sack circa 100 staff

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