gamedeveloper.com

RedditWanderer, do games w Report: Unity continues mass layoffs with 'abrupt' communications and 5am emails

I was part of the first big wave and they hard warned us maybe potentially there might perhaps be restructing and “resizing”. We agonized for months waiting to know if it was our teams or no, if we had to look (this was before Unity nosedived and buddy quit).

I would have preferred it be abrupt I think

ArmoredThirteen,

I’ve somehow survived all the firings and restructurings so far. It’s a shit show over here. I’m trying to get through a few more months then I’m off to another country to go back to school

The agonizing hasn’t stopped for me I’ve just gotten used to it as a part of my day to day. It’s wild what they’ve been putting us through we need to unionize

LandedGentry, (edited )

deleted_by_author

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  • RedditWanderer,

    I’m in Canada so left on silver parachute due to mass layoff laws. The issue in most places isn’t the abrupt notice, it’s the shitty labor laws.

    I agree a no-reply email isn’t the way to go, but we shouldn’t be surprised.

    Skelectus, do games w Embracer sells Borderlands maker Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive for $460 million
    @Skelectus@suppo.fi avatar

    As much as T2 sucks, this is still probably a positive development.

    Manos,

    Until T2 decides to lay-off the developers because they only wanted the IP.

    RGB3x3,

    Take-two has always had the IP. 2K, a subsidiary of T2 has published every Borderlands game anyway.

    This won’t change anything because Embracer didn’t publish any or the Borderlands games.

    newthrowaway20, do games w Tim Sweeney says Epic Games Store is open to devs using generative AI

    Tim Sweeney ok with garbage games polluting the Epic Games storefront.

    ivenoidea,
    @ivenoidea@lemmy.world avatar

    At least then there’ll be more than just the stuff they bought on there.

    DocBlaze,

    I mean, their requirements are still more strict than steam. GabeN basically says as long as you don’t break the law or cause us to lose significant business from bad press (aka “straight up trolling”) with your game, and have $100 cash handy, you are welcome to shill your school project quality, my first Unity game shovelware here

    circuitfarmer,
    @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    Steam doesn’t pay for exclusives.

    Jimmycrackcrack, do games w It looks like someone at Activision is leaking Slack screenshots to right-wing X users

    Gee these men-children are going to be awfully sad when there’s no one left to make their games for them anymore and they have nothing left to do but face the shitty reality they’ve created.

    _sideffect,

    Um… The gaming industry did much, MUCH better before it was filled with activists.

    SPRUNT,

    Um… The gaming industry did much, MUCH better before it was filled with activists.

    Capitalists. The word you’re looking for is capitalists.

    _sideffect,

    Wrong. Gaming industry was doing fantastic before.

    el_bhm,

    Capitalism broke gaming twice already. Once in the 80s.

    _sideffect,

    Ah yeah! Games have been free since the 80s, I completely forgot!

    MothmanDelorian,

    There’s only one maybe two good video games not made by capitalists (Tetris and Disco Elysium).

    _sideffect,

    You REALLY need to look up what happened with disco Elysium then come back and use it as an example.

    MothmanDelorian,

    That’s why it is “one or two”. The guys that made DE weren’t capitalists. The guys that published and sold DE were capitalists.

    Regardless it’s an incredibly silly claim to suggest capitalism ruined video games when so few examples of good non-capitalist games exist

    _sideffect,

    Sorry I misunderstood your stance; yes you’re absolutely right

    Jaderick,

    By what metric? Business is booming.

    _sideffect,

    Yeah all those layoffs, mass studio closures, and over 15k game jobs lost(just in 24) sure do mean business is going great!

    caseofthematts,

    All of those are due to the drastic increase in jobs during covid. This is happening in many, many tech related careers. It is not because of inclusivity. Get your head out of your ass.

    _sideffect,

    That’s a factor, but it’s not the only reason, jackass. Look at the games that failed and how they were backed by activists, which led to studio closures.

    Ubisoft is mostly subsidized in Quebec by taxpayers, and they have their lowest profits ever because of activists as well.

    ArtemisimetrA,

    Or maybe it’s because we’re sick of assassin’s creed n², you numpty. Go seek to confirm your biases elsewhere

    _sideffect,

    Lmaooo Nothing to do with AC.

    Star wars flopped as well.

    umean2me,
    @umean2me@discuss.online avatar

    It’s because of their shitty horrible business practices, nobody wants to pay $100 for a rushed game and nobody wants to invest time into their 500th live service game that they’ll stop supporting in a year.

    _sideffect,

    That only relates to the price, not how terribly the game was made.

    umean2me,
    @umean2me@discuss.online avatar

    You would have to jump through a lot of hoops to conclude that activism makes you a bad game developer. If they’re exploiting their customers constantly to try to increase profit margins, they are more than likely exploiting their workers, who they have much more control over.

    _sideffect,

    Not really, all the current failures in gaming are attributed to activism in games. Dustborn, Concord, veilguard, etc

    umean2me,
    @umean2me@discuss.online avatar

    You’re telling me that a bland and generic Overwatch clone with character designs that were reductive to the groups they were supposed to represent failed because of activists? The games you listed didn’t fail because of activism, they failed because their “activism” was a marketing stunt instead of being actually progressive. There are plenty of games developed by people that care about those issues where they’re represented accurately and appropriately. Those games usually do well and win awards. Making a game where you meaninglessly and inaccurately pander to minority groups is not the result of activism, it’s trying to leech off of actual activism.

    _sideffect,

    Um… Yes? You’re proving my own point based on what you just wrote.

    The people that made Dustborn, Concord, etc, all wanted to push a narrative instead of making a good fun game.

    Activists, woke people, etc, are more than welcome in the game industry… As long as they keep that shit to themselves. Leave that idiotic nonsense at home.

    You get to work, you work to make a good product, and that’s it.

    umean2me,
    @umean2me@discuss.online avatar

    You’re missing the point of what I said. Concord and Dustborn did not try to send a message, they tried to get the profits they thought would come from associating with the message, and implemented it horribly. This is not activism. That would be like saying Instagram changing their logo to rainbow for a month is activism.

    As for true activism, video games are both entertainment and an art form. Saying to “leave that shit at home” is missing the point of artistic mediums in their entirety.

    _sideffect,

    That’s not true at all.

    Dustborn didn’t try to send a message? Did you even play it or watch videos on it? Go do that then come back.

    ICastFist,
    @ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

    Yea yea, it’s all sweetbaby and DEI fault and not corporations being greedy hellholes that only worry about quarterly profits since forever. /s

    _sideffect,

    Sbi needs to go back to the cave they crawled out of.

    Since when were corporations NOT greedy? It’s hilarious you think that it’s only now that they got greedy, lmao

    ICastFist,
    @ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

    Please point out where I implied that corporations got greedy “only now”. Hint: i said “since forever”, the implication is that they were always shit. Then again, can’t expect much from you.

    _sideffect,

    You don’t even understand what you said yourself, lmao

    RedAggroBest,

    Sounds like a “I liked Star Trek before it was woke” take.

    Adalast,

    Oh god, I “love” those people. Same as the guy who was pissed about how woke Rage Against the Machine had become. Like bruh… Seriously?!?

    _sideffect,

    deleted_by_moderator

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  • Whateley,

    Yeah, having a poc or queer character in your shitty video games is the biggest example activism since the Civil Rights Movement.

    Tedesche,

    It’s more about the messaging. The mere presence of a POC or trans character isn’t bothersome to most people. But when that character comes with dialogue lines that make the political messaging obvious, then they’re no longer a character that happens to be non-White or trans; they’re a political prop inserted into a game to send a political message, and that can be quite irksome when all you’re trying to do is play a fantasy RPG and escape from the world for a bit, even if you actually agree with the message.

    _sideffect,

    Exactly. Don’t lecture us about being trans or etc.

    We honestly don’t care. (Yes, a small percentage of people are actually bigots and hate gays/trans for being who they are). The rest of us just don’t want it shoved down our throats.

    It’s like making a game and having the main character proclaiming: “look how straight I am! Wow I sure do love women! I’m so straight and anyone who isn’t should do pushups”.

    Tedesche,

    And yet, from the downvoting here and everywhere else this comes up, it’s clear: some people can’t take nuanced opinions on topics like this. If you object in any capacity, you’re the worst possible objector.

    _sideffect,

    Because they’re all leftists/activists. They don’t know what sells games yet they scream and shout that it’s our fault that the games didn’t sell well

    Tedesche,

    shrug The Right does pretty much the same thing. It’s all fucked.

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    The rest of us just don’t want it shoved down our throats.

    and when you put storytelling of any kind that way, it tells me who you really are.

    no one is shoving anything down your throat sweetie, you paid your money for a game before checking it out. that’s your mistake, not the devs.

    _sideffect,

    You completely missed the point just so you can keep your ears and eyes closed.

    Keep living in your bubble and being angry at the world, it sounds fun!

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    Keep living in your bubble and being angry at the world, it sounds fun!

    lol you’re so isolated from reality you can’t even tell

    _sideffect,

    Keep living with your horse blinders on, bud!

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    you’re a sad little chud. gonna block you now, have a wretched life.

    ZeroHora,
    @ZeroHora@lemmy.ml avatar

    A bad written character is a bad written character, their dialogue could be about candies and is still a bad written character. This argument is bullshit, bad case of confirmatory bias.

    Tedesche,

    No, it’s not about the writing. It’s when’s a game feels like it’s preaching at you. Not the same problem at all.

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    The mere presence of a POC or trans character isn’t bothersome to most people.

    but some people LOSE THEIR ABSOLUTE SHIT over it lol.

    fuck em, let them die angry.

    inclementimmigrant,

    Such a moronic take based on absolutely nothing.

    _sideffect,

    Great counter argument, lmaooo

    inclementimmigrant, (edited )

    It’s the only response required when you don’t even have any evidence, empirical or otherwise, to back up your moroinc claim.

    Go away pigeon, you can’t play chess.

    _sideffect,

    Lmao, coming from a neckbeard, that’s a positive.

    You don’t even know how to speak in social gatherings yet feel powerful behind a keyboard.

    umean2me,
    @umean2me@discuss.online avatar

    There are plenty of record breaking games that have released while the industry has been “filled with activists.” Many of them are even about politics, like Helldivers 2.

    _sideffect,

    Yes, there are good studios, when did I say there weren’t?

    Stellar blade did amazingly. Good game, and no woke bs activists = profits

    KingThrillgore,
    @KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

    Stellar Blade had a stripper as a player character, and that itself created a meta dialogue about how every other video game doesn’t

    _sideffect,

    Have you even played the game? No, because you’re still crying that your activist games didn’t sell well.

    Play stellar blade and realize that it’s a fantastic game, combat wise and design wise.

    KingThrillgore,
    @KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

    I’d love to. If it was released on PC.

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    before it was filled with activists.

    and exactly when was this? lol

    when did all the activists take over. Pong?

    Colecovision?

    _sideffect,

    Are you delusional? Or just naive? Open your eyes.

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    so you can’t tell me when.

    because you know, it’s always been that way.

    what a fucking sad life that must be to lead, to know, yet deny it with every fiber of your being because you can’t accept.

    inclementimmigrant,

    Just down vote and move on. She’s just a troll with no facts or figures, she just wants your attention that Daddy never gave her growing up. It was either the pole or the troll for her.

    _sideffect,

    I provided plenty of examples and you stick your fingers in your ears to ignore it all.

    Lmao, typical. Your bubble is about to pop, thanks to trump. I’m here to watch.

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    yeah, you’re right, they’re just a chud.

    Your bubble is about to pop, thanks to trump.

    I mean, goddamn… chudtastic take

    _sideffect,

    You don’t even want to look. You think games are failing just because or capitalism which is the dumbest, leftist excuse that you always all give when you don’t have the knowledge to see what’s truly happening.

    Enjoy living in your angry little leftist bubble echo chamber.

    inclementimmigrant,

    Hey I’m going to have a discussion with you because honestly she’s kind of unhinged and needs to be back on the pole.

    Hey did you know that revenue from the gaming industry for the past 40-ish years went from 15 billion to 183 billion since 2022?

    visualcapitalist.com/video-game-industry-revenues…

    I do wonder where on that timeline woke took down the industry.

    Hey did you know baldur’s Gate 3, full of inclusion, sold 15 million copies? They went woke and made a shit ton of money making a great game.

    gamingbolt.com/baldurs-gate-3-has-reportedly-sold…

    Did you also know that marvel rivals, that somehow idiots think it’s woke earned 130 million in it’s first month. I mean that’s a whole other capitalism conversation but still.

    screenrant.com/marvel-rivals-earns-130-million-fi…

    I don’t know, I know pigeons can’t play and shouldn’t play chess but can they pole dance?

    mojofrododojo,
    @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world avatar

    you can see the publishers just going out of business because of all that woke money. oh wait. $184.3 billion. nevermind lol

    twinnie, do gaming w Game developers are still feeling the pull of last-generation consoles

    The difference between each generation of consoles is getting less and less. The latest jump doesn’t really give you anything the previous gen didn’t give you, it just has sharper graphics. The graphics aren’t even that much better.

    MelodiousFunk,

    I felt that way going from a 360 to XB1. More of the same, just shinier. I don’t think I’ve used my XB1 for anything except Rock Band in over a year. And the only reason I felt the urge to get a Series is that so RB loads in less than 10 minutes. (Well, that and Flight Simulator.)

    Nintendo and indies are the only things keeping my interest in console gaming.

    Agent_Karyo, do games w Report: Unity continues mass layoffs with 'abrupt' communications and 5am emails
    @Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world avatar

    They should have stuck to the engine business and not gotten involved in spam/adware schemes.

    Quazatron, do games w Epic Games is officially cool with the Internet Archive preserving early Unreal games
    @Quazatron@lemmy.world avatar

    Excellent that they don’t engage in Nintendo level community hostility and at least let people who care about old games preserve them.

    Stream goes one step further and actively maintains their legacy games playable. That is commitment.

    FinalRemix,

    Gog goes another step and provides a guarantee on stuff they’ve modified to ensure it works, and provide an offline installer that’s entirely self-contained for archviing purposes.

    Quazatron,
    @Quazatron@lemmy.world avatar

    I prefer to buy GOG when possible, Steam second. I even have some duplicated titles across vendors.

    Nuke_the_whales,

    Every dev and game company is out for your money. They all suck not just Nintendo.

    DacoTaco,
    @DacoTaco@lemmy.world avatar

    Eh, i wouldnt say they are better. They explicitly pulled all unreal games off all stores ( steam, epic store, gog, … ), killed all servers and when asked acted like unreal never existed. They are pieces of shit for doing it and they had no real reason in doing so imo…

    rtxn, do games w Embracer rolls out new AI policy to 'massively enhance game development' | Game Developer

    Embracer is a sickness, a malignant fucking growth on gaming.

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

    I’ve got so many companies higher up on my shit list.

    technomad,

    Name and shame them

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

    The worst:

    • Nintendo: Actively standing against game preservation and ownership in an attempt to rent you their back catalog forever; their outdated hardware exclusivity model also stands in the way of future-proofing preservation. They hate their fans, and don’t forget it. They’ll sue you for playing Super Smash Bros.
    • Riot: They normalized rootkit anti-cheats, and for something that extreme, it had better render cheating impossible, but it doesn’t. Purveyors of live service games, which also stand in the way of preservation and ownership by putting an expiration date on the game. For the sake of brevity, I won’t expand on the live service concept again in later bullet points.
    • EA: Making billions of dollars off of legalized gambling for children. Always-online DRM on games that otherwise never even need to touch the internet.
    • From here, you can put most companies that have reduced their library down to live service games for similar reasons as the above.

    These companies piss me off, but…:

    • Sony: Clinging slightly less to the outdated hardware exclusivity model and pivoted largely to live service games, but the writing is on the wall, so they may abandon one or both of those things in the not-too-distant future. Their new shenanigans with requiring PSN accounts on PC shakes my faith in that though.
    • Microsoft: Layoffs to rival Embracer, and not even a successful, acclaimed game will save the developer. Purveyors of live service games, not just from classic Microsoft studios but also from Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, etc. Still, they eventually bent to the whims of the market rejecting their Windows storefront for anything outside of Game Pass, and they did a ton to make PC gaming as good as it is today, including standardizing a good controller for it.
    • Epic: Exclusivity that’s actively hostile to what customers really want, purveyors of live service games, removing their classic games from sale from other stores and their own for basically no reason. But Tim Sweeney, in pursuing his own self interest to become king of the world, sometimes cries loudly enough to score a win for consumers, and Epic is going to be instrumental in any kind of change, in any country, for destroying walled gardens in tech.
    • Valve: Making untold amounts of money off of legalized gambling for children, purveyors of live service games, but they’re also basically the only ones creating open ecosystems and allowing them to flourish.

    Embracer’s pretty low on the “piss me off, but…” list. They made a horrible gambler’s bet and were surprised to have to pay the bill later, and they do have a few live service games in the bunch too, but outside of that, what they were going for is something I really wanted to see succeed. The big publishers stopped making a lot of types of games that they used to make as they honed in on a select few money makers, and Embracer was picking up old, discarded, forgotten properties or subgenres and trying to show that there can still be a market for those. The fact that the bet has failed could be up to their execution, since as Keighley reminded us at SGF, customers do in fact respond when the right games show up outside of those AAA publishers, and Embracer had a vision. They pursued that vision irresponsibly.

    rtxn,

    Riot was/is also a cesspit of sexual harrassment and discrimination, but nobody seems to remember.

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

    Good point. I don’t know how ongoing that is or if steps have been taken to improve things.

    technomad,

    That was a really excellent write up, thank you for elaborating. It’s helpful to know the truth of how these companies are acting, and important for consumers to try not to forget. They will continue to take advantage, if we allow it.

    Marketsupreme,

    What a sober fucking write-up. Bravo and thanks for the information.

    CosmoNova,

    And yet Tencent and whoever made Roblox are arguably even worse than those.

    Nobody, do games w Xbox president: Studio closures will ensure 'business is healthy for the long term'

    You see, our stock price goes up when we buy other companies and it goes up when we fire people. We’re doing both at the same time, so our stock price will go up double. This is a sustainable business model and not at all a very dead canary in a very deadly coal mine.

    Tick_Dracy, do games w Steam dropping support for macOS Mojave and by extension 32-bit games
    @Tick_Dracy@lemmy.world avatar

    This means that they will finally release a Steam app compiled for Apple M series architecture, right? Right?

    theangriestbird, do gaming w Epic Games is officially cool with the Internet Archive preserving early Unreal games

    I hate that we have to live in this world where something as vital as archiving the internet is a volunteer-based operation that requires permission from copyright holders. In a better world, the Internet Archive would be an international enterprise funded by mandatory contributions from UN members, and IA would have open license to archive everything. Maybe they wouldn’t allow regular users to access archived items that have active copyright, unless the items become inaccessible.

    realcaseyrollins,
    @realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club avatar

    Good grief that sounds horrible. I don’t want the government to be in charge of what gets preserved and what doesn’t.

    theangriestbird,

    I go back and forth on this. Clearly there are downsides to a service being provided by a government agency. But someone has to be in charge of it, and every option has downsides. Obviously a for-profit private venture is the WORST option. The current system of volunteer/nonprofit is great, but lacking in stability, funds, and power to push back against copyright. You could argue that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, I just think it would be nice if my tax dollars supported vital services like Internet Archive or Wikipedia.

    muhyb,

    It would be terrible if done by some government though.

    bblkargonaut, do gaming w Families of Uvalde victims sue Activision, say Call of Duty is 'the most prolific and effective marketer of assault weapons in the United States'

    Star wars has been effectively marketing me lightsabers for years, and I can’t even carve a turkey with mine.

    SkyNTP,

    If you could buy one, would you?

    bblkargonaut,

    Most definitely and probably be missing some limb by now.

    Sarmyth,

    💯

    numberfour002,

    Yeah, of course. I buy one towards the end of every November. It’s a Thanksgiving tradition.

    Contingencyfork, do games w Xbox president: Studio closures will ensure 'business is healthy for the long term'

    “You know, we’re a platform where you can play Grand Theft Auto but you can also play Palworld. Where you can play Call of Duty and can also play Pentiment. That doesn’t change,” she said.’ - yeah but now I can’t play HiFi Rush 2 :(

    Thcdenton,
    @Thcdenton@lemmy.world avatar

    You will when Micropenis puts out the sequel full of AI gen slop.

    Carighan, do games w Sega sells off Relic Entertainment, will axe 240 jobs
    @Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

    jobs will be cut at Creative Assembly

    Ha! Can’t cut down on the QA and testing stuff if there is none! Smart thinking, CA!

    Damn this sucks though. Happy for Relic that they escaped it, but Sega has been dropping the ball so hard lately, it sucks they take it out on their workers.

    caut_R,

    I feel like I haven‘t heard or read anything positive about CA since they did Shogun 2

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

    Did you miss Alien: Isolation, Three Kingdoms, and Warhammer?

    ICastFist,
    @ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

    You mean the near Paradox levels of DLC for Three Kingdoms and Warhammer? And selling blood as a fucking DLC for every Total War game since Shogun 2? Yeah, I’ve heard about it.

    The games are good, but Sega’s forced monetization is atrocious.

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

    Of those three, the one I bought was Three Kingdoms, and I was certainly not forced to buy more than the base game. Paradox’s DLC strategy is a-okay by me. Neither company puts a gun to my head to buy their DLC. Pretty sure blood is a DLC to get away with a lower age rating.

    UndercoverUlrikHD,
    @UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev avatar

    Eh, CA pretty much aced their DLC strategy for warhammer 2. It’s with Warhammer 3 that they fell of a cliff. And three kingdoms barely got any DLC before getting cancelled.

    Gork,

    One thing I didn’t like about Shogun 2 and all subsequent sequels was enforcing a limited number of armies by forcing a general to be present. The maximum number of armies you could field is naturally bottlenecked by your economy, so you should have the flexibility to use some non-generaled armies to bolster garrisons in key strategic locations. Instead, you need to use one of your scarce generals to defend it, which prevents them from being used offensively so they just sit around.

    pozbo, do games w Report: Bungie CEO blames layoffs on waning interest in Destiny 2
    @pozbo@lemmy.world avatar

    Sure the ceo is skilled enough to blame waning interest, but is the ceo skilled enough to ask why interest has waned?

    GoodEye8, (edited )

    To be fair I couldn’t tell you either. Destiny has been rehashing the same shit for years now but for some reason this year people finally got fed up. I can’t believe it’s just because they released a completely filler expansion but most of the other issues have been around from previous years.

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