Aren’t layoffs the norm for the games industry? You hire a bunch of people to make your new AAA title. A few years later, the game is out and the bugs are fixed, and now you don’t need all these employees anymore. Rinse and repeat when you’re ready to make the next AAA title.
Not defending the practice, but developers shouldn’t be surprised when they’re laid off after the company deems that they’re no longer needed.
Unions don’t stop lay-offs, but this is still a strong move and probably the most likely to succeed. CDPR needs to find new income now that they don’t have a game on the horizon, so they need devs to produce.
Literally, the power is in the devs’ hands here. CDPR’s only option is to either work with the union or lay them all off and then not release any new products and go bankrupt.
Hopefully, it spreads to more European countries and becomes normal business for games to be made with unions in Europe
keep in mind, CDPR isn’t just a game studio, they own GOG, so not releasing a game doesn’t necessarily get then at 0 income. Although not as big as valve of course, thats like saying valve would be broke if it didn’t release games (and it rarely releases games nowadays)
eh no. it’s not like saying that at all, as you point out yourself, they are very different in terms of scale.
However we do have actual data here, because CDPR is publicly traded and produces financial reports. according to their Q1 financial report, gog had a net profit of around 56k euros. this is after it’s big comeback from being “unprofitable” in 2021, where they basically moved everyone out of gog and onto other projects or laid them off.
So we are talking about a situation where CDPR would have to lay off everyone aside from the few gog employees that are left, and exist as a shell company that just pays the hosting bills.
this is not “like saying valve would be broke if it didn’t release games” as valves primary source of income, is not making and selling games, it’s getting 30% of 99% of game sales on the pc platform via steam.
Their games often don’t work as well in multiplayer, at least not with steam users where the majority of my friends have their games. Along with this, it’s a pain getting steam workshop mods working
Their bundles kinda suck without sites like Fanatical or Humble offering gog codes
That said, I do buy from them when it’s an older game like heroes of might and magic (goes back to the site’s roots as Good Old Games I guess). Or when it’s a single player experience without a lot of mod support, like Jrpgs
GOG is barely profitable, though, and that was back when CDPR was the golden child of the games industry. I don’t think it counts as much of a revenue stream for the company.
One issue is that unions have failed to globalize while industries have. CDPR could simply chose to bypass the union by opening a dev studio in a country with no or less union presence.
Given the recent wave of layoffs in the game industry, they’ll have no shortage finding capable people.
i don’t buy into this defeatist attitude at all I’m sorry.
to do that without working with the unions in good faith, they would have to lay everyone off then meander for a few years rebuilding somewhere else. it’s not a quick process. and then probably release something of even lower quality than their recent releases.
the only way to do what you are saying is to work with the unions for the current projects and work to build non union studios for future projects. which unions would probably fight.
It is worth understanding that, at least historically, CDP is a lot closer to “Polish Electronic Arts” than a dev studio. Not sure how that has shifted over the past decade or so and the new approach to localization and distribution.
I doubt they are going to shut the doors and move. But it is a possibility. Just cite that the CP expansion hasn’t sold well enough and they were still recovering from the initial bomb of CP and that they were counting on that Witcher 1 remake and it is a hard time financially and they would be operating at a much smaller capacity while they reorg. Do layoffs that are legally legit, and then reopen elsewhere citing concerns over geopolitics.
But yeah. My money is more on satellite studios that eventually become the primary. Takes a few years longer but drastically reduces union power and gives a warning to the industry as a whole. And is generally the solution in these situations.
I’m not trying to be defeatist. I’m just advocating for unions to stop focusing on the local aspect. Transnational cooperation is what is needed in unions today.
Something which larger unions, such as the steel and car industry unions in Europe have been trying (and mostly failing) to do for almost two decades.
Companies, by and large, have used the globalized economy to sidestep local action for almost 30 years now.
Ignoring this is simply a recepy for repeating the mistakes of the past. Especially in software, where there is no physical production equipment at all, and in games, where talent and labour is plentiful.
Unless you have an organization that reaches as far as the companies you’re trying to bring to the table, you will simply be outmanœuvred.
You also overestimate the level of union participation if you think they would need to lay off everyone to break a union strike.
Feel free to tell me I’m wrong, but I’ve been through the proces twice, both involving union action, both in the software industry. Once as part of the workers delegation to the negotiating table. Dismiss a company’s ruthlessness or resourcefulness at your own peril.
Local unions can only hope to hold off the axe until current projects where the required know how can not be rebuilt or transfered in time are done.
Devs are not as easy to replace as factory workers, EU and US/CA software talent is top tier. I’d imagine even factory workers aren’t so easy to replace these days.
Honestly, blacksmithing isn’t that hard. And the video in the article looks like it was cold sheet steel work over a form and a few rivets, so a few hours’ work for a beginner. Even basic forge work is something you can learn in an afternoon.
For cold work, you need a hammer and some hard object. That’s it. Anvil, swage block, piece of rail, random scrap steel, or even a hard rock. That’s it. It’s really not expensive at all, unless you’re buying a whole bunch of brand new unnecessary stuff.
I started out with a rail-anvil I bought for $67, a few hammers and peens for $40, tongs for $20, and a forge for $140. That was more than enough to get started. If you live somewhere that that’s a lot of money, you probably also have a guy in the area who does similar work and has extra tools, and your biggest expense will be fuel for hot work.
Someone should gift them all copies of Baldur’s Gate 3 so that they too can experience the premier sound design in the latest installment from Wizards of the Coast® Dungeons & Dragons™.
For me, I don’t care how easy or difficult it is. To me, it’s about them doing it. I don’t remember hearing about other sound designers actually learning the skill to help his creativity with the sound design. Everyone can get online and learn to code, do graphic design, and even study to be a lawyer. Not everyone does. That’s what I mean in terms of commitment. I think it’s dope.
I’d be up for it! Though I hope they do some more grotesque bosses. They were the coolest parts of the first one, and the second one was a lot more tame for the bigger bosses.
I think it implies the company is continuing on but that job is no longer a position at the company. Redundant or unnecessary as opposed to a position that they intend to fill again, as you would with a firing.
Yeah, layoffs feel temporary (like furloughed government employees). I dislike both terms though, I prefer “downsizing” or something like that to clearly indicate that it’s not temporary and your job wasn’t worthless, it’s just that the company needs fewer people employed to meet budget targets.
Something that is redundant is not needed, it’s a descriptive term. Layoff is a relatively recent US euphemism meaning relax or rest which became associated with non-working periods for seasonal work then evolved to cover redundancies. The US term is the weird one here.
To me, “redundancy” means someone you don’t need, as in, their job is worthless, and “layoff” means the company can’t afford to keep everyone, so they’re temporarily reducing the workforce. What we see so often isn’t either of those, it’s just headcount reduction or downsizing.
Redundant doesn’t mean worthless. It means that you have a duplicate or something, or someone is already doing the job that you are doing. Your work still is worth something, it’s just not needed anymore.
I’ve been wondering what’s going on over there. Ghost Town Games have been radio silent about Overcooked for quite a bit now. I hope the issues are just limited to their publisher
This is the second article today where I saw Todd Howard talking about severely nerfing aspects of the game. Earlier this morning I read an article saying similar things about the space suit system - initially they were going to be a lot more punitive on what you can and can’t wear based on environmental conditions, so you’d need a suit for cold, a suit for toxicity, a suit for radiation, etc.
Also read about the spacesuit thing just today. The planet thing at least would’ve made more sense to all the spacesuit bits. It’s pointless and a bit confusing now, I just ignore it and repair whatever damage I receive which the spacesuit article made it sound like that is intended. The little hazard UI thing is so bad, and why doesn’t the aid section use the same icons as the status section. Hate having to dig around to find the right treatment in my inventory (slowly just grabbing snake oil whenever i find it)
Ah well still enjoying it at around 100 hours played, but you can see where they’ve had to cut back on systems all over the place.
Yeah the hazard warnings are pretty useless now, because they’re not actually that dangerous or meaningful. I didn’t even know that it caused damage, I guess I haven’t been on a severe enough planet.
The annoying one is Frostbite, especially on some story missions where you keep getting it while the characters blab on and on. Other than that i’ve either run thru a steam vent, broken my lags boosting wrong, or sometimes sandstorm lung damage.
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