Some of these testimonies read like a bad saturday morning cartoon. I cannot even fathom how people like this CEO can even exist and land into such a position in this day and age.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Twitter: "All Aeon Must Die devs quit the studio this week after crunch and not getting paid, the trailer was outsourced"(UP: Actually quit June 22th)
- Thread starter AuthenticM
- Start date
This whole situation is horrible. I am a dev and also a someone who actially leads a studio of a similar size so this hits home hard.
It must be said however that the CCO testament, while heartbreaking, is full of terrible decisions, which have made this worse for him. The part where he agrees to hold his apartament as a collateral for the investor to happen was difficult to read. Also bank rolling stuff from his own pocket and then signing off the control of the company he was a founder of. Uh. The dude is clearly talented and gullible and was taken advantage of.
It must be said however that the CCO testament, while heartbreaking, is full of terrible decisions, which have made this worse for him. The part where he agrees to hold his apartament as a collateral for the investor to happen was difficult to read. Also bank rolling stuff from his own pocket and then signing off the control of the company he was a founder of. Uh. The dude is clearly talented and gullible and was taken advantage of.
This is late, but uhhh what? You're making zero sense with this post.
Edit: anyway, to the topic on hand. That's awful and I hope the devs get their compensation. That entire situation is bull!
Good to hear, I guess they were only recently made aware of this.
The only egg on Sony's face is they showed a game without a dev team which is super awkward. At the same time I'm sure Sony doesn't go around blindly to 3rd party devs and just take whoever they can get to fill these slots I'm sure they did their due diligence and were simply misled by whoever was repping this project to them. As that isn't really outside the realm of possibility. It does put Sony in a bit of a bad light by possibly no fault of their own but that's besides the point I hope these devs get compensated and made whole. This is shocking to hear from Focus as I did enjoy their games. not gonna support them until this is addressed and sorted and after they've demonstrated not to treat their workers like this again.
There's no way Sony couldn't have known, especially if this was going down in late June?
I really feel so bad for them. I hope they get picked up and brought in by a studio or publisher.
I really feel so bad for them. I hope they get picked up and brought in by a studio or publisher.
Dude it is not their studio, they don't own them in any way. You are acting like them showing a short trailer during a state of play is some major business relationship.
... pretty sure you got those backwards. Unless you're meaning to say that it's a good thing the original devs got ripped off, won't be able to work on their project anymore, and apparently have a black mark on their employment records.
Shoving it off onto another studio doesn't fix the alleged stolen IP and labor violations. It actually worsens the situation, because the next studio has to build off of that toxic base, because it's not practical to restart development from scratch.
Given that Focus and LimeStone seem to be supporting each other, what's more likely is that they'll restaff LimeStone and keep not paying and abusing the new staff.
Yeah, done explaining the rationale here as I've done for 20 people before you.
Any presence during a highly curated State of Play should be vetted.
Please stop being obtuse and unreasonable. How do you expect companies like Sony or Nintendo to always check every single one of them companies that send them trailers to showcase for good management practices? I mean what the heck is this. And don't make this a moral grandstanding on your part too: what you are suggesting are completely unreasonable and stupid.
It's unreasonable to vet the games and studios you showcase alongside your brand and hardware in a SHOWCASE?
It's not hard. Every partnership across numerous (if not most) industries do this.
If you're going partner / source / showcase third-party work, do the due diligence of vetting it - even if it provides you the safety net of a short paper trail.
But also, shouldn't we be looking to console manufacturers and AAA publishers to implement practices and vetting processes that weed shit like developer abuse out entirely?
Or are you perfectly fine with the way the industry is operating currently when it comes to developer wellbeing?
Now, they clearly said not to moral grandstand and here we are
Fuck, man. I'm gonna have to school you, because you don't seem to get it. I worked in a company and we were granted a spot on the last PlayStation Experience event that was made. The way that shit works in the industry, is that the heads of the publishing company makes a deal with Sony to get a spot in one of their showcases. Sony then gives you some specifications to go from (resolution, duration, framerate, format, etc.), and then you you deliver the video based on that. That's it. They don't get involved at all in what else happens. It's not their responsibility. Anyway, 3 months later, the company had massive layoffs, including me. And guess what? Its on the publisher, not on Sony. They don't go and check what the developer is doing, that falls on the publisher responsibility. An event like this is a huge event for a smaller company, because the attention you gather is huge. The publisher will do whatever it can to put the video in there, it's their chance to shine. You blaming Sony is one the dumbest takes I read in a while.
You seem far more concerned about imaginary damage to Sony's image than developer wellbeing.
Fuck, man. You don't seem to get it.
I'm saying that there aren't many entities in the industry with the power of Sony, Nintendo, MS or AAA Publishers to make impactful change - in racial equality, in sexual assault and in this - crunch and developer abuse.
Console manufacturers profit from the inclusion of all third party software. All I've said is that they too should apply an additional layer of scrutiny.
And you thinking I blame Sony ONLY is one of the dumbest interpretations of my comment yet. This is on the developer. This is on the publisher.
But console manufacturers should implement a third line of defense for developers.
Sorry. You and I clearly aren't going to see eye to eye on this.
And you're clearly oblivious regarding who you're talking to. I've worked with PlayStation and it's the primary hardware in my entertainment system. Even having to explain my intentions to you makes me realize I'm wasting my time.
What exactly are you asking of Sony here? That they fly a PR person out to Estonia in the middle of a pandemic, to tour the studio? Should they request their bank statements and tax returns?
You're being ridiculous and are derailing the thread from the actual focus.
Simple Zoom, Skype or Google Meet meetings with select devs will suffice.
Not as expensive or time consuming as what you just outlined (not to mention overcomplicated).
Yeah, you are totally not being unreasonable at all, no siree!
No, we won't, because you want to give some weird-ass responsibility to a company that doesn't have to take any responsibility in this thing. AT ALL. If the news had broken down and this game weren't in the show, nobody would have talked about it. This, good or bad, brings attention to this problem.
And you know this to be standard industry practice that was failed in this one case?
Unless this is true, you're simply looking at a bad situation and being completely reactionary.
Did Sony and Microsoft vet Ubisoft to find out about the rampant sexual misconduct? Oops.
I'm wasting my time here.
I'm done explaining why three layers of defense for devs (even if Sony's is minimal compared to the developer and publisher) is better than two.
I'm literally amazed by the unwillingness to see the value (and rationale) of console manufacturers putting their stake in the ground on this.
Well, it's been a treat, thread! Adios.
You just made my point. Maybe, they should have.
That'd light a fire under the ass of publishers to ensure healthy work environments. Wouldn't it?
You're asking Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft to become industry watchdogs. Of every development studio in existence.
Come up with a reasonable plan that covers such a thing. I appreciate the idealism but it's impossible.
That's something governments handle.
then i am sorry. what you are asking for is impossible, both legally and in execution.
In execution because at this rate, every platform/editor/promoter/publisher (because why stop here) that is by any mean showcasing or advertising a game or any piece, would have an obligation to inquire in a detailed manner on a 3rd party company's health and treatment of their employees.It is just humanely impossible (unless they overwork and underpay their internal auditors). given the scale of the various transactions happening on a daily basis, it is physically impossible.
I'm not even dwelling on the legality of the practice.
Sony exec: Anyone here being abused or mistreated?
Publisher board/Dev CEO: Nope.
Sony exec: Ok, we're good to go here.
The devs (as in the actual people) aren't connected to Sony in any way. The company just ships them a trailer and it's the publisher that gets involved in the actual deals in terms of what ends up in the showcase.
Holy fuck. This Yarl cretin should never be allowed to run another studio.Man, click on the Dropbox link and read some of the testimonials. If those are true this studio is absolute trash.
The composer one is the first I clicked and yikes.
Congratulations, you single-handledly managed to turn the conversation of how developers are being abused to how Sony is one of the bad guys or isn't doing enough.
Clap clap.
Very likely this is gonna happen. What i'm surprised about is that so little amount of youtubers have taken up on that story. Probably the studio and project are not big enough to generate views?
Sad if that turns out to be the case
Focus Home Interactive Releases Statement
Sony should demand health data for employees of all third parties? Lol, you know that would be actually illegal in most jurisdictions right?
No they don't.
This kind of thing, the type of "vetting" you're talking about, it's not a thing. And it shouldn't be really, the implications of it have potential to be gross.
I'm pretty certain the poster you're replying to is referring to the healthiness of the working conditions, not exposing medical records.
To be fair, I think they are talking about studios they promote in a major way in their reveals and things... Not every studio that puts a game on their console.