I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years the CEOs are gonna cry because of lack of talent…yeah you burned them out or pushed them away from the industry you dipshits.
[VGC] Square Enix confirms US, EU layoffs as part of restructuring
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Yeah. Ever Crisis is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too whale-focused and aggressive in its monetization to keep an audience locked in. And I also think the game focusing way too hard on the First Soldier stuff isn't keeping people engaged. They sold it as "another kind of FFVII Remake" and it feels like VII is their lowest-priority aspect of the design aside from extremely expensive costumes for the cast.
Also Barret is CONSTANTLY disrespected in EC, which boils my goddamn blood. They don't give him cool weapons or costumes, he's almost completely unusable because they refuse to support him with gear like they do with everyone else.
You will be surprised but the game is still doing close to a million monthly (Global+JP)
That is sad and undeserved that Square Enix Collective has to take the hit for failings of larger SQE management with their boneheaded exclusivity strategy.
SQE Collective signed Little Goody Two Shoes (I believe), so they are some talented people - hope they all get a new gig soon.
SQE Collective signed Little Goody Two Shoes (I believe), so they are some talented people - hope they all get a new gig soon.
I had no choice but to drop it myself. I'm not a stranger to whaling in SE gachas, even ranking in the top 10 for dungeon ranking multiple months in a row, but Ever Crisis managed to turn me off so badly with its power creep and general shitty design/predatory monetization.
Shall we shove another ad for some gacha ticket vouchers in your face after you complete a simple story battle? Nevermind how they treated any character that wasn't Aerith, Cloud, or Sephiroth. Barret's treatment was especially egregious.
Anyway, back on topic. This is yet another sad but expected day in the industry. From how they framed the layoffs, it sounds like they aren't really touching anybody at CBU1-CBU3, but they'll probably go to town on NA/EU publishing side, consolidating them into their London offices to handle global distribution.
OP
OP
They were even more transparent later in the same document.I figured this was going to happen when they said one of their goals was to become leaner (a.k.a. reduce costs)
This has nothing to do with that one way or another, but no, it was never coming to the west
Oh yeah, that's the slide I was looking for.They were even more transparent later in the same document.
"Enable greater mobility of talent across the Group"
Some people's work schedules are about to get a lot busier
We were never going to get that. DQX offline is just an expensive ad for the full game. It only goes up to volume 2 and then it prompts you to subscribe and transfer your character to the standard game.
This industry is a fucking mess. Not that I want to see people leave, but honestly it is becoming apparent that it is a better choice to leave and go elsewhere than stick around with this sinking ship of an industry that can't get control over its own spending, bad ideas, and constant sacrifice of human talent because of poor decisions by executives.
I'd still rather work in the industry than do anything else, and my company just went through a layoff earlier this year. There's very little work out there that I'm happy doing.
FFXVI and Rebirth could have sold 5 million copies each and this is still happening. All part of their "vertical re-alignment" to become a "leaner and more nimble" company. Number must go up, hatchet must come down. Absolutely sucks for those affected.
I feel like we're at a real sea change in turns of major publisher release strategy. Everyone wants their consistent money maker, and to minimize "risk". Game developers are going to need to figure out a new strategy as well. Unionizing is part of it, but I also think they need some sort of independence from these publishers. I have no idea how they make that work. Maybe form some sort of holding company, where the smaller developers can do work for hire for the major studios. If they can find a way to publish their games without selling out their IP, there might be a way forward. But right now I'm not smart enough to figure out what that is.
I feel like we're at a real sea change in turns of major publisher release strategy. Everyone wants their consistent money maker, and to minimize "risk". Game developers are going to need to figure out a new strategy as well. Unionizing is part of it, but I also think they need some sort of independence from these publishers. I have no idea how they make that work. Maybe form some sort of holding company, where the smaller developers can do work for hire for the major studios. If they can find a way to publish their games without selling out their IP, there might be a way forward. But right now I'm not smart enough to figure out what that is.
Awful. This entire industry is just a complete disaster right now.
... did you post this in the wrong thread?
... did you post this in the wrong thread?
Good. Make sure that ROI is shit so they never think about it again.
At the very least it's transforming and adapting(at the cost of many people's livelihoods), that's for sure. As shitty as all of this is, it seems it was inevitable with the way trends are shifting. It was unsustainable, and seemingly all studios and publishers were reactive to this rather than proactive ahead of it.
Boiiiii wait until the money for all those AAA studios that formed during the pandemic runs out.
Less reforming and more dissecting those offices.They were even more transparent later in the same document.
Just fuck off already. This is ridiculous, and all of it is of their own doing/ mismanagement.
I know they're restructuring, and have a new CEO, can we please have some competent management going forward?
I know they're restructuring, and have a new CEO, can we please have some competent management going forward?
Every year both my grad school and under-grad school host portfolio reviews where industry alumni can come back and give advice/reviews to students looking to get into the industry. This is the first year I didn't partake in the reviews because I genuinely don't know what to say to those who want to enter this industry. It's already hard enough to break into an entry level position in games, but now they're competing against tens of thousands of senior and mid level devs all looking for jobs as well.
It's grim. My positivity is fading.
TBH, you could remove "AAA" from this sentence and still be correct.
Lots of midbudget projects that are going to go nowhere got backed then as well.
They were even more transparent later in the same document.
Rebuilding from ground up makes it seem like they're going to fire a large portion of the employees, and then hire new ones for whatever new structure or plans that they have😔
No that's not what it means. It means that they're going to come up with policies and processes for employees to be posted to new positions that are outside of their studio/country. So an example would be making it easier for someone who works in the Osaka office to try and apply for an open position in the UK or China office.
Mobility can probably also refer to how easy it is for someone to transit to another role in the same office.
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Appreciate it. It isn't fun when this shit keeps happening, and it's stressful, but my fallback is going to work with my dad doing manual labor. While that's incredibly rewarding in some ways and I love working with him, I don't find it fulfilling.
I am not sure if I should come back to the game biz after I graduate. Maybe I should just bide my time transferring to a state Uni.
It sucks ass. I feel like I got lucky by getting into the industry just before all this mess a few years ago. And in my 4 years in the industry I've been part of multiple layoffs already. I do love this industry, and I love the creative people I get to work with, but this and last year have been rough.
I feel sorry and not questioning why come back? I did QA years ago and wanted work in narrative design. I don't know if I want to.
The hits keep a-coming.
Saw this a mile away with their slide decks about restructuring - combined with the general state of the industry, I will be surprised if this doesn't happen to almost every major dev/pub.
Even when Nintendo says stuff like times are rough and games are getting out of control, you know shit is bad.
Literally the same for me.
I had friends at Rockstar, Eidos-MTL, and Relic all leave the industry for fintech and FAANG jobs over the past two years. The massive increase in salary and stability were huge drivers. Glad they got out when they could - especially for my buddy at Relic where she left and then they axed like 20% of the staff after going indie.