• whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 hours ago

    Individuals get fired when they fuck up, companies layoff workers when they fuck up. Large scale layoffs are the outcome of poor planning and organization. You can’t predict markets completely, suppliers charge, etc which accounts for small # layoffs, but large, mass layoffs should be accompanied by replacing executives and leadership roles like board members first to prevent such poor management.

    • IronBird@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      it’s cheaper to hire in bulk and fire “low performers” or whatever than it is to put more effortinto hiring.

      and even then, tmk, it’s really only so common in amerikka because worker protections are practically non-existent. if it were more expensive to fire people…then maybe the corpos would plan/hire better

      • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net
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        4 hours ago

        Would that be good though? How is a small company realistically going to test if someone is worth hiring or not.

        Oh yeah, have you got 10 years experience in the same role?

        • raze2012@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          How is a small company realistically going to test if someone is worth hiring or not.

          we got into this stupid market because we spent decades neglecting training. When you don’t train for what you need, you don’t get good at identifying what skills you really need in order to succeed.

          So this question is already too far gone. If someone has most skills but is missing one: train them for it. Even if the training is as informal as "give them a few weeks in a low stakes environment to work on less valuable (but less risky) work.

  • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Once again, this demonstrates just how volatile and uncertain it is to be having game development as a career path. Especially as venture capital and equity deciding the fates of companies they buy out.

  • Soulinyx@piefed.world
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    6 hours ago

    Man, they made this sound as generically as ‘fuck you, shit happens, oh well’ as they come.

  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Their games are probably not easy to make and definitely not cheap if you hire these famous actors. Sure they are not s-tier level of actors but they are definitely not cheap. I bet many of those actors can ask a higher pay than the games industry’s favorite called Troy Baker.

    Also the market for interactive movies probably isn’t mega huge either. Every interactive movie series they released was published by a different publisher. Doubt they were massive hits.

    • Jackal@feddit.uk
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      2 hours ago

      Based on what I’ve seen Directive 80211 didn’t seem to sell as well as their previous games, probably because they dropped the “Dark Pictures” stuff from it (or kept it hidden, as it were)… Hard to believe a single mis-step caused this but I’m not in the industry so take that with a pinch of salt.

      • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        I am pretty sure you cannot trademark “super” + some other word. You have to be more specific. Well, at least in the USA.

        • FatCrab@slrpnk.net
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          11 hours ago

          It boils down to likelihood of confusion. I think there would be a legitimate concern here, tbh. But they could have come to an agreement when one registered their mark after the other one had already.

          • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            I was talking about being able to get a trademark for anything that is “superX” where X could be literally any word in the dictionary. Its too vague and generic and such an application would almost certainly be rejected.

            Supercell, Supergiant, and Supermassive are all trademarkable, and while “super” could cause some confusion, the USPTO doesn’t care so much about that particular point because the wordmarks are all different and the logos are all different.

            There is technically nothing stopping a computer software company trademark for “Microstar.” Unless it already exists obviously, but for the sake of argument let’s imagine it doesn’t. Even though the name could cause some confusion with Microsoft, as long as the wordmark and logo design are different they USPTO won’t care.

              • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                I mean, mikerowesoft might have a visibly different spelling and logo, but it is audibly pronounced the same. There is a legitimate argument to be made there, no matter how stupid it is. But none of that matters because it was settled out of court. And Microsoft admitted afterward they were too heavy handed in their approach.

  • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Ah man, the layoffs are hitting the developers of hit 2013 game “Walking with Dinosaurs?” What is the world coming to??

    • Microw@piefed.zip
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      1 day ago

      Their CEO quit end of June without any reason stated. Sounds like he was the first one to get laid off.

        • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Most of these layoffs are VC groups pulling funding from gaming companies to shift to AI investments

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            11 hours ago

            Yeah because they think that AI will make the games in the future.

            Have you seen AI make games they’re terrible. They objectively work but they’re not good games because AI has no creativity.

            • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              I doubt they even care, VCs are there for investment returns, they don’t give a shit about anything else