It’s true, there are outliers like that. But if you’re looking at shutdown studios or massive layoffs at random, it’s going to be because the game they made lost money. In Hi-Fi Rush’s case, to the best anyone can tell, it’s because Satya Nadella changed the direction of Microsoft at a time when Tango Gameworks was starting a new project, which means there’s the least sunk costs on a project that was going to be several years away from returning a profit.
They’re not outliers though. The rivals team was immediately laid off. Respawn suffered layoffs last month despite making one of the only successful live service games not Fortnite, 2 generally well received Star Wars titles, and just printing for EA for years.
A small portion of the Rivals team was laid off for similar reasons to Hi-Fi Rush in that the CEO changed the direction of the company. This would still be an outlier compared to the rest of the industry. Respawn got hit with layoffs because their live service isn’t making anywhere near as much money as it used to, and live services need to keep making tons of money to justify new content for them; yes, this is wholly unsustainable. A live service team getting laid off has nothing to do with whether or not it was a hit and everything to do with whether or not it’s still a hit.
Then why are you trying to disagree with me here? The entire point is that this entire system is broken and doesn’t work, that track records of success do not mean shit. These people are too subject to the whims of a company that doesn’t take into account the money they have historically made and will likely continue to make.
Video games are not a consistent, predictable revenue stream 99% of the time. They come in waves. You have an entire generation of c-suites who cannot comprehend this idea.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
It’s true, there are outliers like that. But if you’re looking at shutdown studios or massive layoffs at random, it’s going to be because the game they made lost money. In Hi-Fi Rush’s case, to the best anyone can tell, it’s because Satya Nadella changed the direction of Microsoft at a time when Tango Gameworks was starting a new project, which means there’s the least sunk costs on a project that was going to be several years away from returning a profit.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
They’re not outliers though. The rivals team was immediately laid off. Respawn suffered layoffs last month despite making one of the only successful live service games not Fortnite, 2 generally well received Star Wars titles, and just printing for EA for years.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
A small portion of the Rivals team was laid off for similar reasons to Hi-Fi Rush in that the CEO changed the direction of the company. This would still be an outlier compared to the rest of the industry. Respawn got hit with layoffs because their live service isn’t making anywhere near as much money as it used to, and live services need to keep making tons of money to justify new content for them; yes, this is wholly unsustainable. A live service team getting laid off has nothing to do with whether or not it was a hit and everything to do with whether or not it’s still a hit.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
Then why are you trying to disagree with me here? The entire point is that this entire system is broken and doesn’t work, that track records of success do not mean shit. These people are too subject to the whims of a company that doesn’t take into account the money they have historically made and will likely continue to make.
Video games are not a consistent, predictable revenue stream 99% of the time. They come in waves. You have an entire generation of c-suites who cannot comprehend this idea.