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 18 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 18 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.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
I’m disagreeing with the idea that Hi-Fi Rush and the one branch of the Marvel Rivals team being let go are a regular occurrence. In general, teams are being let go because their games aren’t making money. Their games aren’t making money because there are too many games out there that are also spending too much money on their production, and they’re being subsidized by a consumer base that’s stretched too thin to make it all work for everyone that was in the industry as little as 3 years ago.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 13 hours ago
Well I’d say the evidence tells us a very clear story. If you want to believe corporate releases be my guest.