Trion Worlds hit with layoffs, Rift team impacted
"As much as one-third of the development team working on MMO Rift" have been laid off by Trion, a new report details.
Trion Worlds has laid off some of its staff, a new report confirms. According to Gamasutra, about 40 team members were let go, including developers, artists, and designers. "As much as one-third of the development team working on MMO Rift" could be affected, according to the report.
While Trion has confirmed layoffs, it would not elaborate on which parts of the company were affected. The company told Gamasutra that the layoffs were "in response to market conditions, product timelines and the natural evolution of our company."
Rift most recently expanded with Storm Legion, which promised to triple the game world.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Trion Worlds hit with layoffs, Rift team impacted.
"As much as one-third of the development team working on MMO Rift" have been laid off by Trion, a new report details.-
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I think that was an Activision Blizzard merger thing.
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Its because the game dev industry while being a few decades old is still an immature baby. The working conditions/pay are ridiculous/undervalued, and the structure/risk/planning/funding/dynamics of it is still very volatile. This is also somewhat mirrored in the Film/VFX industry.
The other problem is that games aren't understood and well defined by the entirety of the corporate world. There are many flawed views regarding games such as thinking of games as interactive movies, throwing together teams, and not giving enough time for pre-production and teams to mesh and get to know each other.
I'm not defending it, but its easy to see how it came to be this way - everyone is still learning how to make games the best way possible; and I honestly dont think anyone has mastered it yet, since it combines so many disciplines together and the final product is a real-time interactive experience with massive combination space. The story for big budget games might be different in 20-30 years.
But as more players enter the field and platforms become more open with lower technological and monetary barriers to entry, you will start seeing this less and less. -
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It seems a symptom of too many development companies never actually having any money of their own. It's scary how many are actually existing 'publisher paycheck to publisher paycheck' and when the milestone payments stop, they automatically have to downsize. The 'never having money of their own' is a symptom of how shit most developer-publisher deals are. :(
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Someone said it best in the other thread - community is super important to a company like Trion, and they're both awesome at their jobs. Probably safe!
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A lot of those 30 people were probably good at their jobs
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1. If you want a stable job, the games industry is not a good choice, particularly if you're a contractor.
2. Working in a sector with a high, frequent turnover is probably a good way to increase your salary due to competition for skills.-
If you are a contractor then you at least know you will probably not be working at the same studio at the end of your contract.
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I know, I'm just saying that being good at your job doesn't make you safe from the layoff hammer
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I was wondering where the official post was :P Here it is!
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The Blizzard better lay out 40 off the employements like that.
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