'Significant Percentage of Studio' Temporarily Laid Off

SBFord

'Significant Percentage of Studio' Temporarily Laid Off

A new article has been posted on the Motiga web site by Chris Chung that reveals that a significant percentage of the studio staff has been temporarily laid off. The letter goes on to say that the company intends to continue to support Gigantic, but that the lay offs will have a huge impact on every portion of the game.

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rojoArcueid

Lost me at... Temporarily laid off...

TheEnygma

Windows 10 exclusivity
Xbox One exclusivity
crowded market
NDA took too long to come off

cant imagine why game didn't take off :P

SBFord

rojoArcueid said:

Lost me at... Temporarily laid off...

I think they're hoping that their fortunes will improve and they can rehire these people.

Thourne

SBFord said:

rojoArcueid said:

Lost me at... Temporarily laid off...

I think they're hoping that their fortunes will improve and they can rehire these people.

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't that the very meaning of laid off and why you get laid off and not terminated?

Creasian

This is going to sound mean, but I remember when they were talking about riding that hipster wave being exclusive here and only supporting that. I thought, well, it's their call.

Looks like they chose the wrong place to make a stand.

Thourne

ok it can also be because a position is eliminated.

Wizardry

Yeah it is basically saying,stick around,don't get another job ,we might be calling.I would be like no thanks,you had your chance as an employer and failed,so not coming back.

Urncaller

actually am in this beta as well I feel they have a solid product....but of course it does boil down to money. I wish them all the best I will be a customer !

Maquiame

DMKano said:

Theres far too much competition for Gigantic

Overwatch
Battleborn
Lawbreakers
Paladins

All shooter mobas many with similar graphics and characters.


The timing couldnt have been worse for Gigantic in an already crowded Moba space.

Can someone explain why the industry does this? Its like they work off of a goddamned hive mind or something. Like wtf do they all get together and agree behind closed doors to make the same game?

Aeander

DMKano said:

Theres far too much competition for Gigantic

Overwatch
Battleborn
Lawbreakers
Paladins

All shooter mobas many with similar graphics and characters.


The timing couldnt have been worse for Gigantic in an already crowded Moba space.

And Paragon, which might have the most potential of the lot.

Pratt2112

Maquiame said:

DMKano said:

Theres far too much competition for Gigantic

Overwatch
Battleborn
Lawbreakers
Paladins

All shooter mobas many with similar graphics and characters.


The timing couldnt have been worse for Gigantic in an already crowded Moba space.

Can someone explain why the industry does this? Its like they work off of a goddamned hive mind or something. Like wtf do they all get together and agree behind closed doors to make the same game?

Let someone else take the risk. If it bombs, move on to the next thing.. If it succeeds, copy it.

Many companies wouldn't touch MMORPGs with a 10 foot pole for a while. Then WoW blew up. Suddenly they were all making MMOs, modeled after WoW.

Aeander

DMKano said:

Maquiame said:

DMKano said:

Theres far too much competition for Gigantic

Overwatch
Battleborn
Lawbreakers
Paladins

All shooter mobas many with similar graphics and characters.


The timing couldnt have been worse for Gigantic in an already crowded Moba space.

Can someone explain why the industry does this? Its like they work off of a goddamned hive mind or something. Like wtf do they all get together and agree behind closed doors to make the same game?

It's timing - I think all of these studios know that MOBAs are hot - but making a LoL or DOTA2 like game is suicide as nobody can get any of those players to budge and look at anything different.

So obviously First/Third person shooter mobas are all the rage now (can appeal to millions of shooter fans and moba - so huge target audience) - which is why all of these projects got started near the same time (in case of Blizzard they reused old project Titan assets for Overwatch so they already had a leg up in terms of work done)

But the last thing game companies want to do is work on the same type of game along with 4 or 5 other companies - that is like the least desirable thing for all of them.

But in this case it happened

This is absolutely correct, though I think there is room for two or three winners here. Namely, I'm betting on Overwatch and Paragon as the success stories here. Overwatch is getting a lot of positive press, and it's a Blizzard title to boot. Paragon looks to have a much more coherent art style and a higher level of polish than most of its upcoming competition. Plus, it's by the makers of Unreal, so my hopes are high.

Gigantic screwed itself with Windows 10 exclusivity. 

Paladins looks like a half-assed cash grab, and Hi-Rez quickly abandons even successful games (like Tribes) when they have a bigger money-maker available. That was Smite, and I'm sure that will remain Smite.

Battleborn might do well off of the Borderlands legacy, but its emphasis on PvE content will probably hurt it in the long run.

Lawbreakers simply hasn't revealed enough to form any opinions.

Raagnarz

TheEnygma said:

Windows 10 exclusivity

Xbox One exclusivity

crowded market

NDA took too long to come off



cant imagine why game didn't take off :P

This exactly this. They alienated the majority of the PC market because most of us haven't switch "yet" because we wait for bugs to get ironed out. Nothing but the most hyped and awesome game would even stand a chance of making most people be early adopters of windows products. Combine that with the fact they released on only one console. WTF were they thinking? They cut their console margin to effectively 1/3 of the total potential base base (yes i know nintendo isn't 33% in reality) and you limit yourself to probably 10% of the total windows market and you're surprised you have no money? I got a beta invite and saw the Window 10 only and deleted the email. I was actually looking forward to the game, but they shot themselves in the foot.

Xiaoki

Gigantic not being a very good have aside, the big problem is that Motiga was dumb enough to partner with Microsoft.

Why do people not learn from history?

Microsoft probably saw a crowded market, got scared and pulled funding.

They have done this dozens of times before.

Microsoft is a horrible publisher for indie developers.

Lokero

Raagnarz said:

TheEnygma said:

Windows 10 exclusivity

Xbox One exclusivity

crowded market

NDA took too long to come off



cant imagine why game didn't take off :P

I got a beta invite and saw the Window 10 only and deleted the email. I was actually looking forward to the game, but they shot themselves in the foot.

I had the exact same experience.  I had beta invite but the Windows 10 thing killed any interest I had in it-- immediately.

goboygo

Man it looks like they put a ton of work into that game, quality stuff.  But, but, it looks like the love child of wild star and wow with guns.  I feel really bad for the studio watching their main site reveal video, you can tell they are really proud of what they built.  I guess the market is just massively saturated.

Hytek

Honestly, I couldn't care less. The MOBA market is so crowded that one less offering really doesn't bother me.

Dreamo84

I never even heard of this game until now. I feel for those laid off though. Video game industry work is brutally unstable I can't imagine being in it.

tawess

Yeah Microsoft and NCSoft are not the best of bedfellows for a indie developer, MS are twitchy as fuck and NCSoft have a bad history of axing projects. (now with that said, they also have a good history of giving second chances. CoH and Tabula Rasa comes to mind)

Phry

Lokero said:

Raagnarz said:

TheEnygma said:

Windows 10 exclusivity


Xbox One exclusivity


crowded market


NDA took too long to come off





cant imagine why game didn't take off :P

I got a beta invite and saw the Window 10 only and deleted the email. I was actually looking forward to the game, but they shot themselves in the foot.

I had the exact same experience.  I had beta invite but the Windows 10 thing killed any interest I had in it-- immediately.

Windows 10 hasn't anywhere near the saturation level to justify being developed for exclusively, the majority of gamers are just not using it, couple that with a console that if you look at just the market saturation of the PS4/XB1, there are half as many XB1's as there are PS4's, if you were going to do an exclusive for one of them, then PS4 would have been a saner choice, although not developing for both was probably a dumb move in itself.
Altogether, this project was doomed to fail, its far too early to develop for a platform that barely has 10% of the overall market, and far less if you just restrict it to the gamer playerbase.
There was never going to be a good ending with those limitations in place.

mayito7777

Every time this exclusive games come forth which marginalized PC players they all sooner or later end in the trash bin of history.

Dr_Binks

Thourne said:

SBFord said:

rojoArcueid said:

Lost me at... Temporarily laid off...

I think they're hoping that their fortunes will improve and they can rehire these people.

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't that the very meaning of laid off and why you get laid off and not terminated?

Well not really..... When you terminate someone you need to have a good reason ie. always late, stealing from the company and so on. You really can't terminate someone because business is slow. Where as if you lay off staff you do not need a reason, and the employee does not have a case for unlawful termination.

CalmOceans

Dreamo84 said:

I never even heard of this game until now. I feel for those laid off though. Video game industry work is brutally unstable I can't imagine being in it.

It's a rather recent problem I think. I don't remember reading about these mass layoffs a lot in the past.

The game development market is saturated, indie developers are little companies where workers are young, inexperienced and they are not given protection from unions.