Insomniac games post statement about layoffs

DragonNCM said:
Damn......this needs to be reminder for all of us, we are only counted as profit, the very moment we are not profitable we become dead weight.
Reminds me of Roman & Egyptian society...straight up SLAVORY society & nothing changed last 5 centuries...they only rename it in capitalism & democracy !!!
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Thats the job. You get paid to do a job. Nothing more.

Now if someone wants some kind of locked and loaded job for life, isn't Japanese corporate culture kind of like that? Whether it's government law or just the company norm, it's kind of hard to get outright fired. Instead they kind of ween you off to crappy special projects hoping you eventually quit. I'm sure there's other places in the world where it's hard to get fired.

Just work in those places.

It doesn't matter if anyone works for a giant corporation or is an apprentice working at Pete's Plumbing Service. Dont treat employers like hand out charities. If any of you ran a business with costs to track I bet every one of you isn't going to guarantee anyone a job for life either.
 
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iamvin22 said:
Over hired during the pandemic.
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Tech companies thought the sales trend rocketing up would keep going.

Zero financial controls.

Some idiots probably looked at the SG&A ratio, noticed that historically it was lets say 15% of sales, covid sales skyrocketed making the ratio smaller, so then they went on a hiring spree to get it back to 15%..... "we got room to hire!"

Covid is over, sales drop and now that ratio is 20%. Well, if you cant grow sales fast enough, the quickest way to get that ratio back down to 15% is fire people.
 
Dr. Wilkinson said:
Nintendo's not having a bad year. They've never been more profitable than they are during the Switch era. Layoffs would make no sense.
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Also, Japanese labour laws have recently been big news in video games - that's a big part of why it doesn't happen. Essentially, employees are protected in ways that Western countries but especially US employees could never dream of.
 
SEGAvangelist said:
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I'm always so 50/50 on this.

Like, I'm fairly certain the lead character artist didn't point to a random writer and was like, make it look like gnarblob the lumberjack over there. My logic brain says it's most likely useless new workforce or external contractors put on the character model and just fucked up royally like they do when you go cheap or inexperienced.

But then another part of me remembers the crazy nutjob insomniac hired who was able to completely halt the production of ratchet because of rivet having a female figure and essentially held the company to woke ransom trying to axe the lead concept artist whod been at insom since basically inception, unless she got what she wanted. Then the art came out for what would have been female rivet and it was totally reasonable and wasn't fan service at all and a really cool depiction of a female Lombax.

My overall point is that Insomniac have absolutely been infiltrated and I could see some woke feminist insert being able to control MJs appearance to look more "real" and less model
 
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Weird as there games have all made profits and they have probably the best output out of the AAA studios in the industry
 
Gaming industry is going to shit thanks to GaaS everywhere and money grabbing shareholders.

Not that most layoffs are necessary, but everything to keep the profits up to appease the fucking leeching shareholders.
If you are still turning a profit, albeit not as much as expected, use the damn talent for new projects.

Dont send the people off who did everything they can to make a game a success. Fire the corporate assholes who dont give a shit!!

I think 75% of companies are doing lay-off because they can.
"Hey Dev X is sacking 20% of their employees, we should do the same and blame the current ecosystem".

No. Dont you go blaming anything else than yourself, you shithole companies!

-Stale IP upon stale IP
-Remaster/ Rehash of old shit
-Releasing games in subpar state
-Going full GaaS

All are corporate decisions with only 1 thing in mind. A quick buck.

That isnt working, so they fire people low in the foodchain while the shit flinging monkeys in suits stay.

The gaming industry is rotten to its core.
 
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GymWolf said:
Hopefully they fired all the woketards, but who i'm kidding here...
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Gym, I'm with you on this but people need to understand that DEI is expanding in all corporate/governmental levels. It's an exploding business institutionalised and ever expanding in the western world.

It might blow up on everyone's faces at some point. But it might be too late already and we will be on a high-speed highway to third-worldism. Sorry for the politics. I'll shut up about this.
 
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Crazy that they also got hit despite their output and efficiency.

Hopefully it was the people that got sweet baby Inc involved who got binned off.
 
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If the gaming environment implodes and disappears because of woke politics and greed then fuck'em, they deserve it.
I don't want my favourite hobby to disappear because of it but I'll be happy to sacrifice it if that's how it's going to be.
The only disappointment will be that they'll not blame themselves and find some other excuse.
Absolute wankers the lot of them.
 
adamsapple said:
This catchphrase doesn't work here.

SM2 has sold 10 million copies already. Its individual sales aren't the problem.
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Might be a problem for spiderman 3. The budget will be higher and I doubt it will sell more than SM2.
I for once won't buy SM3 on release date. SM2 was alright but the pandering was just tooooo much.
 
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I don't dislike Insomniac at all, they have been carrying the water for Playstation this gen.

Said this, a company that spends money in external "advisors" whining about layoffs is rich.
 
GHG said:
Crazy that they also got hit despite their output and efficiency.
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Maybe output, but I can't say about efficiency.

Spider-man 2 cost that much to reuse a load of things from Spider-man 1. I wouldn't call that efficiency.
 
There are no sufficient words to express our feelings about it. This is a solemn and
unprecedented moment for our studio.

Again, not downplaying the impact of anyone losing their job, but this is laughably solemn and bordering satire.
 
Banjo64 said:
There are no sufficient words to express our feelings about it. This is a solemn and
unprecedented moment for our studio.

Again, not downplaying the impact of anyone losing their job, but this is laughably solemn and bordering satire.
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If anything has become clear over the last few years, it that this industry is full of drama queens.
 
BennyBlanco said:
Insomniac carried this gen on their backs for Sony and still got hit with layoffs. Imagine how sad Sony's first party output would be this gen without them. I'm not even the biggest fan of their games but if anyone should've dodged the axe it should've been them. Shutting down Media Molecule would've been smarter than pissing these guys off.
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MM probably still is a comparably small studio. And I would assume they should be far in their current project, and while Sony certainly is again trigger happy, Sony not killing them after Dreams never took off, indicates that they see some potential. Maybe MM finally makes a good game, after Tearaway having been probably their only actually good game, beside all those editors that were interesting but not really hitting it.
daninthemix said:
Nuts that successful studios are laying people off. What gives?
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For realz. I am waiting for Arrowhead to announce some reevaluation of their approach to making games despite previous recent statements.

Bottom line is, it feels like we are in for another round of remasters/remakes. Everything but Bloodborne will now be prioritized over any new IP that would actually require some creative work. PS5 more and more becomes really just a PS4 Pro with RT and reduced load times.
 
Mr Reasonable said:
Also, Japanese labour laws have recently been big news in video games - that's a big part of why it doesn't happen. Essentially, employees are protected in ways that Western countries but especially US employees could never dream of.
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There's some protection but if a company in Japan is going to fire you they will still fire you. It's just if you choose to fight it (at a hefty expense) then you do have some rights to keep your job. But 99% of people are just going to take the compensation package and find a new job. The alternative option is going through a lengthy legal process with no guarantee of success. And even if you do win, you will be working at a place that doesn't want you around anyway.
 
Is it common for jobs in America to provide lunch and extracurriculars for their (office) employees?

To me it always seemed like the developers based on the West Coast are burning money like there is no tomorrow. But knowing people in the industry it seems like this is something that has been spreading to studios in Europe as well. People with no business sense expect their publishers/investors to pay for things that reasonably shouldn't pass an audit. Unfortunately not surprised that they are hit with layoffs even though they produce games that make a profit.
 
Fucking hell, even with success they're hit

Let's see if Nintendo is layoff proof in 2024.

Cloud Imperium Games has been hiring in their USA, UK, Germany and satellite studios to the point where while most studios were either stable headcounts or laid off peoples in 2023, they grew.
 
iamvin22 said:
Over hired during the pandemic.
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... during a period of very low interest rates. And now we're at the beginning of an economic downturn with gaming revenues plateauing.
 
Fake said:
Nintendo will be safe, at least if they continue with their vision.

Nintendo mission about not focus into graphics fidelity, their games cost much less to make, some of their games don't even have voice actors, their games take ages to get a discount, sometimes don't even get a discount at all.
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Moreover, Nintendo is still in the midst of their strongest platform cycle, ever, as far as revenue and profit. They are making more money now than they did during the peak of DS/Wii due to higher retail prices now combined with beneficial exchange rate, among other factors. In particular their software sales this cycle have been record-breaking.
 
I love Insomniac game so much since playstation 2. Ratchet will always be one of my favorite, all of them!

Sunset Overdrive sure is under appreciated because it's so much fun and colorful. Creating chaos while bouncing everywhere, listening to punk music. Insane game really.

I'm assuming we're gonna have to find Easter eggs in the upcoming Wolverine game. About the devs that couldn't makes it to the end!
 
You can tell they're not happy about it. But that's the problem when you're acquired by a giant corporation. The board will demand layoffs from every division, especially when the economic outlook for the next year isn't expected to improve.
 
Fake said:
Nintendo will be safe, at least if they continue with their vision.

Nintendo mission about not focus into graphics fidelity, their games cost much less to make, some of their games don't even have voice actors, their games take ages to get a discount, sometimes don't even get a discount at all.
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At the moment Nintendo is the only one of the platform holders who can survive on the strength of their first party titles and revenue from in-house efforts. The combination of evergreen titles like Mario Kart, regular first party game releases, and profitable hardware has created a self-sustaining ecosystem that neither Sony or Microsoft have been able to do. I don't think they're immune from the overall economy, but they're certainly the best equipped to weather it right now.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Thats the job. You get paid to do a job. Nothing more.

Now if someone wants some kind of locked and loaded job for life, isn't Japanese corporate culture kind of like that? Whether it's government law or just the company norm, it's kind of hard to get outright fired. Instead they kind of ween you off to crappy special projects hoping you eventually quit. I'm sure there's other places in the world where it's hard to get fired.

Just work in those places.

It doesn't matter if anyone works for a giant corporation or is an apprentice working at Pete's Plumbing Service. Dont treat employers like hand out charities. If any of you ran a business with costs to track I bet every one of you isn't going to guarantee anyone a job for life either.
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In one of my first jobs in software development the company I was working for started to decline because they sold software written in COBOL and there was a huge push to move away from it. This is prior to Y2K and COBOL systems were still very common.

One day the company scheduled two meetings at the same time on opposite ends of the building. The one I wasn't in were told that they were being laid off effective immediately and were all walked out while the rest of us were in the other meeting. In our meeting we were told by the CEO that "for the good of the company" our pay was being cut by 10% effective immediately, that vacations were canceled for the next 12 months, and that we needed to increase our productivity because the company still had commitments to meet. We were told that once profitability stabilized salaries and vacation would be restored and that this was "just a loan" to help the company make it through.

I started looking for another job immediately and had an offer in hand in about 6 weeks. I had a dotted line to the CEO on the org chart because I was working on a strategy team to migrate away from COBOL to a more modern architecture. I went to talk to him and asked him to restore my pay and benefits and to repay the "loan" via back pay otherwise I was going to take the other job. He told me that I wasn't entitled to back pay because "You and the company are even on payday. You aren't owed anything other than what you've already been paid."

I took the other job and didn't look back, but I've always taken what he said as advice in career decisions. Every payday the company and I are even. If they don't owe me anything then I don't owe them anything. I've taken jobs at poorly managed companies since then, but I only do it if the terms are favorable to me. If there's any sign of trouble I will move on before it reaches the place where "for the good of the company" becomes the guiding principle. There are worse things that can happen than losing a job.
 
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