Ori Developer's Culture Reportedly 'Oppressive,' No Longer Working With Xbox (ign)

Wandering Leopard said:
I only pointed what it had to do with X box. But I'm not taking either side, usually if there's a difficult or "fraught" relationship, it wouldn't surprise me if both sides were at fault.

Although it's interesting they worked together for 2 games so something must have changed, but we'll never know the full picture.
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Why does it have to be both side? I mean you just need to look at his posting on Era to see how much of a dick he is.
 
Bryank75 said:
Isn't that a common thing in Japan?

Maybe my impression is wrong but I seem to hear really horrible things about the workplace in Japan.... maybe not screaming and shouting at people but just generally unpleasant-ness.
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Yes. But as far as I know, they worked -at least a good portion of them- full remote even before covid and the team had people from around the world. I don't remember very well right now, but I'd bet he only had one or two presential meetings per year with the team.

I have a former coworker who did work there and he sounded happy (he did work from Spain), but when Ikumi Nakamura shown the team of his new studio I saw he's one of them. So he left Moon Studios and I assume he continues working from home (Spain).
 
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Bryank75 said:
Was under the impression that the developer of Ori was from Japan... seems they are from Austria!
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Animated GIF
 
I always take these "we talked to anonymous current and previous employees" articles with a giant graint of salt.
Assuming what's in the article is true and they actually talked to normal people and not blue haired twitter warriors, the two founders do sound highly unprofessional and hard to work with
 
MonarchJT said:
better not as Sony exclusive it would become a 3d action narrative game with a sad family story behind it
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But Ori is this already, minus the heavy narrative. It's a story of orphaned children, dying foster parents, distressed parents protecting their offspring, going back home, and sacrificing yourself for family :messenger_grinning_smiling:

I don't understand how all of that could go on for allegedly YEARS, to the point of causing workers mental health problems, before people decided to speak up? For the last few years we've seen similar stories being reported way earlier.

Will of the Wisps was a visibly less focused game compared to Blind Forest. Maybe these issues were behind that.
 
I mean, it seems that the founders were kind of pricks, specially the one who keeps badmouthing everyone in the industry.But outside the part that they demanded people to be available at all times(which is stupid even if you look this by the perspective of the company), it seems that this is a case of two dudes that got famous and rich doing what they loved and the way they wanted, but didn't know how to "grow up" when the team, once small and more like a "circle of friends", actually became a large company.
 
Bonfires Down said:
If they don't like it they should just get another job.

Am I doing it right gaf-bros?
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I mean, they should have. That's the beauty of having multiple gaming companies, specially if you are comming off a darling "indie" company such as Moon Studios.

Not to say the the studio and its founders aren't to blame, but you yourself is responsible for your own health. If a company isn't doing it for you, you should find a way out ASAP. That happened to me, and I got out as soon as I could.
 
Unless its outright abusive like the Activision situation I dont see the issue

Greatness is forged through honesty and feedback

Go watch the history of God of War development videos. Good devs dont hold back on eachother, if something isn't good enough it needs to be spoken

Some people aren't cut out for such an environment. And you know those were the mediocre employees who probably can't find work now, hence talking to the press
 
Looks like Sony needs to re-evaluate their relationship with this studio and by re-evaluate I mean buy them on the cheap since MS their main backer doesn't want to support them anymore. And after they buy them sort out their issues and get them making pat/pc games.
 
I always thought Moon Studios would be bought by MS. The Ori IP is a jewel in the MS ecosystem getting critical acclaim. From the outside the relationship appeared to work. Moon Studios need to bite their tongue going forward as they need to stop burning bridges.
 
Kerotan said:
Looks like Sony needs to re-evaluate their relationship with this studio and by re-evaluate I mean buy them on the cheap since MS their main backer doesn't want to support them anymore. And after they buy them sort out their issues and get them making pat/pc games.
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They have a publisher for their next, multiplatform game.

Dick Jones said:
I always thought Moon Studios would be bought by MS. The Ori IP is a jewel in the MS ecosystem getting critical acclaim. From the outside the relationship appeared to work. Moon Studios need to bite their tongue going forward as they need to stop burning bridges.
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They didn't want to be bought, it seems
 
Kerotan said:
Looks like Sony needs to re-evaluate their relationship with this studio and by re-evaluate I mean buy them on the cheap since MS their main backer doesn't want to support them anymore. And after they buy them sort out their issues and get them making pat/pc games.
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Sony never brough a studio that didn't had any prior relationship/projects… so I doubt that is happening

Ozriel said:
They didn't want to be bought, it seems
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Mmm maybe all that toxic environment wasn't only due to the studio itself….
 
The author of this article seems to be an attention whore who was struggling to find new outrage material he could serve to the woke Twitter mob.
 
Wasn't this the guy complaining about not being able to port a game he made and an exclusivity deal for Xbox to other platforms? And that was somehow Microsofts fault?

Anyway he actively posted on Resetera;

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Every time I see this type of headlines, I just assume someone is looking to buy the dev studio in question, and/or want to sell them socjus consulting crap.

Wokism is just Fourth-generation warfare applied to the business world.
 
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Man that sucks as I love both Ori games. This sort of goes against what other developers have been saying working with Xbox. I remember moon studios praising MS when the first game was releasing.
 
kingfey said:
" ..crunch, verbal abuse, and poor organization"

"..include reports of constant arguments,"
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so regular normal work life

kingfey said:
"..a crunch culture in which developers were expected to be available at all hours and on weekends"
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when you are part of a small business with limited staff in specialized fields you don't punch out.

kingfey said:
"..paints a picture of a studio with a perfectionist culture that rarely provided positive feedback
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your boss is not your mom.
 
Bridges said:
Not saying crunch is good or that I don't feel for people in bad work conditions, but will a conversation ever occur about what it actually takes to make a masterpiece?

The two Ori games are incredible, top of their class works and are highlights of Microsoft first party in the XB1 era. Would this still be the case if they worked less days, less hours and under management with a less "perfectionist" mindset?
Would a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 ever see the light of day without crunch?

I think these are questions that need to be raised while the industry rushes to make a value judgement on work culture.
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Every big project will have crunch, the issue IMO is when management goes to shit and makes it taking long than it needed and killing the team morale.
 
Dane said:
Every big project will have crunch, the issue IMO is when management goes to shit and makes it taking long than it needed and killing the team morale.
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This. In my experience crunch can be greatly reduced with good and as complete as possible preproduction, protoyping, and efficient feedback processes when in prod.
If your game vision completely change every morning while in full prod, management is not doing its job and your boss is a moron who think he is still creating games solo in his parents garage.
 
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kingfey said:
They are having internal issues. If Xbox is distancing themselves from them, I doubt Sony would want to work with them. Considering they produced 2 quality Ori games for xbox.

We will see in the future what will happen to them.
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What make you think that is XBox that is distancing from them and not Moon Studios that decided to explore other possibility? Do you think Ms, that have bought Activision when it has became the sinonimous of everything scummy you can do in the gestion of videogame's studios, would refuse to work with Moon Studios over the ridicules allegations of this article?
 
MaxwellParrish said:
What make you think that is XBox that is distancing from them and not Moon Studios that decided to explore other possibility? Do you think Ms, that have bought Activision when it has became the sinonimous of everything scummy you can do in the gestion of videogame's studios, would refuse to work with Moon Studios over the ridicules allegations of this article?
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Let me make it clear.
Do you think xbox will ignore funding moon studio next game? Especially when they made them 2 hits for their console.

Xbox really needs content right now. They won't refuse funding a game for their content.
 
kingfey said:
Let me make it clear.
Do you think xbox will ignore funding moon studio next game? Especially when they made them 2 hits for their console.

Xbox really needs content right now. They won't refuse funding a game for their content.
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Microsoft wouldn't. But, it sounds like they won't be asked. Moon has made it clear they don't want to work with Microsoft anymore.
 
kingfey said:
Let me make it clear.
Do you think xbox will ignore funding moon studio next game? Especially when they made them 2 hits for their console.

Xbox really needs content right now. They won't refuse funding a game for their content.
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they already got a publisher for their next game

wouldn't be surprised if MS puts a new dev on Ori



ms definitely not gonna work with them again
 
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Amiga said:
so regular normal work life


when you are part of a small business with limited staff in specialized fields you don't punch out.


your boss is not your mom.
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We found one awful boss here.
 
Captain Toad said:
Microsoft wouldn't. But, it sounds like they won't be asked. Moon has made it clear they don't want to work with Microsoft anymore.
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This is the weird part. Moon Studio had safe funding and backing from MS. Any studios with the size of that studio, won't ignore that safe option.

Either MS had enough of their behaviors, or Moon studio thought they were a big a shot.

Either way, we would never know the truth. Both parties burned that bridge now.
 
Amiga said:
so regular normal work life


when you are part of a small business with limited staff in specialized fields you don't punch out.


your boss is not your mom.
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You really can find people who will defend anything on the internet.

Bravo.
 
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