Update: Machinima Lays Off Nearly 10% of Staff

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Update: Machinima Lays Off Nearly 10% of Staff

Machinima.com Editor-in-Chief Rob Smith calls laying off nearly two dozen employees "growing pains."

Machinima.com, a Youtube channel with a focus on gaming and geek culture media, laid off 23 of its 200 employees today. Speaking with Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/14/machinima-layoffs/], Editor-in-Chief Rob Smith confirmed this, stating that those laid off were from the programming and production departments. Calling the firings "growing pains," Smith stated, "Machinima has grown a lot in a short amount of time. We had to look at the business, look at where we're focusing."

Former Machinima editorial manager Bill Shibley broke the news on Twitter earlier today, and was echoed by Justin Fassino.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/BillyShibley/status/279652034939072514]

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/BillyShibley/status/279652606584971264]

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/Justegarde/status/279653249387208704]

Though the channel's editorial department was hit, Rob Smith assured Joystiq that "we are still doing editorial coverage in a slightly different way." He also mentioned that Machinima.com currently has fifteen open positions. Though that's probably no consolation to the 23 who just lost their jobs, here's hoping they land on their feet quickly.

Update: Joystiq has an official statment from Machinima: "Today Machinima underwent a reorganization to address its global growth, and this process unfortunately resulted in layoffs. Less than 10% of Machinima's workforce was affected. Also as part of the restructure Machinima is hiring across key divisions including Sales, Marketing and Product."

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/14/machinima-layoffs/]

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[Terminate421]

Well that sucks. Somehow I can imagine RoosterTeeth picking them up. They're good people.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Great. Maybe we'll be free of their thieving hands on YouTube.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Well that seems a bit shitty to fire 23 employees all less than 2 weeks before Christmas.

I'll echo your statements and hope they find other jobs soon.

EDIT: Judging what was said in the update

"We've fired people in the useful departments, to hire people in the "Sell you shit" departments.

 

[fix-the-spade]

We have 15 jobs available, come and have exciting career with us, not you, you're fired, get out of here dead-wood,'
Way to stay classy Machinima.com.

Well that sucks. Somehow I can imagine RoosterTeeth picking them up. They're good people.

They are, but Burnie Burns is notoriously careful with 'his' money, can't see them taking on anyone just to be nice.

 

[Covarr]

I hope this doesn't affect Freeman's Mind. That's my favorite thing to bear the Machinima logo.

P.S. Thanks

 

[crazyrabbits]

Is that the same Rob Smith that used to be with PC Gamer? Glad he's still sticking around - always loved his work.

It always surprises me when companies can employees in the most undignified way possible. You'd think that someone over there would give them a couple minutes to blast off an e-mail letting them know they're no longer with the company. And just before Christmas, no less!

 

[Itsthefuzz]

I really liked Billy, too. Shame.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Ouch. I recognized both of those names right off the bat. Kinda hard to see them go. Of course, I'm not surprised about the gracelessness that Machinima.com has had as of late. In the interest of expansion they've abandoned some core principles that made the company great in the first place. Nowadays it's rarely about actual machinima and more about trailers, top ten lists, live action series, and news updates, which would all be fine and dandy if they still supported their director's program as much as did in the past, but now they've made it ridiculously complicated to even try and get one of your videos aired. I've got many friends in the machinima community, and most of them haven't had any of their stuff aired in two years.

 

[Azuaron]

Firing 23 of 200 employees apparently affects less than 10% of your workforce.

MATH.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

So, Youtube channels use legalese and PR-speak, as well as undergo "reorganizations to affect global growth"? Something changed while I wasn't looking, because this sounds like how Goldman Sachs fires people before Christmas.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I hope this doesn't affect Freeman's Mind. That's my favorite thing to bear the Machinima logo.

Seconded. Is this why there hasn't been an update in a while? Hope not, that's the main reason I even look at the Machinima page...

 

[josemlopes]

Weird, I get that they might fire some guys that did barely anything in the depths of the office but Billy Shibley was a know face on that channel. Machinima was ok when it was about actual machinima, now there is only IGD and All Your History, their other channels just seem to spam videos with gameplay of multiplayer games

 

[Tohron]

I hope this doesn't affect Freeman's Mind. That's my favorite thing to bear the Machinima logo.

Seconded. Is this why there hasn't been an update in a while? Hope not, that's the main reason I even look at the Machinima page...

There hasn't been an update because he was working on a video in Source Filmmaker (now released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBbuOUiSV3o) that took much longer than expected due to issues using Filmmaker.

Anyway, I doubt Freeman's Mind would stop even if he was removed from the payroll - he can now make money by selling his own merchandise (including T-shirts now). Anyway, if Freeman's Mind is all you're interested in, you might be better off checking his own site at Accursed Farms instead - he does give rare updates if something is taking a lot longer than planned.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Can the guys who produce shit and hire some marketing... spells out what Machinima is all about really.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I hope this doesn't affect Freeman's Mind. That's my favorite thing to bear the Machinima logo.

Seconded. Is this why there hasn't been an update in a while? Hope not, that's the main reason I even look at the Machinima page...

There hasn't been an update because he was working on a video in Source Filmmaker (now released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBbuOUiSV3o) that took much longer than expected due to issues using Filmmaker.

Anyway, I doubt Freeman's Mind would stop even if he was removed from the payroll - he can now make money by selling his own merchandise (including T-shirts now). Anyway, if Freeman's Mind is all you're interested in, you might be better off checking his own site at Accursed Farms instead - he does give rare updates if something is taking a lot longer than planned.

Ah thanks, I was wondering about that (and maybe I'll take a look at that new video)... and possibly his site as well. I'd buy a Freeman's Mind T-shirt, though...

 

[Quaxar]

Firing 23 of 200 employees apparently affects less than 10% of your workforce.

MATH.

Not their fault, 120% of the statistics department was just laid off.

 

[Roxas1359]

Well that sucks. Somehow I can imagine RoosterTeeth picking them up. They're good people.

I can see them doing that too actually. Seriously that sucks for those fired, I mean it's so close to Christmas and this happens. Plus with the update that makes no sense at all. Kinda glad I'm not trying to go with a partnership with Machinima. ^.^