America's Army Devs Let Go One Day After Launch

[RollForInitiative]

As others have said, this is not wholly surprising--developers getting laid off after a new release happens all the time in the industry.

In my experience, typically, the contractors / temps are all let go while the rank and file employees are assigned to other projects that need the resources. The management and lead types often start planning something new if they're not needed elsewhere. Occasionally there's a little trimming of the rank and file if there's no room for them on other projects. The termination of the entire team after release is...well...a little less common.

Of course, the end of a studio - which appears to be the case here - usually signifies the release of most/all of its employees and that happens more often than I'd care to admit lately.

 

[Low Key]

Seeing as the government is already making cut backs (allegedly), it only makes sense to shut down an operation making video games. It sucks to see happen, but hey, that's life, and sometimes life really effin' sucks.

 

[Scarecrow38]

I think it could be a PR move by the Army after everyone started whining that it wasn't perfect straight out of the box. Issues outside the developers control led to the game not working properly and now the Army seems to have been forced into a knee-jerk PR reaction.

 

[Rigs83]

I can only hope that the team was given a heads up to start looking for work - to ditch an entire studio the day after they finish putting out your game seems a little bit harsh.


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Brought to you by the people who made Stop-Loss.

 

[101194]

Thats...So dick, Well, Another dude fucked by the "Man"

 

[squid5580]

First word that came to my mind: Owned.

On the serious side. Shit, that seems really unethical to me.

Huh funny it said the exact opposite to me. It is harsh but it is also the law of the jungle so to speak. It is what happens when you have a job that can be finished. When it is finished you may not have a job. If you want a permanent job go for accounting or undertaker.

 

[SharPhoe]

You have to wonder how they feel about that: I'd imagine that several of them are rather pissed off.

Somehow, I think that might be an understatement. The only way it could possibly be worse, in my opinion, is if they got closed down on the same day or the day before.

Still, really sucks to be them, I've gotta say.

 

[New Troll]

Reliving flashbacks of the two-faced moves the Army made when I enlisted. Whole deal seems very shoddy to me.

 

[TriggerUnhappy]

"Thanks for making our propaganda filled game, now get your ass out of here!" Probably not how the conversation went, but it's how I like to imagine it. Pretty fucked up though, your big reward for all of your hard work is getting fired. Sucks to be them I suppose.

 

[Abedeus]

Well, the new America's Army 3 is so shitty, I've tried to register an account for two days and it doesn't work. And many people who made it through can't get past training session or get a crash on the start of a map.

 

[MarcusMang]

It's the American Military. Not to be anti-American, but it's not the worst thing they've done. Although AA is such a blatant propoganda machine I refuse to play it (even though I'm Canadian).

But it's fun eh!

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Has anyone been on the forums, the amount of people complaining how bad the game was coded and how poorly it runs. I get 1FPS, worse than Crysis.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

That's what they get for releasing such a broken buggy mess of a game.

Completely agree this is worse then the first release of AA. They should have been set on fire for wasting gov't money to release this broken piece of shit. You can't even complete the fuckin' basic training for Christ's sake they should be glad their asses didn't get shipped to GITMO.

 

[Art Axiv]

First word that came to my mind: Owned.

On the serious side. Shit, that seems really unethical to me.

Huh funny it said the exact opposite to me. It is harsh but it is also the law of the jungle so to speak. It is what happens when you have a job that can be finished. When it is finished you may not have a job. If you want a permanent job go for accounting or undertaker.

The law of the jungle. But who makes the jungle harsh as it is? We do. The action is socially unethical, while its business - and I understand that's how the business rolls. It's money. But they could've acted otherwise like sending them for a long holiday. I could keep on writing, but you get my point now.

 

[Elminsters Hat]

Since when is money a problem for releasing shameless US army propaganda?

 

[.[B@lL15T1C].]

That's what they get for releasing such a broken buggy mess of a game.

exactly its truly awful, i cant complete the training levels and i get booted from oline games before i join. Although its free so i don't care tbh.

 

[MajorMartyMcFLy]

People are confusing the team that made the game with the company that handles the servers. The reason you can't log in or play the game is all about wheter or not you have the servers, in this case and according to the steam forums, they did not. As you can see for non Steam users, the other down load client and the servers are a company called Pragmatic, and if you had the misfortune like me or any others in the beta, that client was terrible. So, if like me you want to play AA3 blame them, not steam or emeryville.

 

[Ashbax]

Erm WTF you guys realise that once a brickie finishes building a house they get laid off right ?

Theyve released the game so why would they keep staff who makes games around after theyve finished making the game ? Im sure theyll keep the guys that can patch and map around but everyone else is now expendable.

None of you guys run a business do yah

Well, say, its more like, Having a bunch of McDonalds branchs, for instance, lets say every time a branch makes and sells a burger, its shut down.

Because that office had been making all the Americas Army games... *Sniffle*

Fucking Recession..