Entire 38 Studios Staff Laid Off, Effective Immediately
- Thread starter Mike Kayatta
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I think we all saw this coming with all the news about them the past week or so ... still quite sad to hear.
I hope those who worked for them manage to land on their feet.
I hope those who worked for them manage to land on their feet.
Erm. So much for me saying "I hope it works out for them" on the latest article. Laid off without any prior notice? Awful. Well, let me say this, then: I hope it works out for the employees. There are obviously many talented people without a job now, so hopefully they'll find new positions quickly, despite the current economic troubles.
Considering that EA published the thing, I would expect them to at least offer in the first place.Li Mu said:
Not to mention that Amalur emulated the stupid things from Oblivion, that Bethesda left out Skyrim.lastjustice said:
I played the demo way back. I would have liked it and bought it if they hadn't taken the worst aspects of Oblivion and crammed them in(success/failure system for picking up potion ingredients, weapon degradation, and psychic guards), as well as hosing up the skills system and wasting good skill points by tying it to that first problem. Because Bethesda was smart and left those things out of Skyrim was the reason I was okay with my brother getting it for me for Christmas.
Of course the reason those things were in Amalur was because Ken Rolston(one of the leads on Oblivion) was on the team. Somebody needs to sit him down and say, "No Ken, nothing about such mechanics makes a game fun, and that is what games are about."
I've bought KoA on day one, I've played (haven't finished it yet), and I liked it, specially the combat. The story/presentation was a bit of a letdown.
My first instinct on reading this is someone at the top messed up, and now everyone else in the company is getting screwed over this, which is pretty much sad and unfair.
The future may prove me wrong, I don't know.
My first instinct on reading this is someone at the top messed up, and now everyone else in the company is getting screwed over this, which is pretty much sad and unfair.
The future may prove me wrong, I don't know.
Wow this went from bad to WAY WORSE really quickly. It's a shame to see so many folks lose their jobs and probably get screwed over even more by all this.
I blame Schilling for trying to jump into the big name game development too quickly and overstepping his bounds. Given the talent involved in KoA it was rather a letdown, I got bored with it about halfway through as it really started to drag on and get kind of monotonous. After KoA came out the talk started about turning it into an MMO and this was a mistake. The original game was not strong enough as a single player game to warrant turning the IP into an MMO already. Schilling's studio needed to get some more games under their belt before they started trying to make an MMO out of KoA.
I don't think KoA would have made that great of an MMO anyway.
I blame Schilling for trying to jump into the big name game development too quickly and overstepping his bounds. Given the talent involved in KoA it was rather a letdown, I got bored with it about halfway through as it really started to drag on and get kind of monotonous. After KoA came out the talk started about turning it into an MMO and this was a mistake. The original game was not strong enough as a single player game to warrant turning the IP into an MMO already. Schilling's studio needed to get some more games under their belt before they started trying to make an MMO out of KoA.
I don't think KoA would have made that great of an MMO anyway.
But he is clever because I wanted to post that Kingdoms was a crappy game, and that the MMO they are making looks to be crappy too. Hence the company should go out of business so our economy doesn't waste resources creating product that noone wants!Crono1973 said:
This News makes me sad.
It makes me sad for all of the employees who have been kicked to the curb without warning (or it seems, their final three weeks pay).
It makes me sad because - even though Amalur wasn't all that original - I enjoyed playing it. It was a meaty RPG. Sure, none of the characters were that memorable (except for that spaced out hippy chick in Cradle of Summer and whats-her-face who dressed in blets), and the quests were pretty standard stuff, but I enjoyed the combat, I enjoyed the crafting and god damn did they know how to make DLC. No 30 minute extra mission here (unless you bought it preowned).
I haven't really been following the tragedy of this studio's demise closely, but it sounds a lot like the typical 'executive screwing over the little guy' story that is all too familiar nowadays.
I wish all of those employees the best of luck with continuing their careers, and as unlikely as it is, if any of them are reading this, I personally enjoyed the game you had a hand in creating. Small recompense I know, but thank you.
It makes me sad for all of the employees who have been kicked to the curb without warning (or it seems, their final three weeks pay).
It makes me sad because - even though Amalur wasn't all that original - I enjoyed playing it. It was a meaty RPG. Sure, none of the characters were that memorable (except for that spaced out hippy chick in Cradle of Summer and whats-her-face who dressed in blets), and the quests were pretty standard stuff, but I enjoyed the combat, I enjoyed the crafting and god damn did they know how to make DLC. No 30 minute extra mission here (unless you bought it preowned).
I haven't really been following the tragedy of this studio's demise closely, but it sounds a lot like the typical 'executive screwing over the little guy' story that is all too familiar nowadays.
I wish all of those employees the best of luck with continuing their careers, and as unlikely as it is, if any of them are reading this, I personally enjoyed the game you had a hand in creating. Small recompense I know, but thank you.
So they went out of business because their one game didn't sell at an outrageous rate? That sounds a tad bit dramatic. Since Capitalism works, they can get work real quick, especially if Gearbox and EA are helping.
I spent nearly 140 hours with KoA. Although it should have only been around 100, game-breaking bugs are no fun. I suppose I now see why they offered little to no support to KoA, or at least understand to some extent. Obviously, I enjoyed the game, but I can see why others may not have.
A shame that so many workers have been laid off, for the obvious and more important reasons, but it's great to see certain companies reaching out and offering support. I'd imagine though, with so many signs of certain trouble, that many individuals were already looking for employment, or at least I hope so.
On a selfish note I wonder if this means there won't be a sequel to KoA? Also a shame 'cause it's been one of the very few games I've genuinely gotten into in the past, say, year or so. Which is odd, considering just how many games of higher quality have been released in that time frame.
A shame that so many workers have been laid off, for the obvious and more important reasons, but it's great to see certain companies reaching out and offering support. I'd imagine though, with so many signs of certain trouble, that many individuals were already looking for employment, or at least I hope so.
On a selfish note I wonder if this means there won't be a sequel to KoA? Also a shame 'cause it's been one of the very few games I've genuinely gotten into in the past, say, year or so. Which is odd, considering just how many games of higher quality have been released in that time frame.
I never said it was suppose to be a Skyrim or WOW killer but still the market for a new Fantasy IP could have been better. Also if they sold above expectations and they still apparently didn't make enough money to cover costs doesn't that mean they never expected to make enough to cover costs?Zachary Amaranth said:
gonna sound exactly like a huge jerk here, but i think given recent similar events and outcomes, i think the best way to get hired is to first be employed by a game studio that's about to go under, because i've never seen this many hungry vultures in such a time span
And nobody claimed you did, dear.kajinking said:
And yet they sold damn well for a new title in a fantasy market. HUH.
If you preclude all other logical possibilities here, then yes. Cost actually does not seem to be the issue here.
That really, really sucks. I absolutely loved Amalur. Yeah, it had its fair share of problems, but it was still a very fun game that I still play today. The sequel could have improved upon the game to the point of it being able to compete with TES6. It sucks that it'll never have that chance, and that all those people got fired. I wonder if it would have sold better if it waited a month for Skyrim to die down.
According to the hearsay that reached my ear; it started out as a single player action RPG being developed by Big Huge Games. 38 Studios bought them and connected the game to their IP for an MMO project that 38 Studios had been working on; "Project Copernicus".Fursnake said:
This resulted in Kingdoms of Amalur, which it seems they wanted to establish the IP and help their MMO hit the ground running. MMO's are really big projects, so I think it's likely that a lot of the financial pressures came from supporting Project Copernicus. Even Bioware were probably hoping for their Dragon Age and Mass Effect sequels to help fund SW:TOR.