Radical isn't the only major layoff to happen lately. A lot of the fat is going to be trimmed off the game industry before we pull out of this recession.
Free Radical isn't closed but they might as well be - 75% of staff FIRED!
- Thread starter ElArabDeMagnifico
- Start date
Big companies tend to fall hard. 45 isn't a bad number for a games company to have, people just think it is because they only read/hear about the "big dogs", most companies that i've seen (and work at) have less than 50, and that's the best way for it in my own personal experience. a team of 30 - 50 talented developers can get a lot done, and communication/understanding between one another is kept at maximum by default due to the low numbers. Companies that have teams in the hundreds are well known for perpetually hiring and firing, cutting off entire teams until they get a new game signed and then only hiring back what they can afford. Larger companies probably lose a lot more staff than smaller companies who are being out-done by the larger companies, it just takes the larger places longer to get bankrupt.
Just for the record though, Haze was always a huge f**king mistake but it's probably not what cost 75% of employers their jobs... because Haze has been finished for quite some time, the people working on it would have already gotten their monthly salaries past the date that Haze went on shelves. The only thing that kills a games studio, is not signing another game after the 'current' one gets finished. Haze is finished... ergo it kept the company afloat for the time it was being produced. Developers see a VERY small percentage of profits made from it after that.
Just for the record though, Haze was always a huge f**king mistake but it's probably not what cost 75% of employers their jobs... because Haze has been finished for quite some time, the people working on it would have already gotten their monthly salaries past the date that Haze went on shelves. The only thing that kills a games studio, is not signing another game after the 'current' one gets finished. Haze is finished... ergo it kept the company afloat for the time it was being produced. Developers see a VERY small percentage of profits made from it after that.
Shit! I was really looking forward to Timesplitters 4!
Also, shouldn't you have posted this in the news section? You would've gotten a nifty badge!
Also, shouldn't you have posted this in the news section? You would've gotten a nifty badge!
Not that these gaming sites have a lot of credability, but IGN gave it 40% which is quite horrendous for a near-50 million dollar project such as Haze and GameSpot gave it 60%.harhol said:
The ratings the game got was FAR sub-par ith the average shooter.
It was in short - that bad really...
EDIT: Also *FUCK* them for calling videogame reviewers and forcing them to take down negative reviews. Apparently, the publishers didn't like some Swedish Magazine review of Haze and called them and yelled them on the phone to immediatly to take down review on their homepage.
To follow on from before:
Haze... has very little to do with Free Radicals decline, stop whining on about how much it cost to make... the publishers pay that price, NOT the developer! It's not as if FRD walked up to Ubisoft and said "Hey guys, we're working on a game called Haze... can we get a loan to finance it?"... no, Ubisoft, the publishers in this instance, financed the developers to create the game. The game was finished in May of 2008... it's done, ergo the developers were paid!
The only way in which Haze has effected FRD, is if publishers hated it so much that they would rather not to business with them. The fact that Haze hit the shelves however, suggests that FRD reached all milestones and were able to complete the project to the standards that ubisoft desired from them.
Haze + Complete = Developer Paid.
Haze + Poor Sales = Publishers Suffer financially, developers take a hit to the pride.
There is a profit margin to take into account, but as I said in my last post... the developers see a very, very small amount of the total profit of the game, because they've already been given the finances to produce it, and when I say this I don't mean that the money from the publisher was "just" for the game, it was to feed and keep the developers working on it alive... y'know, a frickin' salary?
I'm not saying a lot of people here won't know this, but already there's a lot of "Boo! Haze killed FRD!!!" in this thread, which simply isn't true, it can't be true. You never hear about the titles that kill off developers... because they're canned by the publishers!
Haze... has very little to do with Free Radicals decline, stop whining on about how much it cost to make... the publishers pay that price, NOT the developer! It's not as if FRD walked up to Ubisoft and said "Hey guys, we're working on a game called Haze... can we get a loan to finance it?"... no, Ubisoft, the publishers in this instance, financed the developers to create the game. The game was finished in May of 2008... it's done, ergo the developers were paid!
The only way in which Haze has effected FRD, is if publishers hated it so much that they would rather not to business with them. The fact that Haze hit the shelves however, suggests that FRD reached all milestones and were able to complete the project to the standards that ubisoft desired from them.
Haze + Complete = Developer Paid.
Haze + Poor Sales = Publishers Suffer financially, developers take a hit to the pride.
There is a profit margin to take into account, but as I said in my last post... the developers see a very, very small amount of the total profit of the game, because they've already been given the finances to produce it, and when I say this I don't mean that the money from the publisher was "just" for the game, it was to feed and keep the developers working on it alive... y'know, a frickin' salary?
I'm not saying a lot of people here won't know this, but already there's a lot of "Boo! Haze killed FRD!!!" in this thread, which simply isn't true, it can't be true. You never hear about the titles that kill off developers... because they're canned by the publishers!
Haze and PDZ weren't terrible games, but you'd be hard pressed to describe them as anything better than "eh". Which, compared to the exellence of the real Rareware, and the greatness of the old Timesplitters games, may as well be garbage. This is the point. Rareware used to make incredible games; now, the people who hold the trademark are chimps, and the team behind Goldeneye has splintered, thanks to Doak apparently being some kind of arseface. I personally see this as one of the greatest tragedies of the industry.orannis62 said:
You're not understanding why people are saying the Haze killed FRD, they're saying it because the reason that they've died is because nobody will publish any of their games. People believe that the reason that no publisher will tough them is because Haze sold badly.GeeDave said:
Yeah... but:Axolotl said:
A game not doing very well in sales and a game not being completed to the publishers needs are two completely different things. FRD are quite clearly known as being someone who can finish projects to a set deadline, and work with whatever the publishers throw back at them. Fact of the matter is, Haze reached completion. The reason anything doesn't sell well is purely down to the general public (after we sift through an essay on marketing that i'd rather skip, and even then... marketing is on the publishers side, not the developers)GeeDave said:
Essentially, what this means is that FRD and any publisher out there would know that FRD are still good to work with, the reason they've failed... is 'most likely' due to them pitching "x" amount of games that were just not good enough to get picked up, regardless of Haze.
Plus you have to take into account that games studios don't just do one project and then suffocate themselves till they sign a new one, they'll be trying to secure newer signings whilst current projects are still in production, what all this points to, is that even before Haze was completed... FRD was quite aware that if they didn't get anything else soon, they'd be taking a big hit.
I mean i'm not saying this is all 100% fact, but I'm an artist in the games industry and I know how "a lot" of studios will operate. The fall of FRD, by my reckoning cannot be put on the shoulders of Haze.
Edit
And as I said earlier, 45 employees really isn't a bad number for a studio to have. Chances are if they're still continuing with 45 then they're already on another game, could be their own IP or they could be contracting from other studios... my point being, that "low" numbers of employees doesn't spell death for a studio half as much as large numbers do, with the exceptions of course being people like Blizzard, Blitz, EA etc... and even then we constantly read about major losses from them. (Okay maybe not Blizzard, but that's because they have a magical swan that pumps out golden eggs)
Hopefully we'll have a Farcry 2 situation, where another company takes over to make Timesplitters without it completely failing.
Edit
And as I said earlier, 45 employees really isn't a bad number for a studio to have. Chances are if they're still continuing with 45 then they're already on another game, could be their own IP or they could be contracting from other studios... my point being, that "low" numbers of employees doesn't spell death for a studio half as much as large numbers do, with the exceptions of course being people like Blizzard, Blitz, EA etc... and even then we constantly read about major losses from them. (Okay maybe not Blizzard, but that's because they have a magical swan that pumps out golden eggs)[/quote]
I think VALVe doesn't have that many employees yet we see incredible game after game, but the system inwhich the games are developed are unlike any other - nobody has a specific job, everybody contributes to something in their own way and everybody is in a discussion about each part of the game, which is gametested endlessly until release - if more companies did this type of development we'd see less shitty games hitting the market.
And as I said earlier, 45 employees really isn't a bad number for a studio to have. Chances are if they're still continuing with 45 then they're already on another game, could be their own IP or they could be contracting from other studios... my point being, that "low" numbers of employees doesn't spell death for a studio half as much as large numbers do, with the exceptions of course being people like Blizzard, Blitz, EA etc... and even then we constantly read about major losses from them. (Okay maybe not Blizzard, but that's because they have a magical swan that pumps out golden eggs)[/quote]
I think VALVe doesn't have that many employees yet we see incredible game after game, but the system inwhich the games are developed are unlike any other - nobody has a specific job, everybody contributes to something in their own way and everybody is in a discussion about each part of the game, which is gametested endlessly until release - if more companies did this type of development we'd see less shitty games hitting the market.