Developer Naughty Dog laying off contract developers
As a part of the wave of recent layoffs in the videogames industry amidst a year of some of the most highly anticipated and high quality games in years, PlayStation Developer Naughty Dog known for games such as Uncharted and The Last of Us, is laying off some of its contracted developers. With most of the workers let go were from the Quality Assurance Testing Department, which is very important for maintaining a quality and bug tested experience for games. Other Departments such as art and production were downsized. Kotaku broke the story that no full time developers were being let go but that the 25 that were let go were not receiving severance pay and were also told to keep quiet about the news of the layoffs.
This year we’ve seen numerous studios with varying degrees of success in the gaming industry face large amounts of layoffs from Epic Games just last week, to 343 Industries who makes Halo games for Microsoft. Layoffs this year have included companies such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Embracer Group, and the closure of Volition who made Red Faction and Saints Row.
This news might lead one to ask “Why are there all these layoffs when these studios are releasing games with record breaking profits, cutting millions of dollars of bonus checks to their CEO’s while they layoff workers just after launching a game?” It’s a good question, why are developers not allowed to celebrate in the success? Why is it that the cuts in the industry start at the bottom when it is often the leadership that is at fault when a game is not successful. It is often marketing executives in the board room that will suggest radical features such as pay to win, microtransactions, forcing games into a live service model that wasn’t the intention of the original design by developers, and it’s all motivated by profit.
This is not even a problem just relegated to the gaming industry, we see it across all industries with multiple strikes in the labor force from actors, writers, voice actors, auto workers, and more. We see CEO’s from every company buying a new Super Yacht while their workforce struggles for basic cost of living expenses in a time where inflation is high and wages have been stagnant. These companies often demand loyalty from their workers but offer none in return. Older generations would stay at a job all their life and have a pension and retirement benefits while now, as soon as it comes time to pay up or share bonus checks, we’re hit with a wave of layoffs and your time at the company and your loyalty means nothing.
What do you think of the layoffs in the game industry? Is there some sort of fix for this issue? Let me know in the comments down below.
