General Gaming Layoff Roundup - 30 October 2023 Update: Bungie lays off 8% of its workforce (~100 people) following missed annual revenue target by 45%

[Brian]

S.F. video game company lays off 284

WWW.SFCHRONICLE.COM

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It’s the company’s second round of cuts in seven months.

unity laying off 284

 

Riot Games Eliminating 46 Positions Amid Shift in Priorities

T.CO

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The layoffs, one of Riot's first-ever publicized reductions in force amid shifting priorities within the company, focus primarily on talent acquisition and recruiting.

Riot 46

I assume this trend will continue since everyone plays follow the leader in these industries. 

[Guest]

Gaming has the double whammy of tech sector shrinkage and entertainment industry shrinkage as the roaring days of Covid cash for consumers and cheap debt for the firms are over.

[Paperclyp]

Jason Oestreicher and Jess Obrien are at least two people cut from Giant Bomb today.

 

Jason has been around forever. Really enjoy his input. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I checked with one of our former posters who works at MS and he said that while his team was spared, one of his good friends who has worked at MS for 15 years with stellar performance reviews was informed that tomorrow will be his final day.

[Nokra]

My team of less than 15 people (at Intel) lost two people. Somehow I wasn't one of them, despite being the newest employee. It seems fairly random. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

9 minutes ago, Nokra said:

My team of less than 15 people (at Intel) lost two people. Somehow I wasn't one of them, despite being the newest employee. It seems fairly random. 

 

The fact that you were the newest employee -- and therefore more than likely the cheapest employee -- is probably the reason.

[AbsolutSurgen]

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I checked with one of our former posters who works at MS and he said that while his team was spared, one of his good friends who has worked at MS for 15 years with stellar performance reviews was informed that tomorrow will be his final day.

Performance is rarely used anymore in layoffs.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

1 hour ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Performance is rarely used anymore in layoffs.

not unless a manager just really wants to get rid of a person and they’re given the responsibility to choose. 
 

this instance probably means the selection was made by HR or senior leadership only looking to reduce budget with the most bang. 
 

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

The fact that you were the newest employee -- and therefore more than likely the cheapest employee -- is probably the reason.

 

sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes a newer employee could get hired in at or above others who’ve been there for years, because “market value” for the position has increased and outpaced the company’s annual pay raises. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This is what our Microsoft-employed former poster had to say about the layoffs;

 

Quote

I don't think there is much consistency. Some teams had entire areas cut wholesale. Other teams might have been performance based. Others might have other ways. Not great.

 

[Keyser_Soze]

7 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

Jason Oestreicher and Jess Obrien are at least two people cut from Giant Bomb today.

 

Jason has been around forever. Really enjoy his input. 

 

Also Justin (the art boy)

[Nokra]

Yeah there can be restructuring, in which case entire teams may disappear, and then there are also performance problems where individuals are targeted. And always, the budget is king. I'm just grateful I wasn't cut, especially since I've only been here six months and am just starting to feel like I'm getting my feet under me. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

13 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

not unless a manager just really wants to get rid of a person and they’re given the responsibility to choose. 
 

this instance probably means the selection was made by HR or senior leadership only looking to reduce budget with the most bang. 

You can fire someone pretty easily for performance problems.

 

In my experience, in big companies at least, HR realizes that company performance measurement systems aren't robust enough to stand up to a court challenge in a discrimination lawsuit.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Not strictly gaming-related, but Google has added 12K to the misery metric:

 

Google lays off 12,000 blaming 'different economic reality' as mass tech layoffs continue | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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Google's parent company Alphabet lays off thousands of people from across organisation.

 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

27 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

You can fire someone pretty easily for performance problems.

 

In my experience, in big companies at least, HR realizes that company performance measurement systems aren't robust enough to stand up to a court challenge in a discrimination lawsuit.

some company HR departments make it challenging, almost impossible to let people go for performance. If it’s extreme it can be easier, but some require it usually requires lots of documentation and attempts to get their numbers up. Also needing very defined KPIs to measure. 
 

essentially a manager would need to show objectively that the employee is underperforming and they’ve exhaustively tried to help get their performance up without any improvement. Not all companies are like this, but I’ve seen it. Even in the state of Texas where they don’t need all that effort. Probably the only performance metric that will walk an employee out the door the quickest with the least effort is attendance. 
 

but this was all assuming a manager wants to get rid of somebody who is not meeting expected KPIs. Sometimes managers want to get rid of somebody who is not meeting desired KPIs. Like the employee is lowest on the team, but still meeting the bare minimum. In many companies HR will not let a manager fire that person. 
 

but all bets are off if there is layoffs coming and managers get to/have to choose from their own departments or groups. Because as long as it isn’t something where it looks like the company is laying off only their [insert any 1 protected class here] it will all look above board. The company is shielded a bit. 

[SuperSpreader]

Someone write an AI to optimize the C-Suite. 

[gamer.tv]

22 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

Jason Oestreicher and Jess Obrien are at least two people cut from Giant Bomb today.

 

Jason has been around forever. Really enjoy his input. 

Well that’s a bit shit. 

[SuperSpreader]

Remember where people just didn't want to work? Hilarious. 

[Keyser_Soze]

15 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

Remember where people just didn't want to work? Hilarious. 

 

Where was it? Sierra Leone?

[SuperSpreader]

Everyone wants to be the biggest game studio but not the best 

[Brian]

Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens | Windows Central

WWW.WINDOWSCENTRAL.COM

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HoloLens, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality are all but dead at Microsoft.

 

[SuperSpreader]

VR is dumb and not going anywhere 

 

This should scare Meta 

[stepee]

I gave up on the idea of hololens ever being something that resembled the initial pitch and/or hitting mass market a long time ago so this checks out. I still feel like we are another 5 years out from a good AR product but I’m curious what apple has ready.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

46 minutes ago, Brian said:

Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens | Windows Central

WWW.WINDOWSCENTRAL.COM

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HoloLens, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality are all but dead at Microsoft.

 

 

Once Congress killed the Army's procurement request, that was the final nail in the coffin.

 

Congress says the Army can’t spend $400 million buying Microsoft HoloLens headsets - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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But the company is getting millions to make improvements.

 

[SuperSpreader]

44 minutes ago, stepee said:

I gave up on the idea of hololens ever being something that resembled the initial pitch and/or hitting mass market a long time ago so this checks out. I still feel like we are another 5 years out from a good AR product but I’m curious what apple has ready.

 

It will be the evolution of a phone not VR. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

46 minutes ago, stepee said:

I’m curious what apple has ready.

 

Apple’s augmented reality glasses project is reportedly on hold - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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No Apple Glass this time

 

 

[stepee]

22 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Apple’s augmented reality glasses project is reportedly on hold - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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No Apple Glass this time

 

 

 

yeah by that I meant the mixed reality headset :P

[Kal-El814]

I think AR has tremendous potential to be an incredible learning tool, but there's no way that anyone involved in making it wouldn't just saturate your fovea with ads so... perhaps better that it's not quite fully baked.

[AlwaysDyingX]

12 hours ago, SuperSpreader said:

VR is dumb and not going anywhere 

 

This should scare Meta 

 

 

Only their employees who just went through a massive layoff last year 

[SuperSpreader]

1 hour ago, BasemntDweller2 said:

 

 

Only their employees who just went through a massive layoff last year 

 

Yeah but it's their entire strategy. MS/Gov is abandoning it, while it's less competition it isn't a good omen. 

[BloodyHell]

On 1/19/2023 at 3:19 PM, Paperclyp said:

Jason Oestreicher and Jess Obrien are at least two people cut from Giant Bomb today.

 

Jason has been around forever. Really enjoy his input. 

I might try a listen with Jess gone. Still sucks she’s out of a job, but she made GB worse.

[BloodyHell]

On 1/21/2023 at 9:50 PM, SuperSpreader said:

VR is dumb and not going anywhere 

 

This should scare Meta 

VR is excellent for gaming, it’s just not quite there.

[SuperSpreader]

5 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

VR is excellent for gaming, it’s just not quite there.

 

Never gonna happen as long as you have to put on a helmet. 

 

Ppl won't even wear light masks to keep from dying bro. 

[BloodyHell]

18 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

Never gonna happen as long as you have to put on a helmet. 

 

Ppl won't even wear light masks to keep from dying bro. 

Oh I agree completely. It needs to get down to the size of swimming goggles, or form fitting ski goggles at best, but there’s definitely a ton of incredible stuff to explore with VR.

 

But it can’t be compared to something that was turned into a political act by the media (and the government by Fauci first telling people it didn’t work, then doing a 180, which is my only real problem with Fauci’s overall handling of the early pandemic). The two aren’t remotely connected. “I can’t wear a mask because bla bla bla” is basically saying “My team doesn’t wear masks and I want to pretend I have a valid excuse.”

[DarkStar189]

8 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

I might try a listen with Jess gone. Still sucks she’s out of a job, but she made GB worse.

Yeah I hate to be negative and I don't want anybody to lose their job... but I might be more interested in the show now.

 

I also decided I'm going to sign up for the Giant Bomb premium thing for a month. I ordered an external hard drive and im going to spend the month downloading all the premium videos I'm ever going to be interested in. Feels like every 6-12 months GB is getting chipped away bit by bit. I don't have faith anymore that the website is going to be around for years to come.  

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The Washington Post eliminated the entirety of its Launcher video game/esports section, resulting in 20 layoffs including the phenomenal Gene Park