Sorry for the downtime today, folks — my ISP decided today was the absolute best day to make unannounced DNS changes, so it’s possible that many of you weren’t able to access the site for the last few hours. Frustrating, to be sure. But not as frustrating a day as the folks at Mythic appear to be having.
To follow-up on last night’s post concerning EA’s Q3 earnings report, Mythic appears to have been beset by another round of layoffs today. From the reports over at Massively and Joystiq, from 60 to 130 folks have been made redundant at EA Mythic. The WAR Herald has a news post up from Mark Jacobs attempting to put a positive spin on the whole affair (good luck with that), but reaction from the gaming press and various prominent bloggers seems a little more telling.
A few relevant posts that are worth a read this evening:
- Scott Jennings discusses corporate betrayal at Broken Toys
- DAOC’s former community relations diva Sanya Weathers defies the message board trolls
- In a show of solidarity with those who received a pink slip today, Syp won’t be logging into Warhammer this week
- Massively’s Michael Zenke quits WAR in protest (on his own blog, mind you)
- Ferrel at Epic Slant is miffed and generally crabby about the whole deal
While we’re in the midst of a global economic crisis (err, in case you weren’t aware), it’s easy to shuffle the blame over to worldwide conditions, or throw it on EA’s doorstep, but there’s a lot of talented folks out of work today. It’s a sad state of affairs, but talented people are always at a premium. Hopefully they all land on their feet.
But to play devil’s advocate… I don’t know what kind of options I’d have if I were put in the same situation as Mythic’s management. If you were in Mark Jacobs’ shoes today, realistically, what would you have done differently?
4 comments
“If you were in Mark Jacobs’ shoes today, realistically, what would you have done differently?”
That’s the question I would’ve liked to have seen Syp address. I was a bit disppointed in his post and started to compose a long response, but realised it would’ve been just as emotionally inappropriate as his.
The thing is, we’re all having to make tough decisions. The charity I work for went through a couple months of consultations to determine ways of cutting costs, and making some posts redundant was unfortunately one of the decisions that had to be made. I know my manager fought tought-and-nail for us, but we still had to lose two positions in my team. Better for us to make a few tough decisions now to ensure we can continue through this recession than carry on with our heads in holes in the ground ignoring the long-term consequences of doing nothing.
I think it’s unfair to portray the people that need to make these tough decisions as uncaring ‘idiots’, and hope Syp realises that trying to ‘punish’ Mythic for having to make them via his blog is counter-productive.
Actually, playing WAR and advertising more about how good it is instead of spreading bad press would be more productive and allow more people to keep their job/be hired.
What Syp’s doing is actually counterproductive and naïve.
I’ve worked in the tech industry for over a decade and I was laid off back in 2001 when I was working in the interactive arm of an advertising agency during the dot-com bubble. I definitely know the feeling. I was only out of work for a few weeks, though, and I found another job pretty quickly. Luckily, my severance package lasted a good three months, so I didn’t really have much to complain about aside from a 5-week unanticipated paid vacation.
It’s more the stress of being forced to job-hunt and deal with recruiters and headhunters again that I found a huge pain in the arse, but all in all it ended up helping my career as it forced me into a more traditional software development role. Now, looking back on it almost 8 years later, as shitty as it was at the time, it worked out to be a good thing for me in the long run.
Layoffs are always portrayed as a negative thing in the media, but in reality they’re not always as bad as they sound. The software industry is pretty hefty and there’s a lot of heavy hitters out there who aren’t being quite so badly affected by the current economic downturn. I’m sure the majority of the people who got laid off at Mythic and THQ today will be working again in no time.
Heiki, you’re right — I’m not going to slam Syp as I love his blog, but emotional responses are unavoidable when something we really enjoy is involved in a negative context. I know I was playing WAR tonight; as much as all the press has been pretty painful to read the last couple of days, there was still a helluva lot of oRvR going on late into the evening on Skull Throne.
Guess there are still a few players who don’t read the blogs or forums. ;)
I agree with you and I would like to add that although I disagree with Syp I’ve said it in a harsh kind of way.
I read his blog too (one of my favourites) and I understand that blogging exposes you to be judged by a lot of people.
As such, it was not my intention to criticize Syp but rather express that its not by spreading depressing news in WAR blogs that we’re going to help them get past these trying times. (launching a game in an economic downturn must be hard on everyone but especially on managers that have to take unpopular decisions AND be judged for it by a whole on-line community).
Anyway, good read as always, keep up with the WAR blogging !