Layoffs at IO?

[skdr]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=411637

Every mapcorian at IO, are you guys safe? I hope so!

[Mazy]

Yup

[-HP-]

Yup

What do you mean yup man? Were you affected?

And wtf, didn't K&L2 still managed to top the UK charts on release?

[Mazy]

":31b1n29d]

Yup

What do you mean yup man? Were you affected?

And wtf, didn't K&L2 still managed to top the UK charts on release?

Nah, was referring to being safe. Yeah it charted, just not enough

[Alf-Life]

Yeah, just saw this here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... -cancelled

OK, good you're still there. Sucks that it's just before Christmas.

[General Vivi]

Sorry to hear man, I hope everything works it's way out. Lots of layoffs seems to be happening now around the industry.

[PhilipK]

Glad you weren't affected Mazy.

Really sucks with all the layoffs going on recently

[Mazy]

Thanks guys. Yeah, the industry is bleeding pretty badly as a whole right now (Unless you're COD or WOW, anyway).

Stuff like this is really frightening:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... and-3-sell

http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/rock-band-3

Okay it's only the UK (can't find the US/EU numbers yet), metascore doesn't equate to good sales, and the music genre has definitely seen a decline in sales over the past few years, but it shows how fucking brutal the market is right now. Then add the way budgets and development cycles are structured right, and the fact that you need a healthy dose of luck with each release.

[Serenius]

I think Rock Band 3's mistake was releasing on the same date as so many other highly anticipated games. Their sales will soar over the next few weeks as people start doing Christmas shopping.

Sorry to hear K&L2 didn't do so well and the layoffs were triggered, Mazy. It looked like a pretty bitchin' game.

[Skjalg]

Sorry to derail this thread.. but since you already drew the paralell between the games industry with the music industry;

I think the games industry is going through the same thing as the music industry is. The middleman has always sucked the entertainment businesses dry, but with the rise of the internet things are changing. I read that the music industry as a whole is seeing less and less money, but the artists themselves are seeing more income now than ever before. Because with just 3 clicks of a button you can sell your music online and you dont need a middleman to arrange everything for you anymore.

I think the same thing is happening with games and movies. You see indie game developers striking gold almost every week nowadays. Some, if not most, of them are old industry vets that are tired of the middlemen stealing a piece of the pie that they toil so hard to make.

Imagine what would happen if Blizzard only sold StarCraft 2 through their b.net service online. Yes they might sell 10% less copies, but I think they'd make up for all that because it wouldn't cost them much more than the bandwidth and server capacity compared to making the dvd's and boxes and shipping them everywhere. All digital merchandise should be sold digitally.

[Warby]

i got the word through facebook and i am sorry but i really dont know what to post here and seeing how mazy survived i dont think anybody that lost his/her job will probably read this here so my post here were i express my sorrows is utterly pointless !

that said !

i am all with you skjalg i think its time for all of us to get up and start cutting out the middle mans !