Layoffs at id software

[Furyo]

Seems like the studio reshuffled things around today....

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/01/10/ ... ees-let-go

[Puddy]

Always a shame...

Unfortunately, it feels like id is slowly loosing their relevancy in today's industry. They're not the game dev powerhouse they used to be I mean. I'm hoping they can turn things around...

[Mazy]

Sad, but not that surprising to be honest. Hope they fight back with Doom 4 or whatever their next thing is.

[Rick_D]

would be interesting to know which positions have suffered

[Nysuatro]

Are there people from mapcore who work at id ?

It is a shame, this week has been full with layoffs and the week has just been started

[PhilipK]

Real shame, best of luck if anyone here was affected

Also hoping they'll come back big time with D4 or even better Quake5 (return to something like Q3 )

[Minos]

They either bring Romero back or they will never make good games again

[Buddy]

Unfortunately, it feels like id is slowly loosing their relevancy in today's industry. They're not the game dev powerhouse they used to be I mean. I'm hoping they can turn things around...

I think they stopped being relevant in 2004

[Taylor]

That press statement implies id software culls people frequently to keep the head count down, which I imagine isn't the case...

Anyway, I guess this means Rage didn’t sell very well. I thought it’d do decent just on the strength of it being by id, but I guess they’re not really a household name for the new generation.

[Skjalg]

I think every software house needs to do this from time to time to get rid of the failed hires, but of course that might not be the case here.

[FrieChamp]

That press statement implies id software culls people frequently to keep the head count down, which I imagine isn't the case...

Anyway, I guess this means Rage didn’t sell very well. I thought it’d do decent just on the strength of it being by id, but I guess they’re not really a household name for the new generation.

Sometimes studios go on hiring frenzies in order to get a game completed by a certain point in time. Now that Rage is done, not all of these ressources might be needed (yet) on their new project(s). Or a project got cancelled. There can be a lot of reasons for this actually. For those people affected it's unfortunate of course.

[Vilham]

I think every software house needs to do this from time to time to get rid of the failed hires, but of course that might not be the case here.

Indeed. Its a shame you can't do this easily in the UK.

[Taylor]

There are contracts for temporarily staff and probation periods for making sure people are up to snuff.

Edit: Urk. I'm just saying it's worded as standard practice. Obviously shit happens.

[Skjalg]

I think every software house needs to do this from time to time to get rid of the failed hires, but of course that might not be the case here.

Indeed. Its a shame you can't do this easily in the UK.

I dont think there is an easy way to do this in any first world country with a smudge of worker-rights in their laws.

But the general way to do it is to toss everyone you want to fire into their own department, then wait until you need to show the quarterly finances to the board of directors and just smugly point out that this department is not earning any money and then proceed to fire everyone in that department. At least thats what I learned from the accountant people I worked with my first year out of school.

[Serenius]

It's much easier to lay off/fire people in the US than Europe (my VP bitches all the time about how hard it is to fire bad employees in some European countries). Texas is even easier, since it's an at-will state and employers don't even need a reason to terminate you.

Sadly, a few of my friends got hit by this.