There’s a tsunami of layoffs in the gaming community, and in tech in general. A lot of the time, it’s entirely unjustified as the positions being laid off are often quickly put on the market again, and it’s usually not the top engineering talent (the most expensive) because they’re harder to replace. It’s often focused on lower tier jobs/support teams, and the cost of re-filling a position (sourcing, interviewing, hiring, training) would far offset any kind of salary reduction. It’s like the tech management version of a Michael Scott vasectomy.
I wish someone would compile a list of companies acting in extraordinary bad faith so I could consider that when making purchase decisions.
It’s been abundantly clear for a long time that Geoff is only in it for himself and his baby The Game Awards. He has never been a ‘rock-the-boat’ kinda guy, and insomuch as game companies have shown themselves to be incredibly petty and vengeful, I don’t think it’s completely unreasonable to think that some companies might boycott TGAs if called out, but 1) he’s not even calling the industry out indirectly, and 2) that’s still a choice on his part to prioritize his own pet project over the livelihoods of the people he claims TGA is there to celebrate.
Nothing in this article surprises me as someone who had followed this a while, but it was a good read all the same and it’s always interesting to read first hand accounts.
“The mask has slipped from the face of capital. What remains at ZA/UM is a cold, careless company where managers wage war against their own creatives, where artistry is second to property, and where corporate strategy is formed by an arrogant disdain for their own audience.”
Yep, this dude sure did work on Disco Elysium. Seriously, excellent interview, well worth a read.
Za/Um is dead (has been for a while, this is just the first sign of rigour mortis), but I’ll be paying attention to where these people end up.
Reminder that the core creatives behind Disco Elysium were forced out by the current owner of the studio after, according to them, he seized control through outright fraud and embezzlement.
So whatever was supposedly coming out of this studio, it probably wasn’t going to be a worthy successor to that masterpiece.
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