Inhuman. I can’t believe how they would fire everybody without telling them what’s going on, just shutting off all their accounts and leaving them hanging.
I’m amazed they’d layoff ESO workers, it’s been a Zenimax cashcow for years.
microsoft set fire to all their money with the help of OpenAI
But it could be a bigger cash cow if we didnt have to pay people money. Better to apply for some h1-b visas and get some proper slaves like we had back in the day.
Maybe in other industries but that strategy has never translated well in Gaming.
Longterm is for suckers - nu management is fast and loose - they break things - preferable good work environment.
Being a cashcow isn’t enough in this day and age unfortunately
How do we live in a world where being a major financial boon for your company isn’t enough, this is bullshit.
The Excel Spreadsheet is sacrosanct. A bean counter predicted that you should make more money than last year, and if you don’t, you are worthless.
Hasbro and Magic the Gathering have entered the chat
I’m just assuming they think they’ll be able to exploit laborers by forcing them into a more gig style system. Capitalism is ass and this seems like an inevitable result especially in this industry.
I know its not so easy but I wish people would just stop working for these shitty companies under abusive conditions. I understand people have to eat but there’s gotta be something that can be done.
But at least the shareholders are happy!
This is very common in the corporate world. The only thing is it doesn’t make sense for a trillion-dollar corporation reaping record profits to be doing this, or maybe it does. We all say competition in the market is good, but I don’t think trillion-dollar corporations are incentivized to compete. They’re chasing dollars while employees and consumers are pennies to them.
award winning
ok ok, enough comedy…
I can’t believe…
What’s hard to believe here? This is how capitalism works.
Every time…
“Don’t mind me, I’m just here to acquire your company.”
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (but with companies)
Also, that’s an remarkably scathing interview for current employees. No way they could do that without a union.
Also also, the game they inexplicably canned well into development sounds awesome: https://www.trueachievements.com/news/canceled-xbox-mmo-project-blackbird
Traversal was a core aspect of the game, with Exodus offering a vertical playground for players to explore, equipping players with a grappling hook, and, according to our source, you’d have been able to “climb and wall-run on any surface.” The team wanted movement to feel natural and fun, similar to that found in games like Spider-Man and the driving in GTA.
Interestingly, our source tells us that ZeniMax had been toying with ideas for multiplayer side content away from the combat that would put the traversal system to good use, included races and obstacle courses. One mode the team had been toying with was like a blend of basketball and Quidditch. Our source says, “There was a ball to dunk into a ring, and you could pass or shoot,” offering an experience that felt a little like Titanfall 2, although not as fast.
Maybe it was a little too anti-corpo for Microsoft?
I’ve played ESO for a long time now. It was a great game but it’s likely that Microsoft just killed it and it will slowly die or at best they severely crippled it and it will regain its team and continue on. Either way the way MS handled everything was very poorly done and have lost the trust of their employees and consumers. Trust is hard to gain but easy to lose. Personally, I am not willing to invest time or money into a game that will not be able to update or take care of their servers.
I never really trusted any sort of MMORPG that wasnt able to be community hosted with my time. It always ends up being a rugpull.
Edit: For that matter, add survival games/Open world multi-player games without community servers to that statement.
Yup. I REALLY hate those 11 year long scams. Hell, WoW is going at 21 years but it is gonna screw everyone over ANY! SECOND! NOW!
Also jesus fucking christ, WoW can drink.
Actually, some talented people have managed to make locally/community hosted WoW a thing, so at least you have that backup plan :)
No such luck for Destiny 1/2, how much time I spent there…
Yes.
My point is that saying games that have been going strong for over a decade “always ends up being a rugpull” is… it doesn’t make it look like you understand what a “rugpull” is.
I suppose, sorry. I meant your progress that was meant to last forever being dragged out from under you (server shutdown). I guess rugpull might be more for something like scams.
Original source: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/zenimax-staff-lambast-inhumane-xbox-layoffs-it-s-difficult-to-work-when-you-re-looking-at-a-graveyard-
Sorry to be nitpicky, but this should be linked instead of the referring article.
Thanks for this, I appreciate it
I no longer give any money to MS and I’m not changing my mind on that anytime soon.
I suppose the next batch of marks have now learned why some of us don’t trust Microsoft any further than our noodly coder-arms can throw them.
