I get where you're coming from but my path of thought is partly based on the direction of less exclusive platforms, in the sense of the "anywhere, any device" future which is what Microsoft are specifically pushing moving forward, it's why Sony, outside of the new revenue stream, have also started doing PC releases.
Sony studio London shut
- Thread starter Retroman839
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pawncrackers
Newbie
I can't help but feel that Musk started all this, with the Twitter layoffs - seen the same 'follow the leader' behaviour leech into many business sectors since, ruining lives. I hope the Sony studio folks, find jobs that will last.
False profits in coming months. Just watch..! -_-
False profits in coming months. Just watch..! -_-
L_____E_____T
Active member
The timing is very typical - right before end of financial year. Which means so many publishers are writing off costs pre-tax calculations before the results.
Do remember that the many hundreds of thousands of hands-on games developers in the industry get no say in what projects they work on or what the overall product design will be. They are just workers creating the many tiny digital portions of what goes towards making an enormous game title.
When big companies lay off staff, it's largely the hands-on developers at the bottom of the chain that are let go.
By saying hundreds of thousands deserve to be out of work due to the decisions that they had no chance to influence, seems unduly harsh.
Exactly why I quit. No creativity allowed.
you cant write "anywhere" code like you can with open-source stuff.
i dont know what sony is like now, but in the PSX days they insisted you use their documented libraries and system calls.
if you wrote something using SDL or openGL and compiled it with GCC they would tell you to gtfo.
i know that crAPPLE is still like that.
a good friend of mine worked for several years for company's including Hewson under andrew braybrook and then sony - he had NOTHING good to say about the industry at all!
i dont know what sony is like now, but in the PSX days they insisted you use their documented libraries and system calls.
if you wrote something using SDL or openGL and compiled it with GCC they would tell you to gtfo.
i know that crAPPLE is still like that.
a good friend of mine worked for several years for company's including Hewson under andrew braybrook and then sony - he had NOTHING good to say about the industry at all!
reason that sticking to the documented library and systems calls was requested was mostly to reduce testing effort and to ensure that the game remains compatible with future hardware, features or add-ons
That's not to say people stick to the rules especially when on the PS1 there were more efficient ways of accessing the hardware directly.
Chucking in the last version of a third party library is cool until you inadvertently introduce a security issue or melt the processor.
I sort of understand that many people see Apple in terms of the 'iPhone'.. rather than desktop
theres nothing stopping you from using open source on the Mac and shipping a product, with a few exceptions.
But honestly Apple M hardware is great for development, solid Unix O/S , comes with many of development tools for free , fast and power efficient, hardware acceleration .. and silent.
That's not to say people stick to the rules especially when on the PS1 there were more efficient ways of accessing the hardware directly.
Chucking in the last version of a third party library is cool until you inadvertently introduce a security issue or melt the processor.
I sort of understand that many people see Apple in terms of the 'iPhone'.. rather than desktop
theres nothing stopping you from using open source on the Mac and shipping a product, with a few exceptions.
But honestly Apple M hardware is great for development, solid Unix O/S , comes with many of development tools for free , fast and power efficient, hardware acceleration .. and silent.
CMYKhazi-Dan
Saikyo Style 💪
I was meaning hope the soulless big companies lose massive revenue 👍
Regarding employees, I always thought you're potentially only ever a month away from losing your job. The reason I'm self employed. Although I have often thought about giving myself the sack 😅
kuato_lives
Active member
Interested to hear from the people who’ve worked in the games industry, which games did you work on?
MarkGrossi
User
My brother was a games tester for Realtime Worlds back in 2009 when they were making APB. The company was (unsurprisingly) riddled with middle management. That's the way of these companies - they get stuffed full of unnecessary staff and too many "creatives".
These massive games companies were never going to be sustainable.
After APB was released, Realtime entered administration and had huge lay-offs. They only kept a small skeleton staff for the servers after that, I think, before the were disbanded. The game cost multiple millions, and went through hell for 5 years
Compare that to the team of only 40 who made the amazing Shadow of the Colossus in 3 1/2 years.
These massive games companies were never going to be sustainable.
After APB was released, Realtime entered administration and had huge lay-offs. They only kept a small skeleton staff for the servers after that, I think, before the were disbanded. The game cost multiple millions, and went through hell for 5 years
Compare that to the team of only 40 who made the amazing Shadow of the Colossus in 3 1/2 years.
deadendthrills
Active member
I worked at London Studio a couple of times on two consecutive projects (both VR) and the team was almost completely changed between them, which seemed crazy considering how specialised the first one was. Most of those original devs had scattered into smaller VR studios in the interim. Worth noting that this was before the pandemic (so nothing new for Sony) and that many of the devs in both teams were ex-Lionhead (so nothing new for Microsoft either). That experience is partly what gave me very little faith in Sony's honest desire to support VR2.
neogeojames
Newbie
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I was offered a job at Sony Soho back when I was 18 after participating in a competition. I was far too young/shy at the time to take the job
L_____E_____T
Active member
There has been other news related to the VR side. They've basically said it's not performing for them. Not sure why this is a surprise, VR is never going to reach mainstream adoption, as much as I love it. 30 years of hard market data to avoid any doubt but people still try it. Zuckerberg's chucked millions on it but hey ho.
Was it a Net Yaroze competition, by any chance?I was offered a job at Sony Soho back when I was 18 after participating in a competition. I was far too young/shy at the time to take the job
Retroman839
Senior Member
I remeber reading about that competition in Edge
neogeojames
Newbie
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No, it was actually the gangs of london psp game, the sequel to the getaway.