Layoffs at SOE...

[Calista]

Sad day...

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/soe-announcement.148793/#post-2097374

Thought I'd put it up here Hamma and echo what Linda said about showing respect but if you feel it shouldn't be here at all then by all means delete my post.

Smed via Reddit:

Some specific comments.
Is this layoff going to impact PS2? - no. we have a large team still working on it. Yes some people have been let go from the team. They did terrific work and it's just simply a cost cutting issue.
Is Planetside 2 doing well - yes. These cuts were SOE wide. They were neccessary to get our costs in line with our revenues. Simple as that.
Was anyone fired because we have Player Studio know and we don't need them? - Absolutely not. this is silly.
There are many people with theories on why stuff like this happens. I can tell you this very simply - we make the best games we can and as a company I can say with a straight face that we do our absolute best to minimize the times when we need to do layoffs like this. They absolutely suck. However we do our absolute best to get people placed with good companies and we absolutely hire people back.
I don't much like the boilerplate statements companies make these days, ours included.. so I wanted to come on here and let you know we stand by PS2 and our other games and despite some people no longer being at the team we are working hard on the optimizations and the other features we have promised. We are making good progress and we intend to have a full status update next week
Smed

[wasdie]

Sounds like they are restructuring some staffing. They support a lot of projects and maybe they are condensing their support staff and choosing which project to keep funding. This isn't really unheard of for a bigger game company.

[Calista]

Sounds like they are restructuring some staffing. They support a lot of projects and maybe they are condensing their support staff and choosing which project to keep funding. This isn't really unheard of for a bigger game company.

Yeah and I am sure more details get revealed as time goes by but it does kinda suck.

[Crator]

Guess they might have been bloated from PS2 and EQ:N development and have gotten to a place that would allow them to run with a smaller team(s). I'm sure this is a common thing that typically happens. Surprised they even mentioned it to the public.

[moosepoop]

any ideas on how this can affect the game?

[bpostal]

any ideas on how this can affect the game?

No word on that yet that I've seen. I imagine that SOE will label this impact as minimal, we can only hope that's the case.

[Neurotoxin]

any ideas on how this can affect the game?

Plenty of ways, but we probably won't see it. It sounds like the focus is on MMOs, and that the brunt of this is focused on non-MMO staff and developers (TCGs and such). I don't know if this was a release of contract workers or if permanent employees have been terminated, but the company would definitely be keeping all the core members of the PS2 team that are integral to continuing content progress and keeping the game running.

It definitely sucks though. I hope it is part of a restructuring that will prevent this from happening again, rather than short-term pruning for the sake of profits. "Eliminate positions and help reduce costs" is never a reason I believe any professional should be terminated from their position of employment, especially if they do it well and enjoy what they do.

[Sunrock]

any ideas on how this can affect the game?

I suspect it can only affect the game in a good way if any at all. It's not likely they are kicking the best coders they have...

[ringring]

Sad for anyone adversely affected but otherwise this kind of thing happens in all companies from time to time.

A company structure that is right at one time becomes wrong later on down the line and changes have to be made.

I'd like to think and I don't know how SOE handles things, the those who need to go are helped in whatever way is appropriate.

[Phantomdestiny]

we need to understand that most of the lay off are part of the DCUO team (from the my current understanding , don't judge this as truth) which after the ps4 release might not get more expansion which seems to make sense because it was already release on the ps3 meaning it has found it's maximum player base.

Also we need to considered that SOE still have devs teams for EQ1 , EQ2 and other games meaning that the PS2 team is the least likely to have a number of employees reduction due to the fact that it is the most profitable game right now until EQ:N comes out .

[Hamma]

This definitely has a place here was about to post it if it wasn't here already.

Good luck to all those who were affected today, I hope that many PS2 devs were not affected but I'm sure some were :(

[Emperor Newt]

Well that sucks... I hope that those people find a new job soon.
smedley tweeted that it wont affect PS2 though. I hope that this turns out to be the case.

[camycamera]

what a shame....

[Ghoest9]

I told youso.

Smeds announcement didnt make sense.

[OmegaPREDATOR]

any ideas on how this can affect the game?

Here the answer :

http://www.planetside-universe.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1201&d=1377728261

As I see on Reddit, only some EQN workers and alot of DC Universe Online workers are fired. Nothing more for the moment.

[Calista]

http://dk.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1l9yr3/soe_firing_people_planetside_affected/cbx9k8w

Smed via Reddit:

Some specific comments.
Is this layoff going to impact PS2? - no. we have a large team still working on it. Yes some people have been let go from the team. They did terrific work and it's just simply a cost cutting issue.
Is Planetside 2 doing well - yes. These cuts were SOE wide. They were neccessary to get our costs in line with our revenues. Simple as that.
Was anyone fired because we have Player Studio know and we don't need them? - Absolutely not. this is silly.
There are many people with theories on why stuff like this happens. I can tell you this very simply - we make the best games we can and as a company I can say with a straight face that we do our absolute best to minimize the times when we need to do layoffs like this. They absolutely suck. However we do our absolute best to get people placed with good companies and we absolutely hire people back.
I don't much like the boilerplate statements companies make these days, ours included.. so I wanted to come on here and let you know we stand by PS2 and our other games and despite some people no longer being at the team we are working hard on the optimizations and the other features we have promised. We are making good progress and we intend to have a full status update next week
Smed

[Hamma]

Was just about to post that - edited yours for quotes. ;)

[Kalee J]

Totally sucks, I hope those affected find work, soon.

[Sledgecrushr]

I understand the need to keep your costs inline with revenue. But right now ps2 has so much work left on the plate it is kind of disheartening that they arent hiring more people.

[Rivenshield]

Calling Malorn... come in, Malorn....

[Shogun]

someone please tell those poor devs who are affected by this, that they might have a chance to join cloud industry gaming with star citizen! i heard they are still recruiting heavily.

[DirtyBird]

What a shit day for those on the receiving end.
Seems like yesterday where the SOE ppl would be offering best wishes to laid off people from other companies.

Hopefully SOE's revenue improves or there will be more.

Relaunch Alpha Squad?

[Galron]

Sorry to everyone who got cut, I know how those times go at work but it can be the best thing eventually.

Ive been on the fence recently, but this pushed me to finally cancel my sub today.

[Calista]

200??? :eek:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/28/soe-announces-layoffs-to-streamline-employee-base/

[Timealude]

Sorry to everyone who got cut, I know how those times go at work but it can be the best thing eventually.

Ive been on the fence recently, but this pushed me to finally cancel my sub today.

that doesnt make any sense.....why would you cancel your sub because they laid people off?

[DirtyBird]

200??? :eek:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/28/soe-announces-layoffs-to-streamline-employee-base/

:eek: indeed!

[defghi]

smed just wants a fatter bonus check :P

[Timithos]

You think maybe jetting-setting a whole entourage to Hong Kong, Germany and around the world was a cost? I wonder how many salaries you could still pay with those trips. I wonder if those promotional costs covered the thousands of players lost due to late bug squashing and bad optimization still.

[ChipMHazard]

:eek: indeed!

:eek: Especially if it's true that 100 of those layoffs were from the QA and CS department.
Hope those affected find new jobs soon.

[Mastachief]

So now instead of taking 3 days for a ticket response it will be 3weeks fantastic like chopping the legs off a tortoise.

[Assist]

Best of luck to all the peeps who got the axe. Layoffs happen, it sucks almost as much for the person forced to hand them out I promise! :cry:

[Gimpylung]

Seems it QA and support staff that are being let go, best of luck to them.

Hackers are gonna love this news :/

[Hamma]

200??? :eek:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/28/soe-announces-layoffs-to-streamline-employee-base/

:eek: indeed!

I honestly would take their reports with a grain of salt. I don't believe anything that quotes an "Inside Source" the only people who know are executives. Also PC Gamer threw up several inconsistent counts yesterday.

[moosepoop]

pcgamer said half let go were QA.

i had a hunch that recent poor performance had something to do with it. what do u guys think?

[VaderShake]

I think this is a seasonal cut, kids went back to school, college has started, still summer time and less people playing overall is typical for this time of year (IE Temp workers no longer needed) Once the weather turns and the holidays hit populations will jump back up and the need for more staff will increase with the increase in population and revenues.

This is the typical nature of the videogame calendar...

[Gammit10]

PS1's old CRM, Virrago, was let go. :(

[Calista]

I honestly would take their reports with a grain of salt. I don't believe anything that quotes an "Inside Source" the only people who know are executives. Also PC Gamer threw up several inconsistent counts yesterday.


Well maybe Hamma but doesn't PCGamer have an employee that resides at SOE, namely Evan Lahti? Either way who knows but Smed did say they let some go who were there from the beginning and that royally sucks.

[Calista]

PS1's old CRM, Virrago, was let go. :(

Awe man I hope you are wrong about that. I remember Virrago picking up PS1 CRM duties from Raijinn and did a great job all things considered. I hate to hear that.

[Calista]

Welcome to the College football season. It's damn hot here in Columbia,SC. Let's see how it shakes out.

[Wahooo]

Awe man I hope you are wrong about that. I remember Virrago picking up PS1 CRM duties from Raijinn and did a great job all things considered. I hate to hear that.

Ditto.

Guy seemed like kinda a voice for the players, really had the same feelings and concerns as an average guy and always seemed really mellow and cool on their forums. A bit like Malorn is here.

[Gammit10]

I also wish I was wrong. :(

[capiqu]

Has to be asked if free to play really the way to go.

[Wahooo]

Has to be asked if free to play really the way to go.

Asking is fine, but i'm willing to bet they've made more in this first 3/4 of a year than they would have with a $15 subscription model or 1time purchase price.

[Dreamcast]

This is bad.


Took them about a year to give us a new continent....and new vehicle.


This is with Planetside 2 still being a fresh game....so is still has people playing it.


As the game continues to Age, less people will play, thus SOE will be less motivated to provide new content.

So we may never get as much Content as PS1 with all the continents/Vehicles it had.


Only thing that could save PS2 now is being Successful in the PS4, then we will probably get real content.

[PredatorFour]

Yeh we've seen how the game updates have been continuously delayed since release. IMO don't expect to see new places to fight in after Hossin and BI come out and give us a very simple version of "Planetside" with the global capping system. Maybe i'm too pessimistic but soe have not given me much hope over the years i've supported them playing their games.

[Hamma]

Well maybe Hamma but doesn't PCGamer have an employee that resides at SOE, namely Evan Lahti? Either way who knows but Smed did say they let some go who were there from the beginning and that royally sucks.

Evan works for PC Gamer. :P

And yes, Virrago is no longer with SOE :(