Amazon Lays Off Dozens Of Game Developers During E3 (kotaku.com) 91
As the video game industry's attention was focused squarely on the final day of the E3 convention in Los Angeles this week, Amazon's video game division quietly laid off dozens of employees. From a report: Amazon Game Studios, which is currently developing the online games Crucible and New World, told affected employees on Thursday morning that they would have 60 days to look for new positions within Amazon, according to one person who was laid off. At the end of that buffer period, if they fail to find employment, they will receive severance packages. Amazon also canceled some unannounced games, that person told Kotaku. The company wouldn't say exactly how many employees it laid off, but confirmed the news when reached by Kotaku today.
Timing is everything (Score:3)
Maybe they should have laid them off right before E3 started so they could all go look for new jobs while attending. Then again, said layoff might have torpedoed their attendance.
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Unless they forget who they work for, they're always looking for new jobs. This is Amazon we're talking about.
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Maybe they should have laid them off right before E3 started so they could all go look for new jobs while attending.
Oh, they could have turned it into a PR spectacle event. Stage up a live multiple player game with the layoff candidates.
The winners get to stay with Amazon.
The losers get laid off.
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe the other way around:
The winners get to leave Amazon.
The losers have to stay.
Re: (Score:2)
How many can actually do computer programming, in modern languages like ... Erlang?
You wot mate?
Re: How many have useful skills? (Score:1)
Please name games made in these 'modern' languages. Take your time.
Re:Does "lay off" mean the same as "get laid"? (Score:4, Funny)
Either way, someone gets fucked.
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FWIW, they were likely trying to figure out how to make a game out of sorting and delivering packages that people would pay to play.
No, but I damn well suggested it enough times. Their distribution centers are a mess, efficiency wise. They needed to hire the guy who wrote Factorio to make Factorio Distribution Center, and then hire the players with the best designs to fix their shit!
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Yeah, apparently it was not going so well...
Eight years ago when they were trying to get their games division started I sent in a resume. I had 17 years experience in games including writing a AAA title's PS3 rendering engine as well as major parts of the 360's rendering engine. Versed in all current hardware consoles as well as PC stuff. I'm the guy you hire to do the nasty low-level shit games are built on.
I didn't even get an "We're not interested" email back.
It's no great stretch to see why they're not doing well.
A simple mistake (Score:5, Funny)
"Hey Alexa, what do you think about game designers"
Alexa: Found this on Twitter, game designers are often precocious and lazy.
"That sounds pretty mean, Alexa lay off on the game designers".
Alexa: Now laying off all game designers.
====
The thing you should really worry about here is that apparently someone developed an Alexa Skill for this.
Yo, check it (Score:2)
My beat is correct [cantstopwontstop.com].
That is very generous (Score:4, Insightful)
A 60 day warning and then severance after that. That's the most generous termination of employment I have ever heard of for non-executives.
Re: (Score:2)
That's because you're in a red state, not silicon valley or a tech center...
You have that backwards. Silly Valley companies drop you like a hot rock. These games devs are likely in Austin.
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Re: That is very generous (Score:1)
No, you don't have a million dollars. You have a lease on a shitty apartment for $3,500/mo.
Sucker.
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Absolutely. There's nothing like starvation to teach give people an appreciation for how their food is grown!
You I thought that seemed like a pretty good deal. (Score:2)
A 60 day warning and then severance after that.
That ddi seem pretty nice, 60 days to look for positions within the company - it seems like if Amazon didn't lay off all game devs (unlikely) more than a few could re-home at other groups in Amazon. And if not, as you say, still severance after 60 days of being paid just to talk to groups in Amazon!
KEANU (Score:2)
They saw Cyberpunk and were like "welp we're fucked, might as well scrap half this shit!"
THANOS (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There are dozens of us!
Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Yup. [amazon.com] They offer Lumberyard, which is Unity for grown up game companies, and they write games for it to show it off. (It's a CryEngine fork that's free as long as you store your cloud data in AWS.)
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Nothing wrong with Unity for a studio consisting of 1 dev, 1 artist, and 1 sound guy. Lot of great games made that way.
Re: (Score:3)
Yup. And you can actually play their main game for free (to start). Tons of people are on it, actually. It's more cryptic than Myst, more difficult than Battletoads, and more punishing than Tetris 99.
https://aws.amazon.com/service... [amazon.com]
John Smedley works there. Enough said (Score:1)
He of SOE, he of the Star Wars Galaxies debacle.
And I bet he isn't one of those laid off.
Re: (Score:1)
Yup, enough said.
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It's not a driving sim - it's an arcade game. Within the parameters of what it is, it's... OK. A bit overpriced, but a mildly fun diversion.
Wait, Amazon has game devs? (Score:2)
They must be really sucky, cause I've never heard of any of these games.
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It could have been worse (Score:2)
They could have laid them off during GDC
Amazon Lays Off Dozens Of Game Developers Dur (Score:2)
60 days - SIXTY DAYS - TWO MONTHS to look around - IN COMPANY - for another job, . . . THEN A SEVERANCE PACKAGE ! ! !
GET A FUCKING GRIP - these people were treated gently - AND NOT JUST DUMPED via EMAIL !
Never a good thing to lose a job position, but having a decent lead-in time (2 months job search, severance package, unemployment compensation) of 3-to-6(+) months, and to be in a fairly decent job market for most tech skills, is about as soft as loss-of-job transitions can realistically be.
btw - yep, been