http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/bethesda-confirms-layoffs-at-id-software-work-on-future-id-tit/

http://www.shacknews.com/article/71921/id-software-hit-with-layoffs-future-projects-continue-unabated


Hello and yes, another of those "industry buzz" moments , all of the nooby people saying stupid things about it , speculation , conclusions, wild illusions, and this just got noticed because of the game.

ID software has always said they kept small size in order to easily survive and save money. The peolpe don't know what that means. It means not keeping LOWER-TIER developers, but keeping the KEY people always.

You get people with all kinds of theories:
"oh those devs worked so hard now they get F-U"
"Hope they fired the ones responsible for the great "quality" of rage, specially on the p.c. with all those graphic bugs......." - no they didn't , only lower tier guys who have no decisions were fired.



What layoffs have been made now when Rage has finished is SIMPLE, these layoffs are obviously UNNECESSARY workforce of the production that does nothing more than stamps the maps, makes the DATA of the game , the workforce that is not a KEY developer, all those hired side-people that help the project are not needed what would they be working for the next 2 years if there's not game to make. The people cry about it like no tomorrow, they will find new jobs, that's their FIELD , they come and go, just like the voiceover guys, ...etc


Please someone at bethesda to explain in more detail in future, what's with the layoffs, people just don't get what "standard practise" means, make the internet stop crying about it.

Standard Practise means when a project is over they fire all those unneeded people until the PREPARATIONs and ENGINE is done for the next project , they will RE-HIRE those numbers but it might not be the same persons, still the SOUL and the INTEGRITY of the studio has NOT been compromised.

NONE OF THE KEY EMPLOYESS LEFT ID SOFTWARE (the ones that made Rage how Rage is are still there, they already(before rage release) realized focusing on consoles first is bad and Doom4 will be focused for PC hardware first and foremost)


And to clarify something - Rage has always been as a secondary project that turned into a full product but the Multiplayer team was not existant at ID, Rage has been more of a IDTech5 demo sort's of mini-game, that got scrapped and the full game made out of it, Multiplayer team is developing and it will be in time for Doom4 which will have a real MP component.

Yeah .. huh.

Why is this considered 'news' - isn't it standard business practice? Though it was probably stated in those peoples contracts aswell.

I think this has to do with mega texture. They have the ability to have many artist work on the same game and the same map at the same time. They also have the ability to interchange artist between projects. Once the artist are no longer needed they can just let them go untill the next project. Its like people that make move sets. They are not needed full time, only as needed.

Yeah for the most part there's alot of people they can fire, that do the smaller jobs, like stamping details and bump maps into the maps, and such. You can always let those people go, with no harm done to you... but svcks for them though.

I'm still feeling wierd about this, though, a company that is doing great, firing people? Sure they're keeping small, but they've already expanded. They are hiring a wave of people for Doom4... what, are they going to fire them too when they're no longer needed??
I bet their dreams of climbing up the latter have been crushed to a million pieces...
Too bad, I guess that's the industry. Hopefully those poor guys find a job elsewhere

Edit: Hm... it's not big news, now is it? Does every company firing have to be on the news? I thought this stuff was standard in the industry

No...typically they don't fire people after a job is done....they contract people out for specific work on a project and when the project is completed they go elsewhere.

Layoffs are usually a bad sign for a business...it means ther are more people than needed and there is no forseeable work in the future to justify paying salary and health benefits and 401k.

If you were a low tier employee would you work for ID now? I would put my resume in somewhere with less turnover.

Uneasy employees make uneasy goods and services because they realize they are just a cog to be cast away in the future.

Happy employees make the best goods and services.

It also helps to put it in context. Id deliberately kept their company small for years so they could continue to do their own thing, but with the id tech 5 they had to double in size and reorganize everything. That and Rage being an entirely new franchise is why it took 7 years to produce Rage and why they're now letting people go. They've got the new franchise, they've reorganized, they've evaluated who the best new workers are, and now its time again to focus on efficiency. They've already got another 8.5TB of Rage to work with and are producing a DLC, so its safe enough to start laying off the less talented and productive artists and slowly ramp up production of Doom 4 which has been simmering on the back burner for the last 4 years.

Companies like Valve are famous for producing creative new franchises with different game dynamics, but that's not id. Rage is the first new franchise they've done since the original Quake which was essentially no different from Doom or any of their other games and they have no plans for doing anymore new franchises in the foreseeable future. Their focus is on the graphics technology first and creative content second with Rage being a rare exception to the rule as a new franchise. The id tech 5 makes it easy to hire any artist and have them pump out work without a lot of training which means it also makes it easy to lay them off the minute you don't need them anymore. My guess would be they want to seriously cull the herd whenever they can and look for those rare individuals who can really dazzle them and fit in with the original group.