+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted July 15, 2010 Subscriber² Share Posted July 15, 2010 Kotaku is reporting that Rockstar have laid off 40 employees, most of whom had worked on Red Dead Redemption. The game shifted over 1.5 million copies (and received a glowing 10/10 score from us) ? but Kotaku claim that a "significant chunk of Rockstar San Diego was let go earlier today," just two months after the game was released.A statement from Rockstar San Diego's Steve Martin this morning backs up the claim. "As is typical with game development," he says, "our team sizes have always fluctuated over the course of the development cycle. As Rockstar San Diego transitions from the launch of Red Dead Redemption onto future projects, we are realigning our resources in order to continue to develop games as effectively as possible." "We are ensuring that all employees who are affected by these changes are being treated with care," continues Martin. "While we have no announcements to make regarding a sequel to Red Dead Redemption, the team here are hard at work on the development of downloadable content for the game" Perhaps the studio hired lots of staff to ensure the game finally got released, and then cut back on numbers to concentrate on the DLC, also comments on the Kotaku piece suggest otherwise. "There a lot of guys that have been working there for over 10 years that got laid off," says one reader. Source: http://www.thesixtha...s-off-40-staff/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Hammond Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Wow thats a nice F*** Y** for helping create some of the industries biggest selling games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethos Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 It's a shame but no surprise, have 40 guys sitting there sucking a pay check every month when the work just isn't there, that's quite costly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dick Montage Subscriber² Posted July 15, 2010 Subscriber² Share Posted July 15, 2010 Wow thats a nice F*** Y** for helping create some of the industries biggest selling games. Being laid off is not a personal thing, it's a cost thing. I've been made redundant before, and I almost took it personally, but I realised it's not that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massiveterra Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Regardless of how successful Red Dead is, Take Two is still in very big trouble financially. Any reorganization in staff affects any quarterly shareholder announcement they could make. I mean, it's not right, but that's just business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name in use Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 They'll catch on elsewhere, especially with the work they did on Red Dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Hammond Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Being laid off is not a personal thing, it's a cost thing. I've been made redundant before, and I almost took it personally, but I realised it's not that. Its not like Rockstar need the money they make millions on GTA and now Red Dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Anarkii Subscriber² Posted July 15, 2010 Subscriber² Share Posted July 15, 2010 The games industry is very different to conventional jobs thou. People will work on one project, then get laid off and move on to another company for another game. To the game developers, they don't care about the people who hire them, as long as they are getting $$$ in their pockets. Most (if not all of them) will have work already lined up through other companies anyway, as you are forgetting, game development is a VERY specialized niche market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massiveterra Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Its not like Rockstar need the money they make millions on GTA and now Red Dead. The way companies work is that you have operating companies (people who do the actual work) and holding companies (companies that receive the profits and income and finance the operating companies) Take Two Interactive is the holding company for Rockstar, and while Rockstar may be making millions, the profits from the game may not fulfill their financial obligations to Take Two due to bad organization or even Take Two's financial troubles Take Two is in really really bad shape, so this displacement shouldn't be much of a surprise. Fireaxis, a subsidiary of 2K games recently got a big hit. This is happening to all of Take Two companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookie Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 It's a shame but no surprise, have 40 guys sitting there sucking a pay check every month when the work just isn't there, that's quite costly. They were working on Max Payne 3. Title should really read: Max Payne 3 is even more ****ed than before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethos Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 They were working on Max Payne 3. Title should really read: Max Payne 3 is even more ****ed than before. Max Payne 3 is Rockstar Vancouver, the 40 people were from Rockstar San Diego. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookie Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Max Payne 3 is Rockstar Vancouver, the 40 people were from Rockstar San Diego. Last time I heard it was SD. Oh Kotaku. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massiveterra Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 I bet if they never used the Max Payne IP and just started a new franchise it would be better well received Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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