It’s Friday afternoon, which often portends bad news. Tonight, we’re looking at more Daybreak layoffs. Massively OP understands that between 60 and 70 people may have been affected.
Former SOE/Daybreak President John Smedley acknowledged the news on Twitter with a little bit of shade thrown in for good measure. The H1Z1 team (now Z1 Battle Royale) also tweeted its condolences.
very sorry to hear about the layoffs at Daybreak. Those are good people that should still be working there 10 years from now if things were being well run.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) December 7, 2018
really really really angry right now. It's December FFS and this is how you treat employees @DaybreakGames come on.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) December 7, 2018
We have just found out about the staffing event that occurred today at Daybreak Games. We encourage anyone affected to reach out to us as we are actively hiring. Our best wishes go out to all involved.
— Z1BR (@Z1BattleRoyale) December 7, 2018
Daybreak’s formal statement characterizes the layoffs as “optimization.”
“We are optimizing our structure to ensure we best position ourselves for continued success in the years to come. This effort has required us to make some changes within the organization and we are doing everything we can to support those impacted in this difficult time. As we look to improve efficiencies and realign resources, we remain focused on supporting our existing games and development of our future titles.”
MOP readers will recall that this is not the first major layoff for the company this year; a large number of employees were let go in April as well, and this past fall, the H1Z1 pro esports league has been entangled in a financial crisis. It is not immediately clear whether those affected were working on live or upcoming games, though we understand the company was indeed working on multiple private projects. [Update] We now understand from sources that those laid off may have been working on a secret game with a top IP (at the Austin studio – now confirmed publicly by Variety). It sounds as if the core MMORPGs are safe.
As always, our sincerest condolences to the rank-and-file developers always affected by these catastrophes; may you all land on your feet.
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Some demon pig!
Big man, pig man. Ha, ha, charade you are…
<3
As usual its the people just wanting to make games and take care of their families that suffer. I despise Daybreak after the things they’ve pulled but not the rank and file folks who are not at fault and are getting burned by this. Hope they can find solid work in a hurry.
looks like your message sorting broke.
I wonder if the Gamigo sharks are circling yet .
I am sorry to see people getting laid off before christmas . Working in the mmo section of the gaming industry these days doesn’t seem to be the most stable of employment these days .
The mmo bubble has truly burst .
Well taking in account the mess done by Daybreak, I sincerely hope they will shut down completely very soon. They don’t deserve to be part of the gaming industry.
Good, shut this dev down.
Was it Planetside?
Nope.
leave it to corporate suits and executives to define “laying people off at christmastime” as “optimization”
I wish Everquest could be rescued, such a rich IP and totally wasted on DayBreak, but sad to see people let go at Xmas, and what a time to do it……. assh****s
This is 2018, not 1918. Once you hit send, it lives forever. Someone tell Smed people cannot unsee a tweet once you hit “send”.
I subscribe to the Lt. Aldo Raine School of Tweeting.
Anyone makes a tweet like Smed’s, that has to stay on their Twitter record forever. They don’t get to pretend they never said it or it didn’t exist.
What they get to do is post another tweet to explain why they said what they said, how they are sorry and apologize (or not) that they said what they said, and they won’t do it ever again, or they have “evolved” and their opinion has since changed.
P.S. Forum posts should be exempt with unlimited edits. :P
I don’t see Smed’s words as being something shameful, but the problem is that it’s SMED saying it. It’s pretty much pot calling the kettle black.
I don’t think it’s shameful either but Smed does or he wouldn’t have deleted it. People usually don’t delete things they are proud of or agree with, unless they are trying to hide that view.
Either Smed realized it was something he didn’t really mean (he stated it twice so we know he DOES believes it), or he read it later and realized he shouldn’t have said it for future business reasons or someone would see the irony in it, or he simply read it afterwards and thought “I was kind of rough of them considering I sold the company in the first place”, he still deleted it.
That’s all I’m saying when I suggest that people should not get to remove tweets, but they can come back later and clarify what they meant by it or apologize for looking like a dumbass.
Nah, i agree. I just think that he has his beliefs a bit out of order: His tweet wasn’t in the wrong, it was his career BEFORE the tweets that was.
There is an argument for pre-holiday layoffs. It was articulated to me that it lets people know so they can temper their Xmas spending, rather than unexpectedly dropping the hammer in January, with a big bolus of debt constricting folks credit.
Didn’t buy it personally, but it was the best pitch I’ve run across.
That’s an argument for doing it in September or October, not for leaving it till a couple of weeks before Christmas.
To be honest, my initial reaction when reading the article was surprise that they still had that number of people still there.
There are a few pitches out there. Accounting is the strongest and most true one but it is also harder to office rage when there are decorations and festives everywhere. Humans are so ridiculous. The creator must be so disappointed. Unless our creator is War God Mars. Even then he probably wants us to fight more. *sigh*
We’re entitled to be ridiculous because our existence is absurd. If we could just all accept that and stop trying to find meaning in it we could dispense with creators and the associated bullshit, the baubles and the bloodshed too. Probably.
It’s funny because i once saw a description of Yahweh by someone from reddit and it was quite unsettling, after they discussed which divinity would be more powerful.
“Yahweh is fucking powerful dude. Hebrew God of War and Father of All Creation”
“LET REASON PREVAIL. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
(US Freedom from Religion Foundation)
I’m not religious, if that’s what you’re implying.
But the belief that having a close mind for the outworldish is somehow being above superstition is laughable. I met several people who, in their beliefs, were humble before the universe, while some scientific-minded were mostly bragging.
Of course, that’s not a generalization, i’m more scientific-minded myself. But not every faith is made to be a chain.
Thats not really a great argument as you;re basically saying “im making christmas shitty for them so january isnt even shittier”
The theory behind the Christmas layoffs has always been that for “MOST” people, they’re more likely to already be planning to get together with family, and thus that extended “support” will help them get over any depression their job loss might cause.
Of course, in reality, some people don’t HAVE any family, and others don’t really get along with their family and find holiday get-togethers to be stressful in the best of times.
It’s just another example of the faceless corporation having to have some blanket policy in place to cover their butts, so their investors see them as doing the right thing and following policy.
I don’t like my family, and yet i wouldn’t want to be fired on the holidays. I think being laid off is always bad, but sometimes you get caught on the vibe and it goes worse.