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.
Layoffs followed by announcement of new game… sounds like pruning of staff directly involved with Planetside BR and trimming of features to streamline it to release. That, or it was a different game (EQ mobile? lol), and they moved developers to Planetside and cut the rest. No matter what companies say, layoffs = cash-strapped.
As for the $300 lifetime membership deal coming just after the layoffs… EVER SINCE BECOMING DAYBREAK, ALMOST EVERYTHING IS MADE TO SCAM PLAYERS. BE VERY WORRIED. Stench is strong here. Company asset sell-off seems very probable. Cashes in, hands games to other company, and that company has to foot the responsibility of lifetime members.
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.