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[VGC] Insiders describe ‘fast and furious’ exits from Xbox’s Perfect Dark studio
- Thread starter --R
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Could work v life balance be componant. Maybe senior staff would be happier to stay on with your studio if they had more time to spend with their families? I know a lot of older devs tend to retire from game dev pretty early because of how cut-throat it is, which I think is a problem for the industry. Maybe if we relaxed working a bit and allowed people to retain their career while also having personal time it would led to less people quitting?
I don't know, I'm just guessing here. Could be for entirely different reasons but I'm sure most agree better work v life balance is a good thing.
I don't know, I'm just guessing here. Could be for entirely different reasons but I'm sure most agree better work v life balance is a good thing.
Maybe you were thinking of The Coalition? (who did ship a lot of stuff)
Probably this. It shows the problems with announcing games so early on in development. Just like Everwild, which apparently had development problems as well (which is sad because the first trailer looked absolutely gorgeous).
You might be thinking of the coalition? they were formed in 2010
On the contrary, we saw many new AAA studios where their main goal is to create great work life - balance to retain talent.
The initiative case look like is more due to the management.
The dream team couldn't be kept together.
At least they have a cool name and logo still.
Building from the ground up and expecting to ship a platform title must be tough. Previously 343 did it with Halo 4, but specifically recruited for that, right? The Coalition was acquired and renamed.
At least they have a cool name and logo still.
Building from the ground up and expecting to ship a platform title must be tough. Previously 343 did it with Halo 4, but specifically recruited for that, right? The Coalition was acquired and renamed.
This is not exactly fair since it's the other way around, they brought CD because the project was having problems (among other reasons we don't know of).
After reading this... Credit to those who have managed to run studios for such a long time. It takes an insane amount of effort and the stress takes a toll on you . I'm thinking of Shannon Studstill (left since) and Yumi Yang right now who have ran/run Sony Santa Monica Studios for so long.
Seniors leaving because MS are too lenient and they're too used to crunch? That seems like an odd perspective unless I'm misunderstanding.
I have no idea why people want MS to buy them when the games they make may look nice but leave a lot to be desired in many major areas
The Coalation was formed under the name Black Tusk Studio to develop the next big Halo franchise, but they took over Gears after Epic didn't want to do it anymore.
Anyways, I hope they will get the team together and deliver the game they all envisioned.
The only good thing I see is that CD will probably take over and will "soft reboot" the project and make it 3rd person which is really their true expertise.
The two leaders getting blamed by the devs here are former CD people.
probably seniors leaving cause they don't have enough authority/power to get their employees to work 'hard'.
At least that's my understanding.
At this point I wouldn't be surprised if MS tried to acquire and expand CD to handle new IPs and continue making PD and TR....Darrell has probably discussed this with Phil.lol
yeah that feels like cover for the other reports about the studio lead's iron grip on the decision process. Trying to shift the blame to Microsoft not being heavy-handed enough feels like something a heavy-handed studio head would do
Microsoft has some serious issues in studios management, this is not the first time one of its main studios is plagued by project reboots and keyrole departures (iirc we had similar issues with 343i and Rare's Everwild dev team)
Still hoping that Perfect Dark will turn out good, but it will be a loooong wait
Still hoping that Perfect Dark will turn out good, but it will be a loooong wait
Games are something that already takes a long time to be finished, nobody with a big background will want to stay in a studio where the project is not moving due to no pressure to be finished, especially when studios with projects in motion are going after senior talent.
Now you know why studios are usually bought instead of built from the ground up. Building from the ground up is time consuming and expensive.
These people left for a big check. The demand for these jobs are going to reach its peak and they need to cash in while they can.
You mention two studios out of 23 lol I think they're ok they were just announced as the best publisher of 2021. Yes 343i and the Everwild team have issues but Rare has also made a mega hit that is SoT and Halo is great though the content shortage is hurting it. I don't think MS has serious issues in management of studios. If they did and their bad managed studios put out games that are rated 85+ and played by 10's of millions I would could that a win.
maybe Microsoft should reconsider their contract policy then.
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I think they'll start consolidating studios eventually, not right away mind you, but probably based on performance and fold some into each other to retain the talent. Granted that'll mean fewer but bigger studios, but I can't imagine what it's going to be like to juggling all those developers. You can only go "hands off" for so long before needing to correct the course every so often.
User warned: Concern-Trolling
Judging from how Halo Infinite turned out, the reboot of Everwild and now this, It doesn't sound like MS puts in any deadlines/goals to meet. Their games take a notable long time to make compared to Nintendo and Sony.
If developers see that their game is going nowhere or is taking too long, they will leave. And MS is scared of being labeled a crunch studio/publisher to do anything about it. They are fixated on being labeled "the good guys" that its coming to the cost of their games and developers don't care about that. They just want to make games
Naughty Dog is labeled a crunch studio but guess what, they also have the most awarded game ever in their catalog and developers would run to work for them any chance they got.
And this isn't true, either. Where did you read CD was brought in because the project was having problems?
lmao
No wonder they had to pay Square Enix to hire Crystal Dynamics.
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"Not perfect" is putting it mildly. Brad seems to suggest that a "more conservative approach" would be better for retention, but how? By rushing a game into full production? If talent is leaving because of slow progress, I doubt even a single one of them would suggest the solution is to "move faster". It's far more likely that the game simply needs more time before it's ready to ramp up to full production. Talent can leave and go somewhere where their talent is more immediately needed, that doesn't mean they would prefer for them to change their management approach to put more pressure on staff to deliver on impossible deadlines.
I just assumed that was because TI was fresh as hell but the direction was set early on and needed man power
Can anyone point to a new studio being built from the ground up and then releasing a AAA title (or quadruple-A in this case) in < 5 years?
It just seems nuts to me. Why not start with a smaller 2 year project, get that confidence in your sails and move onto something much bigger afterwards?
Recipe for disaster.
It just seems nuts to me. Why not start with a smaller 2 year project, get that confidence in your sails and move onto something much bigger afterwards?
Recipe for disaster.
Sounds like a disaster, hopefully they can pull it together and release a good game in a few years.
Unless I'm misreading what's being said here.