A Recording of 800 People Being Fired (Game Dev is a disaster ) |  

Companies are a tool. Use them like they use you.

Once again for everyone in the back: "A company is not a family." Stop romanticizing employment, be critical, think for yourself.

The amount of corporate buzzwords within a 10 second timeframe in that meeting is killing me lol.

I worked at a major oil company for ten years. I met some senior executives during my global travels but I can tell you now and those executives told me. We are numbers in a HR database. Not people but numbers who needs to be culled from time to time to keep shareholders happy. I have a Vice President's award among my other awards, I worked from 6am to 8pm and sometimes for weeks one end without break, but when my time was up along with my colleagues we had to go: We were paid two years salary and bonuses in advance so I am thankful for that. I am at a new company but won't be surprised if we get called in again in a few years or months even. Now I do the minimum and no more. Not worth the mental stress and broken relationships.

Actiblizz: fires 800 qa to save money Gamers: cancel sub because new patch is full of bug. Actiblizz: surprised pikachu.

I was once fired through a text message. It wasn't even a text from the company, but my friend who also worked there. The company was outsourcing and cutting 90% of staff. Their way of firing people was to let them come to work only to find their key cards not working, then a security guard would bring a box with your stuff in it to the door.

Yep. My last job this past year was great until new management. I was "let go" because they supposedly couldn't afford me and told I was getting a severence of 2 weeks at the beginning of December last year. This was after I was told by my original manager that I was going to get a raise (literally a week later I was let go). Get a call a few days afer I was let go and they said they wanted to hire me back on after the holidays (and so I stopped my job search since I did like working there till they started firing everyone). They did hire me back and said they'd try to find a spot for me. Well they had me doing all of the grunt work for the next 3 weeks until they decided to shift my role. They let me do that for a day and decided they wanted me to do something else. Rinse and repeat 2 more times and I'm observably fed up at work stating I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing anymore because they keep changing my job responsibilities. Asked my new manager about the severence I was promised and he said that them hiring me back was the severence. Come in one day and asked to come into the office and he fired me on the spot because I wasn't performing up to their standards.. never missed a day, never late, the guy that did all the extra stuff like taking out the trash, the guy that worked several days without pay. Fired. Done. Buh bye, we don't care. This was a smaller corporation too they are all trash.

I'm so glad I have no intent of climbing the ranks.

The higher ups definitely take advantage of the fact that gamedevs have a lot of passion for their products so working 50+ hours seems to be the norm

Edited: to all the game devs, I thank you for your hard work & hope you have a blessed day

You are a big reality check for so many out there.

Are programming jobs unionized? I feel like they should be unionized.

Sad thing is, I've sat in meetings like this in the Finance sector - the first half hour they boast that there is so much profit this quarter and the stocks are at an all time high. The last 10 mins announced a large number of my colleagues were made redundant... Corporate companies are all the same

I sat down a number of years ago to learn the art end of this. I taught my self Zbrush and bunch of other software and as I learned it I talked to lots of people and they all said little bits of what you just put in one video. I'm very glad I learned all the stuff I know how to do now, but I'm even more glad I am not involved in that industry in any way. Thank you for making this, I think your recommending people get into independent game building is fantastic advice. Well done, I hope people thinking about this, especially younger people, get to see this for the warning it is.

Many companies treat people as "bodies". Not just in software development. I worked for a ready meal food company. The company wanted to change the working conditions. So they balloted the workers and unions. Almost all the workers said no and the unions said no. After a few months the company implemented the changes anyway. The changes were designed to make overtime payment lower and to force people to work in different departments. Not long after the company was sold and I lost my job. This kind of thing normal in food manufacturing. The pay is bad, the management are often uncaring and incompetent. The christmas rush leads to long hours, working nights and never seeing your family.

It's not just gaming industry, it's film industry too. Once the film is made there is no reason to keep 200+ vfx artists employed. They just lay them off. You can always replace technical people who just "do" but you can't replace people who have ideas so easily. They usually find a way to stifle them to. Do a year or 2 for experience and start building contacts and freelance.

I've never understood how it's the people with the least impactful positions make these decisions. Wanna save money, get rid of the finance dick heads and use an A.I

Employers: Blizzard: What? Can't you guys get another job?

Making video games these days is a very hard thing especially due to deadlines and and games being soooooooo hard to develop these days. It is no surprise that the best game titles are the ones that come out every 3-4 years because people have time to work properly, develop their ideas, try new stuff and at a good working pace without worrying about deadlines. Of course big AAA gaming companies that are publically shared do not care about that stuff. They only care about profits.

Not just software. Engineering is often this way, Robert Noyce co-inventor of the integrated circuit talked about this kind of work culture at Intel going back to when the company was first founded. That's why these industries thrive on people who love the job. Nothing would get done otherwise, not on time and certainly not within budget.

Companies should be like that. They make sure the ressources are used in the best possible way. The state should take of the ones fired (using the taxes they have because of the companies). People are free to choose a profession and the company they work for.

How can you even work 100 hours a week? That is basically 20 hours a day or with weekend included it's 14 hours a day, with commute hours included you NEVER sleep and you are never at home. You sold yourself and your irreplaceable one life to be a resource???? Why? 70 hours? Calculate, that is too much again, you have to have a life. Shouldn't that be illegal?

Joshua you need to read about worker cooperatives, companies where the people who work also own the business owners. Board of directors and CEO are elected by the workers through a democratic system. We really need more coops and we need to create government programs that help workers get together and start their own business especially when it's hard for working class people to raise capital in the first place. If you read my comment please read about coops and maybe talk about them on your channel. Keep it up man!

It’s not the companies that are shit. It’s the management who doesn’t have the backbone to tell other management or execs “no”. At the end of the day, everyone must work together as a team. And everyone can agree it’s difficult to be good at projecting timelines, however it doesn’t mean that it’s OK to abuse each other. Crunch times are fine when it’s far and few (one week per quarter let’s say?) and when there’s incentives on the table to show appreciation. As a manager, they need to assess the health of their team and if something doesn’t add up, raise a concern and or blocker to execs. As a manager they need to be the front line defense for their team and stand up for them. If execs want to abuse people, then the management should acknowledge that their careers are over at that company, as they should immediately reach out to their team and let them know how discussions have gone with execs wanting to abuse them without compromise. If the team sticks together and stands their ground, execs won’t have much of a choice, as they can’t afford to lose everyone.

This is literally how every large corporation operates. Why would a 'fun' games company be any different? The corporate suite types are not paid to make the employees happy, they are paid to make money for the shareholders. If you don't like it you can either start your own company (I did) or work for your friends startup until they become bought by a larger company, your friend gets a new house and you get laid off.

well in the CEO's defense these people did launch a diablo phone app Edit: If you're good you won't be replaced, some people can code for 3 hours and accomplish more than others in 2 days.

Well it is business. The firing sometimes is part, but it must be done with respect, careful thinking (to be fair to whom you fire based really on who deserves more to stay or can really brign back more to the company). The problem is when this happens half randomly (and that is about half of time)

Just posted this to Reddit, Josh. Thanks for this excellent video. Keep doing your thing bro

Corporate investors need the margin no matter what. There is NO empathy towards the people that make them what they are. It has become the standard operating procedure for most big companies.

Holy shit, everyone acting like employees who quit don’t exist is literally like a page out of 1984

This has nothing to do with Games. It's standard business in all big corporations. This is what shareholders want to hear. If we was presenting it with heart, full of sadness at the loss of jobs, they'd add him to the 8% too.

No one could take over my duties. I asked for help up the division and they grudgingly gave us 2 hours of consultation time. And that was after we tagged the VP for help. There's no way anyone would cover for me for 2 weeks. I could never take vaca. I saved up for a several years and would periodically tell them I'm putting in for vacation. They'd say wait until blablabla. Eventually work performance started to decline. They gave me notice: work harder or leave. So I left. They didn't give me enough time to hand over all my tasks, security clearances, all that stuff for their digital architecture. I left, it fell apart. A few years later it still looks like crap. The things I fixed, those now pop up whenever I look at their site. They are back to square one, they hosed themselves. The guy that took over my job was woefully underqualified. I saw him months later at a grocery store. He looked like a hobo that was in the grips of alcoholism. He started to have some kind of seizure or fit of rage when he saw me. I think they f##$%^ his career too. You can't give scorpions a ride across the river no matter what they say.

Employees are part of a formula, check out the Human Capital formula. Businesses want projects or segments that meet their IRR requirements, if it’s not working out they would cut it off. Not saying it’s right or wrong, just some information on corporate finance.

My hubby has worked for the bigs - EA - Blizzard etc. and while it has afforded us a lot of opportunities in our youth, he has been pretty happy as an solo developer "working" on his own game title. We spend a lot more time together (and we got another puppy) and we have a lot more chances to exercise our creativity, think of new dreams, and seek and fulfill new purposes.

That CEO sounds like he is reading all that stuff.

Insightful video! Thank you! Makes me feel like doing your own business is probably the best way to go about it since no matter what direction you go in, there will always be shit. At least if its your business you get to own your shit, instead of managing someone else's.

Not just the gaming industry, saw it in the financial industry, using contractors like TP.

Huh... I used to think very lowly on people who downloaded games illegally. This has sort of changed my mind a bit.

So let me get this straight. "You have to do 100 hours a week and thank me for that, because you are making games" - "Yeah but... how much were you paying me again? Minimum wage? Market wage? Because I work 45 hours a week plus lunch, plus transport, how about we talk extra hours?" -"Wait what? No, no that's not how..." - "Extra. Hours. Pay. Them." - "... you are fired" -"Thanks, I can live now :) (AND make my own games if I want, even if it's just for myself)" I have to admit this was not my situation, but I'm sorry for people who has to live through this. Remember that you get paid for 45 hours less your time for lunch and your time to move to work and home. And how much are you making for them? Yup, all that sweet, sweet income goes to the management, so if you work 100 hours a week I expect your salary to be HUGE. Wait, it isn't? You all deserve better guys, from indies to successful AAA studios.

"OK Boomer" The next time I hear those words, I'll laugh and think of this video. Welcome to the real world kids.

I'm interested in game development for educational games, I am glad you post what you post, I will try to make sure that if I ever get good enough to make games, I know what to say to a company if there is an interview of any kind. I am 36 in 14 days and just exploring this as a hobby and probably would only want to do this as an independent developer or work with family who make websites. Thanks for the eye opening view, I read it was long hours and hard to get into but this makes it more real. Appreciated. By the way, you might be glad to know that to a recruiter I responded with the sort of jobs that he wanted to know what I was interested in, I said, I want to work in a company that takes value not in the profit it makes or the sales, as are many jobs, but in the people who work for it and the positive impact its products make in peoples lives.

This management scheme is probably why most new games suck now.

And to think Activision was founded because developers weren't happy with how they were being treated at Atari...

I used to work at Activision and I can say that's exactly how they operate

Dont think of it as being fired. Think of it as being promoted to customer

Shout out to all my "Resources" out there.

I got a high paying corporate job, worked like a dog for 12 hours a day even tho its 9 to 5, later on I overworked myself and end up hospitalized, doc said I need atleast 1 month to recover. After the management found out about my situation, I literally got replaced in 3 days. The only reason why I am sick is because I worked like crazy, I spent more to recover than earned in the first place. Efforts I have put in the company are unnoticed, this is the reality dont go out there sacrificing yourself for the company that doesnt care about you.

Most triple A games by EA, Blizzard, Activision, Ubisoft, are really bad, underdeveloped, and rushed out to make money. The quality has been declining for years now. I guess the reason for that is the management not knowing how to make a good game, and just forcing people to work harder but not compensating them enough, so people just do the bare minimum not the get fired.

Programmers should start a guild.

Working in Game development was a great learning experience. I watched my coworkers health begin to fail and I foolishly sacrificed a relationship with a woman who loved me with all her heart. In the end after the long hours, several months with no days off my entire studio was shutdown after shipping multiple profitable projects. I learned that regardless of where I worked or how much I sacrificed I was still expendable . I understand that the decision wasn't personal, just business but I vowed I would never put a company's needs before my own health or a loved ones happiness ever again.

in China ,we have this IT culture,its called 996-ICU ,MEANS you work 9:00am to 9:00pm ,6day a week ,until you went ICU,there is some case in HUAWEI like a engineer dead by encephalitis on job

Worked 2 year as a game dev. I was a passionate gamer since school and was into modding and stuff. In those 2 years i didn't even want to play games.... finally switched to web. I am at peace now.

Blizzard - We will cut 8% of our resources. Also Blizzard - We will aggressively hire new resources (at lower wages and with more responsibilities).

I learned this the hard way. I spent almost half a year interviewing for a full stack software engineering position. It was rough. I took a test after a test. A frontend test. A backend test. A behavioral test. A cultural fit test. A personality test. And finally, after so much work, I got the job. I thought that the pain was over. Well, I was wrong. Three weeks later, my boss comes to my office that I rented because of the pandemic and told me that he feels that I am not fit. A part of me just want to .... But I just took my last check and moved on. I learned to never pour my heart out for a company. This is an ugly world full of sharks.

I hated working at Activision. They treated people like dogs. No soul, no.. No soul... I hated working at Activision. They fired me because I didn't want to play games after work and drink beer, instead opting to train obsessively (working in 3D Studio for DOS there at Activision, I saw how we could save enormous amounts of time by learning and incorporating this new program called '3ds Max for windows'!) 30 years or so later, I'm glad I committed to learning everything about the tool! I have written Character Animation books using 3ds Max native tools. Now I train obsessively in Unreal Engine! LOL Yeah,. Activision sure sucked. *PRAXIS Filmworks?* _That was a cool company..._

Me: I want to become a game programmer youtube: time to scare the living shit out of this guy

Remember when you were a kid and "video game maker" was like the ultimate dream job? Now, after years of hearing what it's like to make a game for Rockstar or EA, then seeing this bullshit, that is the last coding job I'd ever apply to.

Be a IT contractor, then they encourage you to leave after an 8 hour day.

I worked on Playstation 2 @ Sony. We used to work 85 hours a week. One of the hardest jobs I've ever had. Sometimes we even slept under our desks. I worked 9AM-3AM most every day. 6 hours sleep. 2 years was the most I could take. Once they shipped, they laid us all off.

Remember that CEO's have a fiduciary duty to maximize stockholder return. That means they have a fiduciary duty to fully exploit each and every employee. And, if they don't do that, they get fired by the Board of Directors. The answer of course is to be your own boss. That's the only way you have control over your destiny, as well as the visibility to your future.

This video has inspired me to abandon my interest in corporate gamedev.

The Corporate Speak makes me ill. Then they wonder why there’s a talent shortage & no employee loyalty.

This is why I make games for fun on my own.

- Activision Blizzard is firing 800 people - Why? - Our CEO needs a bigger paycheck

Everyone one getting MBAs and all of their education reduces to firing people.

It's not only game dev industry. Google is becoming like that as well.

Joshua fluke, a hero for the people

Pretty much why I stopped wanting to be a game dev

In one breath they will talk about peoples pronouns and identities to "treat people with dignity" In the next breath they call people resources

Ah this exact situation just happened to me. Record profits, but making staff redundant and outsourcing them to India and combining 4 people's jobs into one... It's nice to feel appreciated 😅...

GameDev-HR: "Don't think of it as a lay-off, think of it as NewJob+"

The mistake we make is believing that corporate cares. You must go in knowing what it is; that you are a commodity which drives or protects revenue. Empathy becomes a weakness and is grounds for dismissal. It's them or you.

This is because most programmers are socially awkward spineless creatures. I have looked people in the eye and told them "you want me to work extra, pay me extra." And you know what happened? They did.

CEO should take a pay cut, they make around 20mil a year...

Goodness! With all those work hrs, Game Devs can create their own business and have way less stress!

Now I feel good about only playing indie games these days.

Just remember that resources are exploited until they're exhausted.

To add "insult to injury" they had reported record high earnings that year:)

My mother had to work after hours, yes, when the shift was over they ask hwo wants to stay. Really didnt say 'you have to', but they told how many ppl need. And my mother always was the first for it(it was not paid) just bc she knew ter co-workers have little kids and kindergarden close before they can go home. But yes, they take you only for a few months so that you scared and you feel obligatet. Bc she worked so many overtime she get sick bc of too much work and she needed operacion, and then she was never called back to work... And all this for minimum paycheck.

Game design grad from 2019 here, Joshua's advice about going indie is basically what I did, I started job hunting at the beginning of the year, while I got a solid amount of interviews, I just couldn't find it in me to pass them and I was just terrible at coding interviews (still am, I never practiced them so that's on me.) Luckily a few weeks ago I started work in IT (I'm a big tech geek) and at this point I have plans to get rid of any little loans I have, but on top of that, the indie game dev company I interned for allow me to work for them for a portion of the sales on the games I make. I cannot underestimate how lucky I am with how things turned out after college and I'd recommend others who are currently studying for game development to have backup plans.

If you need 80 hours a week to prove yourself, either you're bad at proving yourself or your company is exploiting you.

Whatever you do, have your 3-6 months expenses in savings lined up. Before you do ANYTHING else or buy ANY nice things, food, etc. Get your 3-6 saved up. Once you have this, focus on building skill and experience. Be clear on what skills you develop. And don't ever forget, NO JOB is secure. The only security you have is your bank balance and your marketplace skills.

Joshua, you're the realest programmer in the RU-vid universe. 👍👍

That's exactly the way call center customer services treat people! It is sickening how workers are treated every where now.

Damn, this makes me never want to play a Activison/Blizzard/Epic game again. So sick.

I work in Human Resources for a major Retail Corporation; and I can tell you that we have these types of calls and information sent out to us regularly. In fact, I am currently dealing with the major downsizing of a massive Supervisor position within the Company because they have increased the job duties of a lower paying position to include a lot of the same duties as said Supervisor position without a pay increase. They call it "empowering" the lower paid position, but in reality it's to further increase the already $Billions going into their pockets while further ruining the lives of those they are supposed to be "trickling" down to as we are told. It can be a morally trying position to have to do this job that is for sure.

Drinking game: take a shot every time the Blizzard executive says “resources”

The game industry has stagnated and I'm glad I'm not a part of it

"Net head count reduction" sounds like "time to thin the herd for the baron's celebratory feast"

Strange how you are a "TEAM" player when you have to stay overtime unpaid, but never the "TEAM" decides to walk out after 8 hours, AS A TEAM.

Blizzard went from being a family company with awesome games that I remember fondly from my childhood and early adolescence to selling out to Activision corporatism. They are a big evil empire that uses their employees and their customers for profit. They don't make games for their customers, they make games for their shareholders. In a way you could say that the thirst for money by people like Bobby Kotick turned took a good game making company and sucked the soul out of it for profit. Today you have the bare skeleton left (Activision Blizzard) and they are trying to milk their customers and their employees for all their worth. Stay away from their games, stay away from these companies. They will suck you dry till there is nothing left.

This is a general issue for high achievers. A lot of people are high achievers because they're good at following instructions. They make great developer foot soldiers. Hard workers who don't stand up for themselves. A corporations dream resource.

This reminds me of the 3 years I worked as a Store Manager for SANITY music Australia - horrible, horrible company who exploits their entire workforce until they burn out and leave!!! Store Managers are paid minimum award wage with no overtime. Had to arrive at work 30-60 minutes before official opening and many nights I stayed 3-5 hours after closing during busy holiday periods. At Christmas time my young part time employees were earning more money than me and working less than half the amount of time. I stopped going to the gym, because I had no time and no energy. Companies who exploit their workers are hopefully getting 1000 years of bad karma and will re-incarnate as factory chickens.

Nah, during crunch I'd just leave. Don't be mad at me, I'm not the source of the issue. See ya! I quit later though, freelance is better. :)

Reminds me of Fightclub and the reference to passengers as 'self-loading-cargo' 😂

That's not how you treat your "family"

They don't realize that a programmer has to take time to acclimate to the job, the code, the procedures, the rules, etc. of the company. That alone has value. If you fire a programmer, you are throwing away someone with all that knowledge. Now when you hire a replacement (which you will probably have to do), they will be starting from square one. And most likely they will make mistakes and introduce bugs into the code, because it's all new to them and they don't know it.

_Hello Peter. What's happening? Um, I'm gonna need you go ahead and come in tomorrow. So if you could be here around nine, that would be great. (starts to walk away) Oh, oh, yea…I forgot. I'm gonna also need you to come in Sunday too. We, uh, lost some people this week and we need to sorta catch up. Thanks._

Unfortunately, this corporate mentality applies across all industries

A key take-away is this: be a contractor! Get that three, six, one year contract with a video game company and set your own hours, knowing that you won't get re-upped for that company. Get the experience, the pay, and the ability to flip them off when you don't get re-hired for another contract.