Yeah, we just laid off all the engine people we use to build the games we’re known for.
And now we’re moving to an engine none of us knows and isn’t ours. What’s the worst that can happen?
Totally certain Microsoft will be a good steward and give them time and money to completely transition to …
The person writing this post has been sacked …
The person that was writing about the sacking has been sacked. There are five lights.
I was interested in the claim about engine swap, and it seems to be a popular suspicion that is not in the OP but laid out in detail with links there: https://www.shanethegamer.com/xbox/id-software-layoffs-spark-fears-quake-could-ditch-idtech-for-unreal-engine/
What AAA studios still use their own solutions now, except for Valve and Rockstar? Is everyone else on game engines world’s Chromium? That’s a big loss to players and the gamedev as art.
Ubisoft has Snowdrop, EA has Frostbite. FromSoft uses their own engine. Bandai Namco has the RE engine. Square Enix uses their own for the FF games. The Horizon and Death Stranding games are built on the Decima(?) engine. Nintendo does their own thing.
There’s plenty more out there.CD Projekt and 343 have been the highest profile switches to Unreal, I suppose. I think Unreal Engine has been most prevalent in “AA” releases? Though I’m sure there’s a lot I’m not thinking of.
IO Interactive also use their own engine. They are a minority but some big studios do it. It’s expensive but being able to make something custom and not have to rely on Epic is probably pretty nice
What AAA studios still use their own solutions now, except for Valve and Rockstar?
But, Id Software INVENTED FPS game engines! Valve didn’t even invent Half-Life’s first engine; they borrowed an early prototype of Quake.
Yeah, I know Carmack isn’t on the payroll nowadays, but there’s still some competent people who know how to design 3D engines on their own.
It’s going to be okay. We still have our marketing, PR, and social media teams.
‘say everything’s fine or you are fired’
Until they pay Gordon for his DE music and get him back for other projects, I’m not interested in what they have to say or work on.
“There it is, I already said it, I already said it… Could you…? Could you put the gun down, please? I’m begging you, put the gun down. I already said what you wanted. Please, put the gun down. Please… My… My child is waiting for me. Please…”
ok then, the layoffs were justified :)
[GAMERS PACIFIED]
“The team today is about the same size we were when making Doom 2016”
This quote is an interesting point. It’s still gone through some really bad churn, including Mick Gordon, which doesn’t make me trust them. But I would at least agree most studios have been over-hiring around COVID times into 100x their original size to try to make games 100x more epic. Telltale Games was the one I could most easily point to - having completed one major hit (TWD) and then trying to put their hands into 20 different pies to make 20 hits.
There’s some MBA views on growth that are just over-fantastical around game development. Nintendo and Valve have both done some shitty stuff, but they at least hold their cards, maintain cash reserves, don’t buy into sectors, and thus don’t end up nuking their own company.
What I would’ve liked to see from studios like id is: “Okay, we only need our team to be this large for Doom 2016. Now that we’ve hired this many people, we could split them into multiple studios each trying out interesting new ideas”.
That’s risk-prone, but if they want to avoid risk…just get out of game development. They’re even seeing failing returns on things like Call of Duty (and in the past decade, Halo) when those franchises get over-saturated.
but does it still have the same fan base?
Clap when the light turns green.
