Is it me or BF2023 is crazy ?

[zerocrossing]

I’m in America, so stuff like corporate greed is particularly acute here, I think.

I once worked on a a game that was in production for 4 years. I came in mid production, but I started noticing something weird. We were never done with anything. I was constantly sent off to iterate on something. It was very strange, until the parent company landed a big contract with Dreamworks. I remember talking to the audio designer and saying, “Watch. They were using us as bait to land a big contract. We’ll be sent home in a week.” We were sent home 2 weeks later. Management said, “we realized we couldn’t complete the game with the engine (Unreal) we selected, so we’re scrapping the project.” This was total b.s. We were definitely ready to go into beta. The game looked and played really well, and had a really good attribute that would set it apart from the competition and probably make it a huge hit with young gamers.

Plus, who was going to make this new game? Why not a team who had shown it was totally capable of making a great game? Why were we all let go? It made zero sense, but I’m sure some bean counter calculated that they’d save money by cutting everyone loose and then rehiring when they were ready to go into production with the new game, so that was that. That bean counter also probably figured out that they’d do better using our game as a tax write off than a commercial product. To add insult to injury, they made us all sign a contract saying we couldn’t post anything we did during those 4 years in our portfolios. I can’t even use the work I did to help land new work. Did this work ever get used in some other game? Nope. Years of amazing art and design just got flushed down the toilet.

Yes it is really corporate grid to the max.... Quite different compare to Europe (in particular Germany and France).
I live in Singapore where both type of companies are, and it is very clear. mercenaries go to US companies and people trying to build a career go to European companies.

I am really not sure on my side that the culture of ramping up and down in a very "agile" way is very good even for the company. I mean for macdo maybe but if you want to build experts, in complex environments, it takes time and it is useful to create a long relationship with your employees....

I totally agree. One thing that I’ve learned during my career is that companies who are low on process and “agile” are not really very agile. A lot of small companies treat process as a waste of time, but I know it’s the opposite.

[kidslow]

but if you want to build experts, in complex environments, it takes time and it is useful to create a long relationship with your employees....

Institutional knowledge is perhaps the least valued intangible asset by U.S. corporations. If you've ever worked at a company with people who have been there for 10-20-30 years, you know how much time it can save to know who to go to for something specific outside of your realm, especially in bigger global companies. It's not goodwill, which is just the fake amount in excess of book value that needs to be accounted for on an acquisition. Institutional knowledge is more like ground level acquired wisdom about the organization and who is capable or does what.

My belief this year is that we're going to see some real blow-out sales in December, beyond what we've already seen for BF. Maybe not the same cast of characters, but the big corporates will be scrambling to make their numbers every which way but loose.

[Jac459]

I totally agree. One thing that I’ve learned during my career is that companies who are low on process and “agile” are not really very agile. A lot of small companies treat process as a waste of time, but I know it’s the opposite.

I think the problem comes essentially from private equity firms, owning big companies and trying to do immediate money.
A good example is Finastra, the self proclaimed "biggest FinTech" in the world. 15-10 years ago they bought a lot of successful companies but they destroyed everything by not investing in their product and trying to squeeze their client as much as possible.

Today their owner try to sell the company.... Since more than 2 years, nobody wants it ...

[Jac459]

Institutional knowledge is perhaps the least valued intangible asset by U.S. corporations.

Fully agreed... Unfortunately it isn't only US companies, but it is true that it seems even worse in many US companies.

[foosnark]

To add insult to injury, they made us all sign a contract saying we couldn’t post anything we did during those 4 years in our portfolios. I can’t even use the work I did to help land new work. Did this work ever get used in some other game? Nope. Years of amazing art and design just got flushed down the toilet.

The game industry sucks ass. I'm glad I got out.

[Jac459]

To add insult to injury, they made us all sign a contract saying we couldn’t post anything we did during those 4 years in our portfolios. I can’t even use the work I did to help land new work. Did this work ever get used in some other game? Nope. Years of amazing art and design just got flushed down the toilet.

The game industry sucks ass. I'm glad I got out.

They take the opportunity of people being passionate to pay them less.
It sucks big time.

[zerocrossing]

To add insult to injury, they made us all sign a contract saying we couldn’t post anything we did during those 4 years in our portfolios. I can’t even use the work I did to help land new work. Did this work ever get used in some other game? Nope. Years of amazing art and design just got flushed down the toilet.

The game industry sucks ass. I'm glad I got out.

It’s true, but the corporate world also has its way of sucking one’s soul out and leaving you an empty husk. I stay in the business because I mostly love the people who are in the trenches.

[foosnark]

Understandable. The people where I work now are just not as fun / not who I want to hang out with. But the paychecks are better, always land on time, there's no crunch, and we get a lot more respect from management and a certain amount of autonomy.