Rumor: Factor 5 cuts 37 jobs

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 16th 2008 at 11:40AM }

Speaking to a "well-placed source," Edge Online reports that Rogue Squadron developer Factor 5 laid off 37 employees on Friday, December 12th. This leaves around 38 workers to continue development on one or more projects which may or may not be canceled, depending on whose blog you read and how quickly it gets deleted from the internet.

While most would speculate that the drama has its origin in Factor 5's botched deal with Brash, Edge's source claims, "The thing that bothers me the most about it all is they could have avoided all of this ages ago. It wasn't really the Brash deal going south that was the big problem, but it didn't help much either." According to the source, the last time Factor folks got so much as a fiver was on October 15th. That's grimmer than most of Lair's reviews.

Tags: Factor-5, Lair, Layoffs, Rogue-Squadron, Rumor

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Obie @ Dec 16th 2008 11:49AM

That is depressing, I enjoyed their Rogue Squadron games. Yes, Lair was a turkey, but one bad game should not haunt a company forever.

samfish @ Dec 16th 2008 11:53AM

That sucks. Even though Lair was a turkey, Factor 5 still tends to make good games.
I hope Capcom or Sega buys them. I'm sure with all the news of their troubles and their pedigree, some of the huge publishing houses are eyeballing them carefully at this point.

Obie @ Dec 16th 2008 12:03PM

lol, like minds....;)

Dirty @ Dec 16th 2008 1:29PM

All this turkey talk has me hungry..

I hope microsoft buys them and has them make the next Crimson Skies.

Little Big PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Dec 16th 2008 2:16PM

Did you get hands on time with Lair? Just curious if you got to play it or if you are going off the horrible reviews. I enjoyed it enough to say it was a decent game. I thought the motion controls were pretty good after you got use to them. It was a fun little game that had some issues like framerate drops and chugging. I don't think it's near as bad as it's percieved by the gaming populus who for the most part never even played it. I guess the same could be said for Too Human & Wario Shake It.

Boarderwoot @ Dec 16th 2008 11:55AM

"Speaking to a "well-placed source," "....aka "my brother-in law who came asking me for money on Saturday.

Phillip @ Dec 16th 2008 11:55AM

All they have to do is make a new Rogue Squadron for the Wii and they should be set for the next few years. Hell spiff up the graphics for the first 2, re-release it with new controls and online play and I'm sold.

Mr Khan @ Dec 16th 2008 11:59AM

That's been more or less confirmed, except that it won't be a new game. Some mystery publisher (likely Nintendo themselves) acquired the rights to the 3 Rogue Squadron games from LucasArts so that they can re-release them for Wii. The process includes redrawing the first rogue squadron up to hardware capabilities

Mr Khan @ Dec 16th 2008 11:57AM

When that 1 bad game is THE game that you've made in the last 5 years, it can kinda hurt.

So long as they don't put the freeze on whatever they're working on for Wii, though. I would doubt those projects would be on the chopping block, unless they were new IPs and not what's been rumored (StarFox, Kid Icarus, Pilotwings)

Obie @ Dec 16th 2008 12:01PM

Sadly, yes. In the videogame industry you are only as good as the last game you made.

j.howlett @ Dec 16th 2008 11:59AM

so sad. i still want my dragon trophies

Mr. Bungo @ Dec 16th 2008 12:04PM

That's so disappointing. I loved Factor 5's Rogue Squadron games. That first Gamecube game was a stunner. While I never played Lair (no PS3), it seemed like a very cool idea that was done in by some poor execution. I think they've got some talented, dedicated folks and I'm sorry to hear things go bad for them. I hope something happens to help them out, either via a new publishing deal, or an acquisition that keeps the company together as more than just a name and some IP.

Lee @ Dec 16th 2008 12:25PM

Thats no good.
Yes going to the PS3 was their biggest mistake ever but it should only haunt them until they make another good Nintendo game.

Genius @ Dec 16th 2008 1:19PM

Screw everything else, Turrican was awesome, sad to hear this happened.

WRE @ Dec 16th 2008 1:28PM

Maybe they just fired the Lair team?

ComicShaman @ Dec 16th 2008 3:42PM

In which case, the question is... what took them so long?

Although the music was good, and some of visual design was pretty decent. So maybe they could keep some of those folks on. But everyone else responsible for Lair should've been sacked long ago.

(And yes, I did play the game. It was dreadful.)

Ray @ Dec 16th 2008 2:25PM

I think this is karma for working with Brash, I mean come on there the company that brought us jumpers the game. I think it about time employees tell their bosses that I do not think this game is good. If not they will face the economic factor of creative destruction.

-Yes I to loved Rouge Squadron, so maybe thats a sign that they should stick to Star wars franchise