Restructuring layoffs hit Harmonix, the band plays on

:(

Sons o' bitches always going after the QA department.

QA LIFE!

Or, in fact, to better align [the] staffing to best suit [Harmonix's] LACK OF MONIES.

My heart goes out to those laid off at Harmonix. I've been there, and I know how it goes.

Well that's terrible. HMX's my favorite studio, seeing people leave them is really sad.

Doesn't sound like it will, but hopefully this doesn't cause RB's DLC output to shrink down to Guitar Hero levels. I just got into GH after being a RB2 player for a year, and was shocked at how little DLC there is, between World Tour and GH5 DLC there were about 10 songs I had any interest in. Especially when MTV was boasting that they would be putting out way more songs than Harmonix could ever manage to do, I guess they were really full of it.

This ought to do wonders for company morale...

EA has been cutting lot's of places.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyeemtS1jII

Whilst playing The Beatles: Rock Band last night I was thinking of this very thing. I'm tremendously sorry to all those who lost their jobs but it's hardly suprising.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero seem to have two very different trajectories. Guitar Hero release sixty dollar games every few months that are stand alone experiences with minimal DLC support.

Rock Band on the other hand seem to have created a stable platform. There are infrequent releases that are more set piece items like Lego Rockband and The Beatles that are "nice" to have but not necisary for new content (contrary to GH's buy the game get new content and features.) They have long term support and backwards compatibility built in to the product with continuous DLC. So, in essence a platform not a game. As such, the developmet team size required and the costs are going to be much much lower. I can't remember where I saw the numbers but I remember seeing somewhere that RB had made a ridiculous number of dollars based on DLC alone. They keep the flow of DLC and minor refinements via patches coming out. Continued backwards compatibility they may not win in the short term but in the long term they will enjoy a much greater success then GH.

Any how, it's sad but unsuprising and I've rambled on too long.

I'm surprised there are still quality assurance departments for these instrument games. Seems like there's a new music game every other month.

The people at Harmonix deserved to lose their jobs. I don't remember Rock Band selling very over the last few years so someone has to take responsibility for the poor sales.

Wait a sec... Did I say Rock Band? I meant, Ninjabread Man for the Wii ! I always get those two games mixed up.

The Rock Band franchice sold a ton of games, peripherals, DLC and even that $5 charge to play RB1 with RB2. Nice way to share the wealth Harmonix. Even nicer to pink slip these people at Christmas. Classy. I'll remember those poor people when looking at products to purchase.

I sincerely hope this doesn't impact the quality of their weekly releases... as well as upcoming products, of course. I was displeased wiht pandemic getting shut down, but shaving off anyone from Harmonix incites my wrath...

Interesting that any kind of restructuring has to take place when there were $20M bonuses doled out in the last year to the founders.

My worry about cutting QA is that it's possible there COULD be a future trend toward charting with errors, omissions, or generally DLC files that have "issues". I'm going to call it 3 months, max, before we see a DLC file that breaks in some way... (You don't get away with chopping "quality assurance" and not see some kind of hit to overall quality...)

They probably had an overabundance of post-Beatles Yoko wranglers.

To Dowse - I wouldn't want to add to the guilt of remaining Harmonix employees, so I'll just buy other products. That should be their warning to get the hell out of dodge before it happens to them. If it can happen just before Christmas, no one is safe.

To MowDownJoe - Yeah, I hear you on that one. On the other hand, maybe all of the people laid off were Muslim, Jewish or Athiests and therefore unattached religiously to the sympathies of Christmas and its emotional trappings.

Two of my friends were part of the 39 let go, one in IT and one in administration. Companies restructure and lay off people all the time, but this time, it's personal. :-/

The ignorance of some people here is astounding. Layoffs are not "classless" acts by a company. They are a necessary evil in the corporate world, particularly so in an economic recession. Read the other article about this and you'll see that there was an influx of QA positions to meet the 2009 release date for TB:RB and that those were the lion's share of the positions that were eliminated today.

Furthermore, nearly EVERY gaming company in the entire industry hire temps or part-timers to do QA work. You have a VERY small full-time QA staff that are constant, while the vast majority are in flux.

@saspa: You really think NOT buying their products is going to get those people hired back? I certainly hope not. These layoffs have NOTHING to do with sales (or supposed lack thereof) but rather conforming to the standards of the industry. And what does it being just before Christmas have to do with anything? This restructuring has nothing to do with sales, so I fail to see your point.

One of the 39 here (oh, hi Azrane!). No love lost, this company has been a family to me. I'm sad to go, but it's not the fault of anyone at the company. I'm glad to have been a part of it. It's been fun.

Much love.

I was laid off this time last year and frankly it sucks tremendously.

I would buy each one of those 39 folks a beer.

Such crappy news. While I don't know anyone at Harmonix, I'm a huge fan of both their games and the way the company presents itself. It may just be good PR at work, but Harmonix has always come off as a class act. The Rock Band series has a level of polish and a certain intangible "soul" that's been missing from GH since Harmonix left it.

I'm sorry that some of the folks responsible for a few of my favorite games of all time have been caught in the economic pinch. I hope Harmonix treated them fairly in their severance, and I wish them all well.