Zipper Interactive staff reduced following SOCOM 4 completion

@Tradio

I'm almost certain you haven't even played SOCOM 4.

@Sgt Barone

Maybe I missed it, but where does it say the staff layoffs had anything to do with how well the game performed?

@Pixel Addict Lol... well it is kind of Business 101 knowledge especially in regards to a Sales/Retail company. The more they sell of the product, the further they can expand or continue to pay for existing employees.

It's apparent to anyone not clueless in business, that if you have to lay-off 33 developers, it means your studio can't 1) Afford to keep them, 2) Want to cut costs, but have exhausted all other means 3) The studio heads want to maximize their own reward/profits, so they fire employees so they keep more money.

@PointlessPuppies This happens in every industry. No development team that swells up as the project nears its end keeps all of those extra people once it's done.

@PointlessPuppies

dude, a lot companies hire creatice people and specifically call them contractors. There's nothing wrong with that. You get hired on for a week or even a couple of years. it's called freelance work and it pays very well. I worked at a place for 2 months before and at a place for 3 years as a freelance artist. I'll probably go back to both at some point in the future when they need me again. I don't want to sit around an office if they have to find busy-work for me. I'd rather move onto another job that genuinely needs my talent. That's the beauty of being a contractor is that you can put the work on your resume and get a job somewhere else! these people are basically hired guns that different companies share. some of them probably even work for 3rd party creative industries and get benefits through them.

there is no doubt that they told these people they would only be there until the product was finished.

@eat it

*creative agencies. not industries

@PointlessPuppies

As a contract programmer, I can tell you that they corporations don't hire full time employees with the expectation of laying them off. It is much more expensive to hire full time employees and fire them then to just hire a bunch of contractors. Your liable for paying some of their unemployment and benefits if they are full-time. Things change in business and you have to readjust. Sometimes mass layoffs are used to just trim the fat and layoff less than star performers.

@PointlessPuppies The second word of your second sentence mate.

Industry.

@CrashTunoku Nope, wrong, I worked Contract there for a year on SOCOM 4 and left a couple months ago. But I made a bunch of friends while at Zipper, and I can confirm that it was all Departments (Art, Design, Engineering, QA, etc...) that got hit, and the a good portion were also full-time employees...

In fact, I personally know 2 Programmers (name withheld obviously b/c the internet has no respect for such things) who worked their asses off fixing other people's mistakes at Zipper who were laid off, while some of the "useless" ones were kept.

Don't go spouting shit like that if you don't even work in/or know people in the Gaming Industry, or specifically the studio these articles talk about...

@CrashTunoku Oops, and that was aimed towards "Da Bro Quest", not you Crash, must have clicked the wrong Reply :P.

@dblue

So true. I don't feel like there's any teamwork in the MP. Just a bunch of people running around spraying Assault Rifles. They tried to appeal to a bigger audience and is losing their core audience in the process. (sigh...)