Senior Animators Thoughts on Layoffs in the Gaming Industry
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Join me as I take on a touchy subject for me and most game devs. Recently Playstation has laid off 8% of their workforce or 900 people. This is devastating news to our community and there are already lots of talented people looking for jobs because of the Microsoft layoffs that happened recently. I am very passionate about gaming and how games are made so I am pretty fired about this topic.
I give my thoughts on the matter and where I think we need to be headed for a bright future in gaming.
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/ @yorkreacts
I love how honest and humble you always are. Never pretentious or condescending. Just delightful. I'm glad I subscribed :)
as someone who has worked in TV animation for 10 yrs we are in the exact same boat. contract employment has such a brutal chokehold on this field. as for the current layoffs- people might not be aware how well the animation industry/tech industry did over covid and alot of whats going on is a course correction to that, on top of AI confusing a lot of developers.
Thank you for your fantastic insights and dedication to business success. Your expertise is truly invaluable. Keep up the amazing work!
The more it gets out that large companies can (and will) shut everything down in an instant, the more I hope indie studios will resist being bought out
Yeah that's a problem so this is how big titles us gamers love get ruined because of companies walking over devs and letting the best people go indie 🤷♂
Yeah well I guess it will eventually be a lesson learned on their end. Only time will tell. I can’t tell you how many people I know who got burned out of work and took a different path most out of gaming all together. But some went to start their own thing.
@@YorkReacts that's sad tbh, i wish all the devs who started their own thing to go big that's all i can say ♥
@@YorkReacts
I’m a little confused... Does Sony PlayStation have a history of laying off so many people at once, or no? Because you talked about how animators, for example, wouldn’t be needed for the entire life cycle of a game, so they will be laid off when their usefulness is over - but this sounds different because it’s PlayStation where they are constantly churning out different games, so can shuffle their staff from project to project as needed. It isn’t like they are a dev like Rockstar, only working on one game at a time.
When you said that the layoff was 8% of the company, I had instant flashbacks to being in a similar global layoff by Sony, but I worked in a different industry with Sony. I worked in the music industry for their record label, Sony Music. This was back in 2004, and I was part of the first wave of layoffs that let go of 10% of the company, worldwide. It was the beginning of the industry imploding is what it was.
Within the next couple of years or so, I learned that the entire art department I worked in was thoroughly gutted/destroyed/let go. Work was outsourced to save money on not having to retain staff (because we were full time with benefits - healthcare/401ks/etc), as well as stripped to bare bones garbage (i.e. I was a web designer that designed and built gorgeous custom, heavily detailed websites for each artist - that stopped and Sony would just have an outsourced worker make stupid basic MySpace pages for each artist).
It wasn’t long after I was laid off that Sony Music merged with BMG, just to survive. They were far from being the only labels that merged to stay afloat and lay off countless staff... What caused all this? You may have already guessed - it was the effect from piracy (Napster/Limewire/etc).
I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if this mass layoff is the signs of much more than “this is routine layoffs.” We are in the midst of a depression with how insane the cost of living is with inflation... I love gaming and own a PS Vita, PS2, PS3, and PS4, but I still to this day never bought a PS5 because money is too tight (and that shortage of chips sure didn’t help Sony) - the PS5 is way too expensive for me, and games are even more expensive now too. I don’t even pay for PlayStation Plus (PS+) anymore, and am fine with just replaying the games I already own/going through my backlog.
I know that I’m far from the only gamer who’s pulled back massively on spending money on that hobby with the way the economy has been for the last few years, so I’m wondering if these layoffs are a sign of that. Entertainment is not needed for survival during a recession/depression - food, shelter, and essential bills are all that matter.
(Sorry that was so long, btw!).
Man, you are freaking amazing, thanks for share!
Great insights for those who didn't know how cold the industry can be. I learned the hard way after 2 years at PlayStation.
You said it! Everyone that get let go should all form a studio together and build themselves into a major gaming company but stay indie never allow a company to buy them out or any investors because once you sign that contract the company is theirs and they can vote you out of your own company
Yup you got it!
Thanks York, im in the 2d animation industry aswell. This helps shed some light on our world.
That was very interesting and informative to watch. Waiting for a part 2 video where you tell about how you didn't let big game companies have their way with you. I am genuinely curious.
Yeah I should make that video actually. Stay tuned hah
Definitely one of the fucking coolest UA-camrs I’ve ever ever come across. Love this dude.
Please do an interview with a game programmer from a large gaming company
You should totally talk about this kinda stuff more. Very informative and motivating!
Thats insane that you used to work for rockstar and Playstation!! Tbh im getting so upset, and mad with how the gaming industry is going. So much so that ive started writing out/scripting my own stand-alone cod zombies game. I used to take programming classes in high school (never finished, transferred schools) but do you have any suggestions on how i could do this, without it taking a decade? Im only 1 person. P.s - id love to bring it to mrroflwaffles, noahj456, and other big cod zombie ENTHUSIASTS/influencers
My best advice would be to download u real engine and focus your energy learning animation blueprints and scripting and learning how things connect and play in a game. Don’t get upset about the industry and let that frustration get to you. Chase your dream and if you wanna be a game dev you can do it !
Woahhhh!! York looks like Jason 👀
Finally watching this and wow. All that hard word just thrown away by corperate suits. I knew they were a- holes from an outside perspective as a consumer but that is just messed up.
Yup sucks to be apart of it when it happens
When someone sells their company, they HAVE TO do it with the acceptance of the fact that the company can get shut down next day. They should not sell if they do not want to live with this acceptance. It is hard, but it is what it is. Still though, Activision has been acting in some really nasty ways under Kotick. We can only hope MS will not be as bad (but given how many studios they killed, I am not that optimistic).
Yup I agree and if I ever start my own studio or company ect I’m never selling out to the big dogs mark my words
Great insight! I've always wanted to go into the industry and even have an education in Computer Science, but instead decided on a recession proof industry and couldn't be happier.
curious is it food or medical or transportation? e.g. trucking/distribution. food/food distr. and medical are 2 traditional that weather bad economies because people always need them
@@sinistan1002 Nope. Something people never think about but is absolutely necessary in all types of economies.
@@Mike__P toilet paper ? 😄
The death of AAA studios.
How secure did you feel at Rockstar?
I felt pretty stable that is the job I was referring to. It’s mainly because it takes while for a person to get used to the way they work and the software and workflow ect.
KING YORK
Thank you for sharing your story. It's kinda rare seeing animators take all these layoffs.
I'm trying to keep my chin up with it all going on and keep treading on till next year. My contract ends in March so I'm hoping things pick up until then. Thank you again.
Yeah man so little jobs going around these days it’s crazy. And with Ai coming in and tech getting better and better like mocap capturing ect our time might be limited.
Keep in contact with me I might be able to help you find work after March
@@YorkReacts thank you, and you keep making great content! I'm glad to find your channel 👏
For a game like GTA6 Rockstar can put allot money into and make a fuck ton from it. But many other devs just can not afford these budgets spiderman 2 cost 300milliiion Sony are going to need to bring Spiderman 2 to Xbox and PC to make a profit.
I'd never heard of it before, but a Karaoke game in the Hero franchise? That sounds like a no-brainer. I wonder how much money they missed out on making. It's such a shame that these companies are run by out of touch suits.
woooooooooohooooooooooooooooo stream
Yeah there needs to be a “Todd McFarlane”of the gaming industry to create a company that is about the creators.
Everyone is replaceable 😔😔😔
That's why it's very important to train yourself to save lot's of money. Learn how to budget. Because you never know what will happen in life.
If you see yourself living paycheck to paycheck. Then your not doing it right, and it's time to get 2 jobs or a better paying job.
I didn't know my job was on a 2 year contract at first when hired on, and after 2 years went by that contract ended and I was freaking out. Everyone's hours were cut or let go and thank God they signed another contract with a different company. Bunch of people lost their jobs.
Im glad I wasn't one of those people. Especially when I just bought myself a 2022 Dodge Challenger 392 R/T Scat Pack and im a single guy living in a 2 bedroom duplex. I have a ton of bill's and I do everything on my own. Gets stressful when low on cash. So I learned to budget over the years.
You and a few your pals should use some of what you know and create your own game together. This is the era of the Indie creators
Woooooooooo
🙌🙌
I'm certain about rockstar having over 6000 employees. I feel like after gta 6 release, rockstar bout to have a lay-offs of thousands of employees.
Yeah unless they work on a new title Right Away.
When GTA Online 2 will be coming out? No chance, that’s their money printing machine.
bro where did you get those numbers thats absurd 2000 people worked on rdr2 and that with all the rockstar studios combined but for GTA6 i think it would be 3000
what do you think of the reported news rockstar is asking people to come back into the office as they try to finish up gta vi, supposedly if true employees are not happy about it. I say top talent probably can't so easily be replaced if they push back so might have some pull but meeting deadlines are real too I guess
Well it’s their company they can do whatever they want. My guess is it’s to limit hacking and for security reasons
@@YorkReacts thanks. yeah security was one of the reported concerns. but reading more online and in-between the lines I took it as they were maybe more to it than that alone
@@sinistan1002 ohh there always is more to it then meets the eye 👁️
It’s a layoff without having to call it a layoff. A lot of those people will not be able to afford to move to work in the office and will quit
Not everything needs to be AAA blockbusters
Sony could revive old ip like socom motorstorm killzone with AA budgets
Yeah I agree companies don’t put out smaller games anymore it seems. Fortnite is doing it with their different game modes ect now