505 strategy

ThaRoadWarrior

Looks like 505’s parent company just did a 30% staff reduction, primarily from the studios on the premise that they only want sequels and evergreen titles.

https://www.pcgamer.com/505-games-parent-company-lays-off-30-of-its-workforce-says-gamers-really-only-want-sequels-so-thats-what-its-going-to-make/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR3BOXSGBn9UxUpYanF76q3Z1bExPlf2PCmxCDCb1-uST5bUSOLcwP2OBeg_aem_AZFKqkcpxu2cDWKOGL1_0StEL241ua46HJ6qHMnBGhxySM5bgBtJCclmbyxH04i-sWI

As a fellow dev (unrelated to 505 or this game) my heart goes out to those affected. The game industry rapture this year has been absolutely atrocious, we’ve seen nearly 7,000 jobs cut this year alone, even as we’ve had the most 90%+ metacritic releases of any year in the history of game scores being kept. Truly we live in wild times.

Blackstone

Sounds like cost cutting even though profits are going up. I'll assume only a very few at the top ever see the benefits.

Honestly makes me feel less inclined to spend money, though that wouldn't actually help anyone.

ThaRoadWarrior

Cutting your spending would have the opposite effect, no decision maker would be anywhere near as affected as someone who was actually doing the work if that were the response. I hope nobody took this post as some sort of call for a boycott, it was really just an industry awareness PSA.

Bowgentle

Repercussions of zero interest rate loans disappearing I think.
Just look at Embracer slowly unraveling.

ThaRoadWarrior

It’s complex. The last 2-3 years have been very tumultuous for society at large, but also games and software acutely when it comes to the background radiation if base salary expectations driven by the remote work diaspora, as well as dramatic changes in spending habits and consumption of media by the public. We are seeing generally a congealing of new product into AAAA (inflation of an extra a, from triple a, no joke) blockbusters and then a huge sea of micro budget white noise with almost nothing in between. This is for both film and games. Studios generally are contracting their offerings into known IP and sequels, but that generated its own fatigue in the buying public. The conversation around generative AI is tanking everyone’s stock as investors imagine human devs and artists are obsolete, even though the reality of those tools is that it isn’t the case today. I don’t think the situation will improve job stability wise until well into next year. Q4 is always an industry lull for development and hiring, so people losing jobs now means they almost certainly aren’t getting new ones till feb or March even in a normal development year.

ThaRoadWarrior

Sigh…there is always one. Where is that mute button?

bluewolf

Year over year, 2022 mobile game spending dropped 5%. We won’t see 2023 reports until next year but the fact is that the pandemic and resulting isolation/closures etc led to more time playing and spending on video games than ever. Meaning it’s almost a certainty that this year’s mobile spending is at best flat vs 2022 as people are going out more like pre-pandemic and simultaneously cutting/watching discretionary spending as prices remain higher than before.

If you’re, say, going out to eat more and it costs more to do it, you’re not spending as much money on digital trinkets

Markets and companies expand to chase money and inevitably contract when market peaks are hit. Unfortunately.

I am not very familiar with games that aren’t in the AAAA arena as I only really play a few, but it seems like 505 and Digital Bros are firmly in the smaller game market and probably extremely vulnerable to spending reductions.

ThaRoadWarrior

I would assume the same. Live Services games are pretty volatile at the best of times when it comes to predictable income.

MoosePrime

Shouldn't this thread be in off-topic?

DrClever

@MoosePrime said:
Shouldn't this thread be in off-topic?

I only found out last week there's an off topic forum and I still haven't visited it.

Is it any good?

ThaRoadWarrior

Threads want to be where the people are; general discussion about the publisher of this game and the surrounding industry context felt like it could live here, but it can get sorted wherever makes sense.

MegaBee

@DrClever said:

@MoosePrime said:
Shouldn't this thread be in off-topic?

I only found out last week there's an off topic forum and I still haven't visited it.

Is it any good?

IME the Off-Topic forum is where threads go to die.

entrailbucket

@MegaBee said:

@DrClever said:

@MoosePrime said:
Shouldn't this thread be in off-topic?

I only found out last week there's an off topic forum and I still haven't visited it.

Is it any good?

IME the Off-Topic forum is where threads go to die.

And I assume this one is here because we're asking "what is the impact of this on MPQ?" and not looking to discuss any other economic or industry implications of it.

My somewhat educated guess on that point is "no impact." Remember 505 is the publisher, not the developer. Also 505 is a big company that publishes a lot of games. MPQ is such a bizarre outlier in the mobile/f2p space that it's likely the game would survive even if the publisher were to close down -- I bet they'd sell us to somebody else.

Blackstone

@ThaRoadWarrior said:
Cutting your spending would have the opposite effect, no decision maker would be anywhere near as affected as someone who was actually doing the work if that were the response. I hope nobody took this post as some sort of call for a boycott, it was really just an industry awareness PSA.

I didn't think you meant it as a boycott.
I thought you were simply informing.

The information I gleaned though is that employees within the industry are producing content of increasing quality.

Then, once the groundwork is complete and money can be made through maintaining existing work with fewer employees, decision makers fire employees to make more money for themselves.

Or they just having the revenue coming in regardless of the quality they produce so they need to make cuts to start afloat.

Either way it sucks for those employees as they lack any sort of security in their careers.

And I'm less inclined to spend money on three industry because it seems like only a few people will benefit from profits either way, and those people are not the employees making the games.

Edit: the above is simply my opinion... Ideas I'm perceiving... And not meant to be taken as factual.

I know nothing about corporations or gaming companies, or what it takes the run them.

I spent my teenage years doing handyman we work and most of my adult life in the army... So no one should my opinion on this as reality

I stated how I felt, what I perceived, because being over worked, or not gaming a job at all, sucks and I wanted to say what I was thinking.

If I've said something incorrect I'm fully open to hearing another side and reasonably adjusting my position.

I hope everyone affected by this finds their way to better days.

Scofie

I've deleted a post containing a conspiracy theory (and a reply). Please no more of those.

I also wanted to say that the people who manage these forums are affected by the events noted here (as mentioned in another thread), so please be a little sensitive with your opinions. Fewer people also means more work per person, so please be kind and patient while everyone adjusts.

ThaRoadWarrior

I'm really sorry to hear that, truly. I've been on both sides of the table for one of these events more than once in my career, it is never good and everyone affected are real people with lives and dependents.

Scofie

@ThaRoadWarrior said:
I'm really sorry to hear that, truly. I've been on both sides of the table for one of these events more than once in my career, it is never good and everyone affected are real people with lives and dependents.

Absolutely agree. I should make it really clear that I'm just a volunteer Mod so am not affected by it in any way, but have got to know the community team a little behind the scenes and I know this will have been a difficult week.