Sorry to hear for all of them and I wish them all the best for their next job.
There's something weird tho, I think I read they still hire for their other project, but, couldn't they move the talent to the other teams then, instead of letting go that much. Unless the new hires is so few people that they didn't bother.. I don't know.
Sorry to hear this.... Good luck to those affected and I'm sure you'll all land on your feet. Enjoy the time off and take some much needed R&R then back to the drawing board.
Sorry to hear about the layoffs. Layoffs suck, however new opportunities don't.
Ready At Dawn is hiring for a new IP for the home console. -- http://www.readyatdawn.com/
I hardly think any of the artists are at fault here. Most of the flak I've seen on the internet were aimed at technical instabilities (of which I'm also experiencing some) and mediocre gameplay/story.
Are the layoffs mostly artists or coders/writers too?
Wow, some great artists being laid off here. I hope for good things for all of you, i'm sure plenty of other studios can't wait to gobble up some id talent
Really is awesome to see so much genuine concern and a real positive solution with job opening consideration for what Zenimax is calling it's regular spring cleaning? How insulting is that when your peers think so highly of your talents? What anyone wants is a job and to be proud of hard work. Feeling sorry for someone without this kind of a real effective solution is meaningless. Hopefully my salute to everyone offering up job opportunities isn't as meaningless ( good deeds should be praised! )
As Fuse said, we could be looking for talent, so just let us know and we'll forward it to Digital Extremes HR.
Really sucks to hear this had to go down, but shit... you guys are from ID, you are rockstars no matter what happens, and you will continue to kick so much ass as you continue your awesome careers in this industry or others
Wow. I gotta say I wasn't expecting to hear this...ever.
Best of luck to all those affected I imagine you'll all do well. I hope some of you decide to be crazy and form a start up...that would be awesome!
Peace
B
Man, best of luck to all involved. Some incredible talent over there, and it's really neat to see all sorts of polycounters jump in offering job leads, this is a great community to be a part of. I doubt any you guys will have trouble finding your next killer gig.
I believe we, Trion in Redwood Shores, are also hiring for Rift. If I'm not mistaken: senior character, environment, and fx artists. Feel free to message me or the other Trion folks if you're interested. Good luck to everyone affected!
iD has grown very large over the past several years, and like any company in times of growth, has (or had?) a lot of bloat.
Cutting the bottom 5% (in terms of performance) is a standard in a lot of big name companies (such as Microsoft).
Zenimax is flush with cash now thanks to Skyrim's success, and Rage didn't exactly bomb, so most likely iD just trimmed a lot of their poor performers. (I heard no good things about a certain guitar hero legend, for example)
from my experience it seems like the best people get laid off first because typically they are the highest paid. The bean counters just view them as the most expensive.
from my experience it seems like the best people get laid off first because typically they are the highest paid. The bean counters just view them as the most expensive.
surely you can compensate that loss with more overtime!??! *sarcasm alert*
iD has grown very large over the past several years, and like any company in times of growth, has (or had?) a lot of bloat.
Cutting the bottom 5% (in terms of performance) is a standard in a lot of big name companies (such as Microsoft).
Zenimax is flush with cash now thanks to Skyrim's success, and Rage didn't exactly bomb, so most likely iD just trimmed a lot of their poor performers. (I heard no good things about a certain guitar hero legend, for example)
Poor performers. Really?...Really? If you took a second to see Rauls portfolio you'd see that's far from the case.
I'm sure some of the others affected post on this forum as well. You've got some big cahones posting that, for your first post as well...
Good luck for those affected, I hope you all land on your feet.
Poor performers. Really?...Really? If you took a second to see Rauls portfolio you'd see that's far from the case.
I'm sure some of the others affected post on this forum as well. You've got some big cahones posting that, for your first post as well...
There's always exceptions. I'm just stating that *many* of the people let go are/were underperforming...(and I'm aware of a few personally).
Sorry if my post offended anyone but "cut the bottom 5%" is pretty standard in high profile/reputation companies.
How are you coming to the assumption that the bottom 5% got cut instead of the more expensive senior 5%??
And why is it in the id redundancy thread that this inappropriate commentary is happening whereas in all others its just three pages of 'sorry to hear it, good luck getting new jobs'?
iD has grown very large over the past several years, and like any company in times of growth, has (or had?) a lot of bloat.
Cutting the bottom 5% (in terms of performance) is a standard in a lot of big name companies (such as Microsoft).
Zenimax is flush with cash now thanks to Skyrim's success, and Rage didn't exactly bomb, so most likely iD just trimmed a lot of their poor performers. (I heard no good things about a certain guitar hero legend, for example)
Merkmerk73> Whether or not the 5% bottom cut is standard, i don't think your comments help in any constructive way.
You're basically indirectly accusing the afflicted parties of having worked below par or expectations, where exactly do you get that info?
As to the news, it's always really sad to see people loose their jobs, period!
Here's to hoping that you all land on your feet
While I don't think merkmerk73's comments are particularly prudent, I'll play devil's advocate and say how is a character assassination going to help you disprove his statement?
Regardless, to everyone laid off, I'm positive just saying "Oh, I worked at iD on a certain game you might've heard of..." will be enough to land you a job in no time!
While I don't think merkmerk73's comments are particularly prudent, I'll play devil's advocate and say how is a character assassination going to help you disprove his statement?
There seems to be some misunderstandings here and I'd like to clear some things up. Earlier in this thread I asked about what people usually get laid off first, I guess that's what merkmerk73 answered. He sort of has a point though, sometimes companies get rid of people with less experience and regular skills(I'm not talking about the ones laid off of ID) first. When I got laid off at MPC many years ago, the HR guy told me that they were running out of computers there and that they would rather have a senior using one than a junior. He told me that it had nothing to do with my skills at the time, it was just something they had to do in order to be sure they were using as effective people as possible. With that being said I've seen more experienced people get laid off first too, mainly because they were too expensive to keep and they didn't necessarily need that quality of work at the time.
I think that this thread suddenly went from negative to very positive. Thanks everyone for helping out!
There's always exceptions. I'm just stating that *many* of the people let go are/were underperforming...(and I'm aware of a few personally).
Sorry if my post offended anyone but "cut the bottom 5%" is pretty standard in high profile/reputation companies.
Most studios do annual reviews of employees and usually do lay off people that are not performing to expectations.
Its different at a lot of studios some under performers get by just because there friends with a lead or owner and such ( this type of situations happens at bigger studios like EA and such)
So even though merks comment might sound kinda rude he is correct, if i was an owner of a company and needed to free up cash i would talk to all my leads and see who is performing and who isn't.
I don't really think that this was the case here though, worked with Ryan at DE and i can honestly say he was one of our best Artists and when he left to iD i cried like a little bitch.
Hope everyone gets back on there feet and as Jay said before Digital Extremes is always hiring talented artists.
Rockstar Leeds are hiring Env Artists, Animators and Programmers if anyone fancies working in England (especially those affected by BigBig/Monumental layoffs). North are hiring (Scotland), too, and San Diego for any US based folk.
Give me a shout if you're interested and I'll pass things along.
I am blown away at the amount of speculation in this thread aside from actual iD'ers chiming in on the situation. If you don't have anything useful to contribute then maybe you should stay away. People lost their jobs for god's sakes. Despite their talent and likelyhood of finding good positions elsewhere, losing a job, uprooting, moving, job hunting is always stressful.
Always sucks to hear this....you are all talented cats..and I see your futures populated with awesome jobs.
in the interm, if anyone wants to pick up some freelance rigging work, I have a contact that is looking for someone to rig in Maya.
Details:...."They wouldn't have to do rig from scratch but rather use our custom rig builder.
Mainly joint placement, run our autobuilder , then weighting and additional rigs."
If you're interested, PM and I will pass on all the details
Replies
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92829
There's something weird tho, I think I read they still hire for their other project, but, couldn't they move the talent to the other teams then, instead of letting go that much. Unless the new hires is so few people that they didn't bother.. I don't know.
Ready At Dawn is hiring for a new IP for the home console. -- http://www.readyatdawn.com/
If you are interested...
e-mail me, Bobby Rice - bobby@readyatdawn.com
or Marc - marc@readyatdawn.com
As the web link above shows, we are hiring for numerous art positions. If there are any questions, e-mail me. (so to not clutter this thread.)
http://www.bungie.net/Inside/aboutus.aspx
http://epicgames.com//careers/
ALWAYS hiring talented people. Always.
http://www.naughtydog.com/work/
Are the layoffs mostly artists or coders/writers too?
Really sucks to hear this had to go down, but shit... you guys are from ID, you are rockstars no matter what happens, and you will continue to kick so much ass as you continue your awesome careers in this industry or others
Ryan, come back to DE, we miss you man
Best of luck to all those affected I imagine you'll all do well. I hope some of you decide to be crazy and form a start up...that would be awesome!
Peace
B
Also looking for tech artists! Always sucks to hear this sort of news, Goodluck guys!
Also if ryans email doesnt work (cause its so lame), send it to mine Percch@timegate.com!
Cutting the bottom 5% (in terms of performance) is a standard in a lot of big name companies (such as Microsoft).
Zenimax is flush with cash now thanks to Skyrim's success, and Rage didn't exactly bomb, so most likely iD just trimmed a lot of their poor performers. (I heard no good things about a certain guitar hero legend, for example)
I might be able to hook up some freelance work for character-type-peoples
Good luck to everyone affected though!
http://timegatestudios.catsone.com/careers/
Poor performers. Really?...Really? If you took a second to see Rauls portfolio you'd see that's far from the case.
I'm sure some of the others affected post on this forum as well. You've got some big cahones posting that, for your first post as well...
Good luck for those affected, I hope you all land on your feet.
There's always exceptions. I'm just stating that *many* of the people let go are/were underperforming...(and I'm aware of a few personally).
Sorry if my post offended anyone but "cut the bottom 5%" is pretty standard in high profile/reputation companies.
Again, this remember me we are just poor pawns.
BTW, Rage didn't sell well, and i was seeing all this coming...
And why is it in the id redundancy thread that this inappropriate commentary is happening whereas in all others its just three pages of 'sorry to hear it, good luck getting new jobs'?
Post some samples of your work.
You're basically indirectly accusing the afflicted parties of having worked below par or expectations, where exactly do you get that info?
As to the news, it's always really sad to see people loose their jobs, period!
Here's to hoping that you all land on your feet
While I don't think merkmerk73's comments are particularly prudent, I'll play devil's advocate and say how is a character assassination going to help you disprove his statement?
Regardless, to everyone laid off, I'm positive just saying "Oh, I worked at iD on a certain game you might've heard of..." will be enough to land you a job in no time!
I'd like to see his work. Simple request.
"Character assassination"...
We are http://creative-assembly.com/?page_id=10 [Horsham, UK]
I think that this thread suddenly went from negative to very positive. Thanks everyone for helping out!
Most studios do annual reviews of employees and usually do lay off people that are not performing to expectations.
Its different at a lot of studios some under performers get by just because there friends with a lead or owner and such ( this type of situations happens at bigger studios like EA and such)
So even though merks comment might sound kinda rude he is correct, if i was an owner of a company and needed to free up cash i would talk to all my leads and see who is performing and who isn't.
I don't really think that this was the case here though, worked with Ryan at DE and i can honestly say he was one of our best Artists and when he left to iD i cried like a little bitch.
Hope everyone gets back on there feet and as Jay said before Digital Extremes is always hiring talented artists.
Cheers,
Arman
Good luck fella's there practically fighting over you's ;D
Also, Guerrilla Games is hiring as well:
http://www.guerrilla-games.com/jobs
Give me a shout if you're interested and I'll pass things along.
https://www.rockstargames.com/jobs/openings/rockstar-leeds
https://www.rockstargames.com/jobs/openings/rockstar-north
https://www.rockstargames.com/jobs/openings/rockstar-san-diego
Check our website - http://www.massive.se/career/available-positions/ - and don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested.
Good luck to everyone getting back on their feet!
in the interm, if anyone wants to pick up some freelance rigging work, I have a contact that is looking for someone to rig in Maya.
Details:...."They wouldn't have to do rig from scratch but rather use our custom rig builder.
Mainly joint placement, run our autobuilder , then weighting and additional rigs."
If you're interested, PM and I will pass on all the details