Ex-employees try to take over Massive Black

AstroZombie

Hmmmm ... my post title isn't exactly accurate but I couldn't come up with a better one. Anyhow:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3152235

This sounds pretty fucked to me. I hope Massive Black prevails in their suit and a criminal investigation follows.

aesir

wtf... And just how did Zhang think the clients would feel as they were all being shifted to a new, and probably much less talented studio... Its all very odd, and stupid.

Jeremy Lindstrom

[ QUOTE ]
Their first work was for companies like Flagship Studios, id Software -- at the time the company was based in Austin (they relocated to San Francisco in 2004 and now have offices in Shanghai, as well).

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought for a second there they were talking about id... O_o

okkun

That is some major suckage there, I'd better keep an eye on my employees(Ryno don't get any ideas now.. )

Tulkamir

Wow, what a bunch of twits. What did they think would happen?

Hopefully the sentence is fairly harsh.

MoP

It's very unfortunate and must be terrible for Jason Manley and the MB crew - I'm pretty sure James Zhang went to art school with most of the senior management at MB, he was a friend of theirs... to do something like this is majorly stupid and saddening.

I remember seeing a lecture of his at the ConceptArt.org workshop in January 2005... everything seemed fine then, and he was a good artist with plenty of tips. Seems so dumb to try this, money does strange things to people...

malcolm

Crazy, I hope the criminal charges stick.

Xenobond

wtf. This has got to be a major headache for Jason and his gang. man...

doc rob

Wow, that 1up commentary is really stupid.

"In addition to killing Massive Black Inc., and as a result one of the most important art suppliers in the game industry, a takeover would've shifted labor out of the West and back to the East, where the labor is cheaper."

WTF.

They were allegedly embezzling, not conquering the Western game industry.

They were probably fed up with Jason and the rest of the MB crew and decided to set their own shop up. Who wouldn't call up your clients and let them know that? It's the money stealing that's bad. And stealing $100k, while horrible, is not a "hostile takeover" and does not have larger implications to the entire industry.

Tulkamir

Doc_Rob.... uhhh, the money wasn't the only bad part. Anyone with business experience (not just in games) can tell you that having someone from inside the company steal files and information on clients is extremely bad. Hell, I've even seen it happen in the insurance adjusting business, where my Mom works. One of the adjusters decided to leave and start his own firm, and tried to take a bunch of the files from the company with him.

That can seriously fuck over a company.

Also, in this case they were also apparently using Massive Black's equipement, which is another blow.

No, the money isn't the only bad part at all.

As for that commentary, while possibly not said the best, he might be trying to get at what happened with the animation industry. Trying to point out that this could be an attempted start in the game industry as the trend that we see there, where almost everything is outsourced to the east where it is far cheaper. I'd say he was a bit extreme in his assesment regarding this situation, but he did have a point.

SouL

nm.