Might be a little old news, but I didnt see this here or on any other major news site yet. You might know them from all the outsourced art they made for Unreal Tournament, gears of war, terminator salvation and many more AAA titles!
Yeah, MightPea and RazorBladder were both Polycounters I knew were there. May have been one or two others too... bit of a shame
I'm not too surprised since it seems like one of their main customers was GRIN, who went earlier this year, and I guess that meant a lot of work dried up for them
Yeah, MightPea and RazorBladder were both Polycounters I knew were there. May have been one or two others too... bit of a shame
I'm not too surprised since it seems like one of their main customers was GRIN, who went earlier this year, and I guess that meant a lot of work dried up for them
Yeah, it is stated in the dutch article that another company that went down owed them a lot of money(probably grin?). It also says that they couldnt compete with the prices from competition in other countries. The team got downsized from 50 to 15 people in the last year, and the last 15 employees were let go about two weeks ago.
Its so odd how a company that was (or at least seemed) perfectly healthy and doing well about a year ago, is shut down!
kwakkie already answered your question, when the people in charge/with money see that they can outsource to asia for half the price, they're not going to care if it costs you your job. I'll be surprised if any of these outsourcing companies survive unless they're owned by a larger group that has a solid reason for keeping them.
A refreshingly-frank account from Fernandez. Sounds like at least you had some indication of the way things were heading. Hope you guys find something soon.
It seems that for every new 'I've got a job' post, a whole studio shuts down. Bad times for sure.
That was my first thought - seems like to and fro between good news and bad right now.
I don't get it. How can it happen that a studio with such great AAA reference projects has to be closed. Thats really bad news.
weak dollar, strong euro, pretty simpe.. why outsource to europe when you could also outsource to the us for less money?
also with one of their biggest client beeing fallen apart, its pretty easy to count it together and see what happened, its not always just the quality of work that matters.
Yeah it definately sucks but luckily we had ample forewarning that something like this would happen. Some of us stuck around to try and help the company get back up on it's own 2 feet but alas, time was against us.
It seems like a lot of the guys have bounced back pretty quick though
Shit, this sucks. Sorry to hear it guys. Streamline is certainly not one of the places I'd have imagined shutting down. Good luck in finding employment soon!
I noticed just the other day. It's a shame, I met MightyPea and RazorBladder (and some of their colleagues) back in October and they were really nice people. All I can do is wish you all the best of luck in finding a new job. I can really recommend Pea, he's got an amazingly cool English accent.
Congra...wait a second...shit sucks... it`s not all good news today it seems, SS looked like a cool place with really high quality stuff Best of luck guys
Ugh this is ridiculous, I hope all those who lost their jobs get into new gigs quick!
It sucks that money is such a huge object so many companies are shutting down because it's cheaper elsewhere. I've been on a few projects where outsourcing to Asia meant we had to have at least a few full time people in-studio just to tighten the art we got from overseas. I hope this economy starts to pick back up so it gets back to a state where game companies can flourish everywhere.
This is indeed bad news (the company with the hamster/gerbil in the logo, yeah? :P)
They had a really impressive folio and client list, economic crap ftl
I'd imagine most of you guys effected would be able to pick up work fairly quickly tho, and it sounds like the company gave you plenty of forewarning which is better than alot of other studios are doing atm.
i guess its still sort of alive, they just had to close down their amsterdam office... which i guess was their main one? i'm not too sure, but yeah sad days, who knows maybe they'll eventually make a comeback.
Before they started in Amsterdam their office was already somewhere else I think....not sure though.
They did a pretty cool presentation 5 years ago at the NHL in Leeuwarden. They gave me more motivation (back then) to work in the game industry.
Maybe they should come back to Leeuwarden, the game industry could start here and its probably a lot cheaper then Amsterdam.
I really hate to see this. Great group of people and one of the best contracting experiences I had back when I was a contractor. Good luck everyone involved!
It was pretty shit to see streamline go from such a busy place full of talent when I started working there, to an empty shell the last few weeks I was there. Wandering around the large empty office space
I would recommend everyone I worked with during my time there. Its such a shame because everyone was super cool, even my bosses. Good luck to everyone!
Hope everyone lands on their feet. This isn't the first outsourcing studio to shut their doors over the last year. It's hard to sell the idea of experience/quality to biz dev people though, it's not apples to apples when you compare rates.
Replies
my god what is this, 20 studios in the course of the year?
Doesn't MightPea work there? Any news Mighty?
I'm not too surprised since it seems like one of their main customers was GRIN, who went earlier this year, and I guess that meant a lot of work dried up for them
Its so odd how a company that was (or at least seemed) perfectly healthy and doing well about a year ago, is shut down!
I don't get it. How can it happen that a studio with such great AAA reference projects has to be closed. Thats really bad news.
I was applying there when searching for a job.
Good luck to all of those who are affected.
Here's an interview with Hector Fernandez that should makes things a bit clearer:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/streamlines-hector-fernandez-interview
So yeah, ask around and see if you can't put up a homeless polycounter in your studios
That was my first thought - seems like to and fro between good news and bad right now.
weak dollar, strong euro, pretty simpe.. why outsource to europe when you could also outsource to the us for less money?
also with one of their biggest client beeing fallen apart, its pretty easy to count it together and see what happened, its not always just the quality of work that matters.
Yeah it definately sucks but luckily we had ample forewarning that something like this would happen. Some of us stuck around to try and help the company get back up on it's own 2 feet but alas, time was against us.
It seems like a lot of the guys have bounced back pretty quick though
Well that's always good news.
To Pea, Razor and anyone else effected, we're looking to add a few experienced freelancers, so send us your info!
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=67836
It's true, he manages it even without being English. Pro guy.
Fuckin' Belgians stealing our accents!
It was quite a funny headfuck when he first arrived with that in the bag
Thanks for the support guys, I'm sure something will turn up for us all, sooner rather than later.
www.tencentboston.com
Awesome studio, a bunch of X-ILE guys, mixed in with some Turbine, Mythic, and fresh faces.
Good luck to everyone!
B
Best of luck to all those affected by this.
It sucks that money is such a huge object so many companies are shutting down because it's cheaper elsewhere. I've been on a few projects where outsourcing to Asia meant we had to have at least a few full time people in-studio just to tighten the art we got from overseas. I hope this economy starts to pick back up so it gets back to a state where game companies can flourish everywhere.
They had a really impressive folio and client list, economic crap ftl
I'd imagine most of you guys effected would be able to pick up work fairly quickly tho, and it sounds like the company gave you plenty of forewarning which is better than alot of other studios are doing atm.
Hope you guys get back into things pretty quickly
They did a pretty cool presentation 5 years ago at the NHL in Leeuwarden. They gave me more motivation (back then) to work in the game industry.
Maybe they should come back to Leeuwarden, the game industry could start here and its probably a lot cheaper then Amsterdam.
Really hope they get back on there feet somehow.
There's a lot of talent floating about from these studio closures this year, hope everyone affected is alright.
- BoBo
I would recommend everyone I worked with during my time there. Its such a shame because everyone was super cool, even my bosses. Good luck to everyone!
I say:
Drink that sorrow away!