Layoffs at NetDevil :(

Seaseme

Sorry to the people there who were laid off today.. Other polycounters who were not affected, find these people jobs immediately! Still waiting for details on how many were laid off, but I know one or two polycounters were affected.

Good luck guys! You should all land on your feet..

salman_fas

vcortis

Sorry to all of those who were affected. Fortunately we are hiring for a ton of positions right now and I encourage anyone who feels qualified to apply.

http://38studios.com/jobs

low odor

Yeah Fun times...I am officially unemployed....on to bigger and better things

Jesse Moody

Yeah these threads have been all too common in our industry over the past few years.

Drew, I hope you and the others displaced by this find something new as fast as possible.

ceebee

Best of luck ex-Netdevil Polycounters. Bigger and better things for sure!

Mark Dygert

That sucks... I hope everyone lands on there feet, if there's anything I can do to help let me know!

glottis8

I'm sorry to hear that... i hope everyone lands their next job soon. If I can help let me know as well.

Jason Young

Any links? Curious to see how many were affected.

Good luck guys!

Shogun3d

low odor wrote: »

Yeah Fun times...I am officially unemployed....on to bigger and better things

Sorry to hear that hope you land on your feet. I need to check if Evan Williams was affected

bounchfx

beh, sorry to hear man. bad news all around apparently

skylebones

Oh man. I hate hearing that. Awesome team there. Hope you guys land something quick.

Lee3dee

I just heard from a friend of mine, sorry to all those who lost their jobs today Hopefully you'll find something soon

mathes

Horrible news to hear, and just days after Fortune was announced...

breakneck

major bummer. best of luck to all affected

Jon Rush

Best of luck to those affected...

Ghostscape

Best of luck to everyone over there.

Barbarian

Wow, more bad news. Best wishes to everyone affected. I really hope the economy turns the corner and we start seeing more openings.

Lee3dee

http://www.gamepron.com/news/2011/02/23/no-more-netdevil-lego-universe-studio-closes/

a friend on the lego team was laid off today

chrisradsby

Always sad to hear, hope you guys will make it out fine and on to new jobs.

Cody

Yep, I was part of layoffs round 2. It was a great time though, time to hunt that exclusive second shipped title...

notman

http://news.bigdownload.com/2011/02/24/rumor-mass-layoffs-at-lego-universe-developer-netdevil/

Based on some of the other google results, it sounds like Netdevils is near death.

http://www.gamepron.com/news/2011/02/23/no-more-netdevil-lego-universe-studio-closes/

D4V1DC

Sorry to hear, wish you all the best on your next positions.
Another studio closes, sh!t.

Pseudo

Very sad news, I was excited at the game developer presence in Colorado but it looks like that may be coming to an end.

Low Odor and Cody, if you guys are going to GDC hit me up and lets have a beer, first round is on me.

skylebones

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33195/Lego_Buys_NetDevils_Lego_Universe_Team_Lays_Off_Staff.php

Wait a minute, so lego bought the dev team that made Lego Universe then laid them off? While those that weren't part of that team continue working on fortune online at whats left of Netdevil?

This is bizarre.

Good luck guys! It sounds like a bad situation and I hope you land something awesome quick.

Seaseme

Sorry everyone! Fuck it sucks seeing all of my friends get laid off. I COMMAND YOU ALL TO MOVE TO SEATTLE.

The thing that sticks out in my head Marc Hansen (LEGO guy in charge of LU) saying repeatedly at company meetings "WE are not like other video game companies. We will not lay you off, we will not lock you out."

hahahaha.

What a half assed joke.

*edit*

Also, good thing they paid so little so that all of those talented people are stuck in Colorado. Where there is no more industry to speak of.

Em.

If any world builders got laid off, we're actively looking for some out here in MD(Hunt Valley location).

http://jobs.zenimax.com/

Good luck guys, I know how much layoffs suck first hand.

ericdigital

Horrible news

Hope everyone lands on there feet

I wonder what this means for jumpgate, was looking forward to it

greevar

Lego Group Acquires LEGO Universe, Hires NetDevil Team!

http://gamepolitics.com/2011/02/25/lego-group-acquires-lego-universe-hires-netdevil-team

WOOT!

notman

I wasn't completely clear on what that article was saying though. Are they undoing the layoffs? (keeping the guys who were just pink slipped)

Jesse Moody

If that is true it sounds like they bought the rights and everyone was layed off because they were Netdevil employees. Than Lego owning the rights again and the office then re-hired all the old staff members under the Lego brand thus keeping the development team.

I'm sure it was the only way they could be switched to Lego since they were Netdevil employees.

If this is the case then kudos to Lego as it sounds like they want the Lego Universe to go on and just wanted the control over it.

low odor

.. the people who were laid off are still laid off....they are just saying that the people they did keep are no longer Gazillion servitors...but are in the full employ of Lego


eidt: and that is just for the people that were working on the LU project I believe...it seems Gazillion is moving my old team to a new office

Jesse Moody

Ahhh ok so they just sugar coated it.

Fucking PR people need to be shot

notman

That's too bad. I was hoping that they might bring you guys back in. Hell, maybe even have money to keep you now, after the sale. I suspect they are too far in the hole though, and the sale is probably just keeping them alive.

greevar

Well, that sucks. Here I was thinking they were just pulling a fancy transfer of ownership. I hope at least those LEGO U team members get their jobs back.

Seaseme

The transfer of ownership thing was rumored for a long time. The people in charge have been saying for months that nobody would be laid off, and LEGO was different than other game companies. They were pretty clueless in all honesty. I remember when we launched LEGO Universe the LEGO head hauncho at NetDevil said something along the lines of "Soon there will be millions of kids around the world jumping around in this game!"

So many people rolled their eyes at that point that you could feel the room move. There was lots of hope, but I think we all realized at that point that LEGO really had no clue what was going on.

I know it's not really productive to point fingers.

Empty

It won't be the same without you guys. So many good friends gone. I hope everyone lands on their feet soon