Wolfenstein Multiplayer Team Axed Following Release

that's never a good sign

Guys this isn't so much a trend as it is just a sad reality of the games industry, and the reason why a lot of people leave it or stay away from it.

1. Developer scores a contract to make a game.
2. Developer staffs up to make the game.
3. Publisher delivers advance money to Developer, which is used to pay salaries
4. Publisher continues to deliver advance money to Developer during development
5. Game ships, Publisher stops delivering advance money.
6. Terms of contract state that Developer gets no more money from Publisher until the sum total of the royalties per unit cover the advance money they fronted them (thus "advance" money)
7. Developer can no longer pay the salary of the staff because they have no more money rolling in unless the game is very profitable
8. Developer has to lay off staff

In the above scenario the only way a Developer can stay afloat is to always be working on a game. Especially since the vast majority of games never make back their advance money. When you see something like this happen, it means they didn't have another game coming in.

Sometimes when the staff is laid off they're given an agreement that should the title ever see royalties come back to the Developer then they get some of that.

This is not indicative of the quality of the game. This is just how the industry works. Don't boycott the game or not buy it just because you want to protest this - that will just ensure that the laid off guys just never get any money whatsoever. I mean, if you don't like then game then don't buy it but don't let this scenario be the only reason.

This is also why Carmack is one of the oldest working game developers - when you're 23 and right out of college and someone wants to pay you $40K a year to make video games it's a dream job from heaven. When you're 36, have a wife and a mortgage and two kids and you've been laid off ten times because of things like the scenario above, meanwhile the guy down the street doing something mundane like business rules programming in C# is making 2-3x what you are, which hasn't gone up much since that first gig at 23, the corporate world sounds a hell of a lot better. And you bail.

The extra wrinkle is that this developer just did the multiplayer portion. I suppose it's possible they were paid a flat fee for their services so they don't even have the royalty premise. I don't know if that ever really happens though.

The politics of gaming simply don't matter; this is the worst game released by Activision to date. I'm an avid shooter fan, have 'em all, blah, blah, but I couldn't wait for the new Wofie so I pre-ordered it. The game is so boring even my son lost interest in playing it with me. It is like walking through an old, boring antique store when you were expecting Best Buy. The multiplayer is so cartoony and downright atrocious that I simply can't BELIEVE they allowed this release. It's CRAP. I will trade this in tomorrow, it's the worst game I've ever bought. I'd rather play Shadow Complex for $15 than play this pile of absolute CRAP. No game in the last fifteen years has bored me so much...this is JUNK. When the hype subsides, I can't wait to see how this game actually fares. It will be NULL.

This game is surprisingly amazing so far for the relatively little coverage and little information that was released on it. I bought it on PS3 not expecting too much because they usually are reviewed before release but I really like the "hub" worlds making it sorta open but more story driven and overall more linear than an open world game. It's great fun and I had heard about the ability to upgrade weapons in this and I thought it was gonna be a "dice roll" type system where it makes your gun more powerful or shoot faster but you don't see any visual representation but thats not the case at all! It's almost like Army of Two or Bioshock in the customizing but with slightly more depth and the beautiful enhancements visually represented on the gun. I recommend getting it for anyone who's a fan of Hellboy or alternate reality WW2. Hundreds of games later and I still like WW2 guns..

Here's me looking for more independant sub $20.00 games to keep me happy for years to come (-:

More proof that employees are just robots to employers these days. I've never understood how employees can show one SHRED of loyalty to the company that might axe them for any reason at all. Boggles my mind.

Im reading posts bashing the gaming industry, but its not just them, its everywhere.

Not saying its no big deal, or that its right, but that's ALL business contracts. Maintenance, Architect, engineering, construction, security - Any industry in contracts. They bring you in, then when the job is done, you are let go. That is the whole point of contracts - you do not have to pay benefits or even have a big hearing when you want to axe someone, you simply end the contract.

I worked as a security guard and it was the same thing - they brought a bunch of us in as they were rolling out new buildings and models at Cisco, so they hired us and we all thought we were going to be a perm fixture - its not like the buildings were going to be torn down lol. But after they were built and they had locks on the doors, they are like 'see ya'. I was fortunate as my contracting company assigned me elsewhere, but it does suck not knowing where your next meal is coming from.

I just hope these guys get work on another game. If they are talented and really good, then they should get picked up soon.

But just keep that in mind regarding contract work no matter what the industry, not just games / IT.

How does an IP like motherfuckin Wolfenstein get put in the hands of someone like Raven anyway. I know Raven has close ties to id software, but to be completely honest here, Raven's games have never been all that fantastic. Yes. Solder of Fortune was amazing - That was the only one.

And who the fuck is Endrant? Why is this company working on Wolfenstein anything!!?

Its motherfucking Wolfenstein man. Seriously.

"Those affected are valued members of our team who have worked incredibly hard.."

This is so fundamentally wrong its almost funny.

I'm not raven about wolfenstein, so i guess i should end rant.

Oh well.

let's not lie to each other, they said the asstrocious multiplayer wasn't going to improve much (as they put it, 'we'll leave it up the promod') and it's not like they delivered anything to be proud of

This is becoming a sad tradition.

January 22: 200 at EA Black Box laid off after Skate 2 shipped: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56889

June 18: US Army lays off entire Emeryville, CA staff after America's Army 3 launched: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59202

June 30: Blue Omega shuts down after launching Damnation: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59355

July 14: Midway Newcastle shuts down after revealing "Necessary Force" IP: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59529

Lot of good posts (and some bad) in here, but the bottom line is...

games are developed (essentially) on a contract basis. A title gets the green light, people are brought in to work on it, the game gets published, and all of a sudden you don't need as many devs to support the title. This is especially true at large studios.

At the point that a game is released, you're paying dead weight. It might be quality staff, but it's dead weight, and there's no new product in the pipe. So, unless you're senior, or you've got some kind of in, you're gone.

This is a sad reality of many types of employment that are structured in this manner. You might think you have job security, but you don't.

Life sucks, then you die. ;)

"Thanks for all your hard work. You're fired."

MP is the worst ever, I am sad it is so bad. RTCW: MP and RTCW:ET were so much better.

THE SP is 10x better, somehow endrant fucked it up and I don't see how they could have.

Unfortunately saw this coming :(

Mean Annie, mean Annie is gonna axe her mom!

Yeah man, your forgetting the epic game that is Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Outcast.

Not going to say I'm saddened by this....at all.

So.. is the MP *that* bad?

I just got done playing some MP and honestly it wasn't that bad. In fact it was kind of enjoyable. So many people expect every reincarnation of a game to exactly the same as the last. This is a nice change of pace.

I really hope this sort of thing isn't becoming a trend.