Take-Two going through layoffs, Private Division and other labels affected

[Soda Popinski]

1 hour ago, The Aziz said:

You mean

Exterior view

Edited March 7, 2023 by Soda Popinski

[Vl3d]

Just now, Soda Popinski said:

That's one way to color your pod "glow in the dark green".

[Scarecrow71]

You know, it's kind of hard to not be filled with dread over the future of KSP2 right now.  The game is buggy as all get out, the developers and community managers were eerily silent during the first week, reviews are trending rather negatively...and now we see that there are layoffs.  I don't doubt the the Community Managers weren't affected at the current time, but that doesn't mean the developers weren't.  Nor does it mean that whoever is left won't be shoveled into other projects that TT/IG/PD now deems are far more important to their financial health, putting KSP2 at risk.

I certainly hope the reality is far better than what the community is about to loudly proclaim with this situation.

[Davedavidson]

59 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

You know, it's kind of hard to not be filled with dread over the future of KSP2 right now.  The game is buggy as all get out, the developers and community managers were eerily silent during the first week, reviews are trending rather negatively...and now we see that there are layoffs.  I don't doubt the the Community Managers weren't affected at the current time, but that doesn't mean the developers weren't.  Nor does it mean that whoever is left won't be shoveled into other projects that TT/IG/PD now deems are far more important to their financial health, putting KSP2 at risk.

I certainly hope the reality is far better than what the community is about to loudly proclaim with this situation.

The game they released is a very buggy(even more than expected) shadow of what was promised and the roadmap to any of the promised new features - could not be more vague in terms of timing. The positive side of this is they knew the reaction would not be positive based on the product they delivered so unless they planned on swindling everyone who bought the game and immediately quiting development there must be solid plans to move forward with improving it so it sells like it can/should. 

I believe there to be be millions of copies waiting to be sold if they decide to update ksp2 to the game they dangled in front of us for so long (as well as fix the performance). < I don't even play video games anymore but if ksp2 gets it's stuff together I'll make an exception for it and I'm sure based on what I'm seeing out there that many others are in this boat.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Davedavidson
spelling

[thewhitemetroid]

Confidence was waning before but this just cut the bottom out. I'll reserve my anxiety until after the first patch but dare I say that this first patch is now significantly more important. I hope this thing doesn't fall completely through the floor because I have personally experienced "everything is good, we're good, nothing to worry about" meanwhile the next day the doors are locked. Time to put up.

[PDCWolf]

1 hour ago, Nerdy_Mike said:

How much more official of a statement can I give you? Everything is "okay" and we are tracking to deliver the full game that was promised. You'll see more information from me and the rest of the tea, in the future.

On that note the future is very bright for KSP2 and I can't wait until everyone sees the work / progress we're making here at Intercept.

My man, things have been "okay" for the past 3 years as you "were tracking to deliver the full game that was promised", and now we're here with a sub 1 million sales release, completely broken, unplayable, almost hopeless (save for people here in the forums lol), not even beating the 11 years old previous installment, and now layoffs. Please rethink your PR strategy, it's clearly been catastrophic to your franchise, specially considering your position.

[TLTay]

Nate hasn't logged into the forum since yesterday...

[Chilkoot]

4 minutes ago, TLTay said:

Nate hasn't logged into the forum since yesterday...

Don't worry.  It's because of this rock I have that prevents Nate from posting.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

26 minutes ago, TLTay said:

Nate hasn't logged into the forum since yesterday...

Nerdy Mike said 'days' w/r/t when we get word on the patch. 

[RocketRockington]

2 hours ago, Moons said:

I get that - still you probably also understand that we want as much information as possible but it makes sense that you probably cant give us that.

They don't have that kind of info.  And they can't just speculate for you.  The company line will literally just be 'all is well, full steam ahead' on a game unless either it's a planned sunset - like KSP1, or the axe falls from on high and then it'll be a sudden 'we regret to inform you'.  And a CM wouldn't be told that sort of thing until they have to share that message.

[Scarecrow71]

17 minutes ago, RocketRockington said:

They don't have that kind of info.  And they can't just speculate for you.  The company line will literally just be 'all is well, full steam ahead' on a game unless either it's a planned sunset - like KSP1, or the axe falls from on high and then it'll be a sudden 'we regret to inform you'.  And a CM wouldn't be told that sort of thing until they have to share that message.

And I would hate to be a CM if that message has to be given out.

"We regret to inform everyone that paid $50 for a game we failed to produce that the doors are being closed on said steaming pile.  No refunds will be given.  Here's to hoping the mod community can craft this into a semi playable state."

[RocketRockington]

59 minutes ago, TLTay said:

Nate hasn't logged into the forum since yesterday...

I thought he was more on the discord, spam-liking screenshots anyway 

[Superfluous J]

3 hours ago, Nerdy_Mike said:

How much more official of a statement can I give you?

Nothing will suffice short of a full list of all employees laid off, their association (if any) with KSP2, and details of all future plans for the company, division, and game going forward in time without limit.

(on the 1 in a billion chance someone doesn't realize this, I'm joking)

[mcwaffles2003]

3 hours ago, Moons said:

I get that - still you probably also understand that we want as much information as possible but it makes sense that you probably cant give us that.

What more do you want? They're working on the game, he said they're working on the game. He said the project isn't going to be abandoned and the full game will be delivered.

What point is there in giving out information if the person asking for it doesn't accept it?...

[Fireheart318]

I’m scared, guys.

[Strawberry]

I don't think that ksp2 will be cancelled, even basic bug patches and optimization would lead to much more sales for ksp2 and those are in the grand scheme of things just around the corner (The first bug patch will probably be early next week), not to mention how many people are waiting for colonies or interstellar or multiplayer etc to buy. I can definitely see the project being "delayed" further and a few devs laid off, but I dont think they'll axe the project outright. If Private Division does reduce the amount they're funding intercept games, we know they have an unannounced project and I think theyre much more likely to reduce resources to that then they are to reduce resources to ksp2.

[RocketRockington]

Paul Furio (cool name btw, mad max vibes), thier technical director, which typically means the person in charge of the engineering team,  and often though not always in charge of the code itself, either left or has been let go, may be the first sign of layoffs happening at Intercept itself. 

That last bit is speculation, of course, but his LinkedIn was updated to reflect the departure in just this month  - so it had to be in the last 7 days - so it'd be a big coincidence.  Even if it was a voluntary departure, it's not a great sign typically to have such high turnover on your engineering team, including key people like your multiplayer lead, your physics engineer, and now the head engineering honcho, that I know of. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by RocketRockington

[Waxing_Kibbous]

4 hours ago, DadJokeCinema said:

Hey Mike, I just wanted to say that I hope nobody at Intercept is impacted and that everyone is taking the appropriate time for mental health and pausing to breathe every now and then. I've been on high stress projects during workforce reductions and it's not fun or good for the brain.

This right here- I imagine there was a crunch period before release and now it's a giant fire to get under some semblance of control. You hear about 16 hour days in the game industry, I hope the devs aren't getting beat up too badly.

[Wheehaw Kerman]

2 hours ago, Fireheart318 said:

I’m scared, guys.

Don’t be.  The layoffs were announced a month ago.  

[RocketRockington]

His post:

Spoiler

As usual with Intercept coms - there seems to be a lot of spin here.  I was surprised to see this particular layoff, as KSP2's primary problem seems to be the need for more time developing the software - I would have expected to see other roles like artist or producer be laid off before their tech director, even if those roles are typically lower salary.

That said - given they have 6 open roles for software engineering, perhaps it was more of a case of this being a purely managerial role and thus viewed as a cost saving measure when people are needed to 'burn code'.

I just hope this was a proper move by his employers, and that he isn't a sacrificial lamb to cover for dysfunction by more senior management.

[Vallius]

I look forward to the first patch with cautious optimism.   It's the kerbonaut way.

[Cairan]

Nah he's just the first of the batch, once their FY 2023 comes to an end on March 31st, there is bound to be more... No need for graphical artists, 3D modelers, sound designers, etc. if all that is needed is to "uncomment and recompile the already-written code" for the roadmap features and all the game assets are ready to use, right?

 

[RocketRockington]

3 minutes ago, Cairan said:

Nah he's just the first of the batch, once their FY 2023 comes to an end on March 31st, there is bound to be more... No need for graphical artists, 3D modelers, sound designers, etc. if all that is needed is to "uncomment and recompile the already-written code" for the roadmap features and all the game assets are ready to use, right?

 

Typically companies do layoffs before the FY ends, not after, because they're trying to make their projections look better.   I wouldn't be surprised if there haven't been more layoffs already, but people just haven't made a post or even updated LinkedIn.

[Cairan]

1 minute ago, RocketRockington said:

Typically companies do layoffs before the FY ends, not after, because they're trying to make their projections look better.   I wouldn't be surprised if there haven't been more layoffs already, but people just haven't made a post or even updated LinkedIn.

Yeah, normally I'd agree but then again, the current payroll might be bankrolled and approved thru the end of the quarter, so depends how they manage it. Once thing for sure, March 31st is a pivot date, either in terms of projected expenditures in the next quarter, current expenditures in this one, and/or results from sales and refunds versus projected sales... 

[Pthigrivi]

The only real insight I have on this is that Ive been involved in big complex projects involving tens of millions of dollars and some went great and some went poorly and some went medium. One lesson Ive learned is that when they go medium or poorly the people at the top who actually who made the dumb decisions never take the fall. It’s always the people who had the personal courage, fortitude, and integrity to try to solve unsolvable problems within unreasonable, unrealistic timelines, because thats what they were asked to do. Under capitalism no good deeds go unpunished. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Pthigrivi