He went on: "It is a gross but all too common sight to see, another corporate game hitting the top of Steam while the team is left looking for work and cut off from any possible profit sharing.
And, there it is.
Gamerant is saying the studio was low on funds and facing a $20 million dollar lawsuit from a former exec when the workers were furloughed weeks prior to launch, that dozens of employees have already been brought back, and that Bit Locker is claiming to want to bring the rest back.
This was their first game, and if they do bring back the team members (with back pay) now that the game is a sucess, I would actually be much more understanding.
For anyone who wants this style of game, but doesn’t want to support this, Xenonauts 2 released version 1.0 a few months ago. It’s trying to be more classic X-COM, rather than modern XCOM, like what this game is copying (and simplifying even more). It’s easily the best of the genre I’ve played, and it’ll also run on pretty much any system you’ve got fine.
Xenonauts 2
Eh, played the shit out of it and happy to give them money. But holy shit is the late game kinda poop.
I haven’t played much of XCOM 2 or this game, but the late game of all of these games is usually not the best. Honestly, this is true for most strategy games. How many Paradox games actually make it to the end, for example?
It’s essentially something that’s impossible to balance in a fair way. Either the game scales automatically to match you, in which case your effort is meaningless, or it doesn’t, and it’s either trivial or impossible.
I just started a new game recently though. When I last played the end game didn’t even exist IIRC, so I can’t comment on it.
This one is just a drag even compared to others, there is just something missing altogether vs even old xcom.
Maybe Xenonauts 3 will fix it, or whatever they do next. It’s still far better than Modern XCOM, from what I recall. Modern XCOM does some things well, but it’s also dumbed down.
Yeah, lets hope. They have a good game, but xeno 1 and 2 are just too much the same game. I found that the big ass suit Koolade manning though was was neat but after 150 times it gets old. Also the balance is really off in Xenonauts 2 I do hope they can do a bit more.
If CEO fire whole team, how will you create a new success?
Good teams are not conodity.
A wise man once said devs that are afraid of losing their jobs dont go on to make great games. I was going to purchase this game but now ill wait till its on super sale.
I saw it available on high seas
I’m sick of this
I was considering buying this as a massive fan of XCOM 2.
Was.
I’ll just keep playing Cyber Knights: Flashpoint thank you very much.
Check out Xenonauts 2. It’s positioned as a spiritual sequel of classic X-COM, rather than modern XCOM, though so there are differences.
Probably the best difference, and I don’t understand why modern XCOM did this, is classic and Xenonauts have larger squad sizes. This is huge, because the entire genre is about gambling on actions. If you only have four actions, taking a 50% shot, but potentially being in danger, is an issue. If you have 8+ actions (8 squad members minimum, and you’ll often get multiple actions per member), a 50% shot is a lot less risky. It’s more about setting yourself up to get many attacks, rather than one perfect attack. There’s a lot more opportunities to mitigate risk.
It also has a much stronger strategic game, which I feel is largely lacking in modern XCOM. It’s all about tactical battles. This game, in particular, I think is almost entirely tactical battles, with little strategic opportunity, and no strategic layer IIRC.
I actually prefer the smaller squad sizes and more barebones strategic level. Having a more RPG-like structure and more focus on a small number of characters is my jam. I looked at xenonauts, I think it’s absolutely amazing for a specific kind of player, and I know that I’m not that specific kind of player.
Menace’s solution to this is to basically remove the option for most weapons to miss entirely. A squad in that game is treated like a single unit, the equivalent to an XCOM/Xenonauts soldier. When you attack, it’s the same percentage roll applied to every bullet in the burst for each soldier. This means a single attack might have 40 individual dice rolls. The question is not if you hit, it’s for how much. Seems like a nice way of solving that issue without adding a whole bunch of units.
Cyber Knights does something similar: an attack with most weapons is a burst with each bullet’s chance to hit being individually rolled. This normalizes the chance to hit so it’s not all or nothing.
Loved xcom ufo defense. Didn’t even bother with the newer games because of the squad size. Xenonaughts is a great recommendation, thanks for being here for us all.
The unfortunate reality of it now, like having to keep your CV constantly updated and ready if ever to be laid off at any time. And it’s worse than ever.
Yet another certified bruh moment,
The devs keep getting stabbed in the back by evil greedy CEOs
I won’t even buy the game then
This is why I pirate most games unless it’s from indie devs. Fuck any and every corpo entity. Like hell I’m gonna let them profit from me while stabbing those who actually did the work in the back.
What’s the point? You can’t even enjoy your laurels. Just fucked the minute release hits so they dont have to pay you. Fucked up. Nobody should work for a game corporation.
Nobody should work for a
gamecorporation.My actual goal, anymore.
Well that is what happens when a project is done and there is no immediate need for that staff for another project. If you want job security don’t work on TV shows, films, or video games.
Except one of the best assets of a game company is people who know how to make a good game. Retaining their talent is worth the extra pay. Treating veteran game makers like replaceable cogs is how you get the current AAA game industry, with nothing but overpriced lukewarm soul-dead rehashes of prior games that are full of bugs and devoid of merit.
The big corps seem to think that their talent is all in their upper management, and that’s why the industry sucks donkey balls these days.
Yeah, this isn’t reasonable. A good studio will have been preparing for what they’re doing next before the project is finished. Keeping a team together who knows what they’re doing and already knows how to cooperate together is worth a lot. This is just a sign of bad management, and sadly they’re not the ones losing pay.
The art world is dog eat dog. You are not owed a living in the entertainment business in the slightest.
Everyone who works is owed a living. The entertainment industry is needlessly vicious.
Everyone
who worksis owed a living. The entertainment industry is needlessly vicious.FIFY.
Fair point!
This is some dogshit bootlicking mentality.
Sort your priorities, mate, and quit carrying water for your oppressors.
Unions. Not just for blue collars anymore.
All devs should be entitled to royalties
Honestly, I don’t understand why any studio wouldn’t do this. Not only does it mean you can differ some pay until later effectively (obviously you still need to be competitive, because people don’t like gambling with their livelihood), but it actively encourages devs to make the best game possible. If they’re just working for a salary, they have no skin in the game. Give them a reason to make the absolute best thing they possibly can make.
Hollywood perfected royalties. If structured right, you can promise everyone at the company 200% of the games profit and never pay them a cent.
For example, you sell all rights to the game to a shell company owned by the studio’s parent for 1¢.
This all sounds nice but isn’t the case in any other industry, why should game dev be different?
I made a statement on what they should do, for best results from employees, not on what they actually do. It should also be true for all other industries. I think all company profits should be shared with employees, and ideally owned, if not totally then at least in part, by employees. Give them a stake in the company, and a reason to care about how it’s doing, and they’ll put more effort in.
The fact this is incomprehensible to the capitalist class isn’t surprising though. They view humans as resources (hence the Human Resources Department), not as people with their own wants and desires.
They did their thing. No use of them anymore :)
Gane dev gig economy
Leveraged buyout. Any dev still on payroll is a liability, and it’s not like these guys make Ultimate Team. EA’s got a lot of debt to service.
Made by bit reactor who are independent
Yeah, maybe that’s in the paywalled article that this one cites, but it was only via summaries I saw elsewhere that I realized EA might not own them.
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Yeah, I went to school for it. Never broke in. Ended up with a much better and wayyyy more stable job.
Couldn’t imagine trying to get in now that every studio is owned by like ~3 companies.
When I was a teenager, I really wanted to work in the video game industry. Really glad I don’t. I still want to learn to make video games, but I never want to work for any video game company. Especially any that have been around for say… 20 years and/or publicly traded.
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It’s like the movie industry, now. They only have a job as long as the game is in production, and all they get is the weekly paycheck.
Except they’re not set up to be able to do that like the movie industry is.
