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[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Hobbygaming]

It's interesting how many of these founders and directors of studios leave after acquisitions, this guy apparently took some talent with him too

 

[kingfey]

Well, kotaku is shit anyway. Pure click Bait.

Plus Jason would have been on the case, if anything bad happened. That guy can sniff those stories, from miles away.

 

[Hobbygaming]

It sounds like State of Decay 3 is still a ways off

 

[Ezekiel_]

Another one?

 

[reksveks]

Kotaku really wanted some cheap clicks it seems, such a non-story.

I do wonder how much experience people here have with startups.

 

[LeftThumbstick]

I like the fact that he stole Kotaku's thunder and laid it all out there before they could, smart move. By the sounds of it, the article is going to be the typical sexism, work culture and life is unfair type scenario and i care very little about reading it to be honest.

 

[Hobbygaming]

Kotaku really wanted some cheap clicks it seems, such a non-story.

I do wonder how much experience people here have with startups.

I wouldn't say it's a non story, this guy started Undead Labs and he spoke on the difficulties on going from AA to AAA. He left and has his own studio now and he brought developers over

It makes you wonder who is at Undead Labs and how far off is State of Decay 3. He says he left after the "easy" phase of game development

 

[Mars2003]

Kotaku = will not read.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

It's interesting how many of these founders and directors of studios leave after acquisitions, this guy apparently took some talent with him too

This is why Microsoft has issues. These guys take the money and dip with their best talent.

Im team Microsoft on this if they feel some type of way about, “the post was taken down and Microsoft later said it was not involved in your new venture.”

 

[Hobbygaming]

This is why Microsoft has issues. These guys take the money and dip with their best talent.

Im team Microsoft on this if they feel some type of way about, “the post was taken down and Microsoft later said it was not involved in your new venture.”

Yeah it would be interesting to see who remains at these studios after they're bought out

 

[ARK1391]

It's interesting how many of these founders and directors of studios leave after acquisitions, this guy apparently took some talent with him too

I think from their perspective they don't want to work under someone after being their own boss for so many years. Same with the staff that follows them, they obviously like working for their boss, so if their boss leaves and opens a new studio, it's obvious they would follow them.

 

[LordCBH]

Undead Labs not woke enough for the wailing banshees at Kotaku? Shame that shit website won’t just shut down and it’s writers just go away.

 

[cormack12]

See these kind of stories and experiences are interesting on their own. People starting studios and struggling, then coming back and dealing with stuff in personal lives.

Instead we get shit like rivets tits.

 

[Kokoloko85]

There were a good team. And worked with MS well and exclusively. Was a good choice by xbox studios acquiring them

 

[Shmunter]

So preempting yet another hit piece to dismantle the leadership class by the woke ‘me’ generation.

Soon nothing will get done, quality will drop, costs will go up.

 

[clintar]

is the TLDR "kotaku"?

 

[Elginer]

Kotaku? I'm sure its because there isn't enough trannies or something at his studios.

 

[lh032]

im not trolling or what but I thought they games were just ehhhhhhhh

 

[SoggyBiscuit]

Seems like he's trying to get out ahead of the article and run damage control? Wonder what angle the Kotaku hit piece will no doubt have.

 

[remember_spinal]

Sony was smart to add the extra incentive to keep employees at the studio at Bungie

 

[Amiga]

Smart of him to publish the without the spin of Kotaku. Everyone should do this with media. don't surrender to their platforms. take control.

 

[Hezekiah]

I'm sure some people will want this thread closed, but it's an interesting initial read.

 

[Kacho]

im not trolling or what but I thought they games were just ehhhhhhhh

Not the point of this topic but thanks for sharing

Seems like he's trying to get out ahead of the article and run damage control? Wonder what angle the Kotaku hit piece will no doubt have.

One would assume it’s the bog standard ‘women aren’t respected, crunch, toxic leadership, under paid QA staff, etc’. Basically, increasingly uninteresting topics since it’s all been brought up a million times before, and it’s impossible to separate legitimate issues from general whining.

 

[Bernkastel]

See these kind of stories and experiences are interesting on their own. People starting studios and struggling, then coming back and dealing with stuff in personal lives.

Instead we get shit like rivets tits.

The way some questions were worded, seems like Jeff Strain was asked to leave for being absent most of the time. Theres also this story.

Celebrity Homes

www.dirt.com

It's interesting how many of these founders and directors of studios leave after acquisitions, this guy apparently took some talent with him too

There are like only three people from Undead Labs that work in Possibility Space - apart from the founder its Richard Forge and Leah Rivera. You may fill in if you want to(I think I looked up very hard, they hardly have 30 employees). They seem to have people from Firewatch, Ubisoft, Bioware, Magic Leap etc. You can read more about them here

ArenaNet, Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain announces new studio called Possibility Space

A new team aiming to pull together talent from around the world.

www.windowscentral.com

Unlike Undead Labs which was mostly made of Ex-Blizzard and ArenaNet staffs, this new studio does not seem to have much Undead Labs/ArenaNet staff.

This is why Microsoft has issues. These guys take the money and dip with their best talent.

Im team Microsoft on this if they feel some type of way about, “the post was taken down and Microsoft later said it was not involved in your new venture.”

When Microsoft bought they had around 40 people. They grew to over 100 by absorbing many ex-ArenaNet staffs

A message for our friends at ArenaNet - Undead Labs

To our friends, former co-workers, and industry colleagues at ArenaNet: We are profoundly saddened to hear the news of the layoffs today. We feel a special kinship with ArenaNet given our shared DNA and our shared history of working together. We can only imagine what you are going through and...

undeadlabs.com

I still don't get what "best talent" left.

Sony was smart to add the extra incentive to keep employees at the studio at Bungie

That happens with every acquisition. In case of Undead Labs 20% was given to employees, for a studio of barely 40 people at the time.

im not trolling or what but I thought they games were just ehhhhhhhh

State of Decay 1/2 were AA games made by a very small team. It became very popular regardless of the budget

State of Decay 2 is at its highest player count ever, new content coming

The game keeps on growing!

www.windowscentral.com

So Microsoft bought them and giving them a proper budget and bigger team to make Class4, that they always wanted.

Q&A: Class4 And Design - Undead Labs

Happy Friday, survivors! To give your weekend an extra injection of awesome, I bring you our second Q&A session. In this set, we’ll talk a little more about Class4, and field a few more design-related questions. Let’s get started! Many readers have asked: “How big will Class4 be?” Short...

undeadlabs.com

State of Decay 2 is not Class4

It is very firmly State of Decay 2.

www.gamereactor.eu

Another one?

This is not what are you hyping up for your dose of concern to be.

 

[zeorhymer]

Kotaku.
Writing an article on a dev.

I'm expecting crunch, long hours, sexism, non-diversity, or some other "current day" nonsense.

 

[sircaw]

See these kind of stories and experiences are interesting on their own. People starting studios and struggling, then coming back and dealing with stuff in personal lives.

Instead we get shit like rivets tits.

TITS ARE TITS, you god damn Bigot

 

[Bernd Lauert]

The way some questions were worded, seems like Jeff Strain was asked to leave for being absent most of the time. Theres also this story.

Celebrity Homes

www.dirt.com

There are like only three people from Undead Labs that work in Possibility Space - apart from the founder its Richard Forge and Leah Rivera. You may fill in if you want to(I think I looked up very hard, they hardly have 30 employees). They seem to have people from Firewatch, Ubisoft, Bioware, Magic Leap etc. You can read more about them here

ArenaNet, Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain announces new studio called Possibility Space

A new team aiming to pull together talent from around the world.

www.windowscentral.com

Unlike Undead Labs which was mostly made of Ex-Blizzard and ArenaNet staffs, this new studio does not seem to have much Undead Labs/ArenaNet staff.

When Microsoft bought they had around 40 people. They grew to over 100 by absorbing many ex-ArenaNet staffs

A message for our friends at ArenaNet - Undead Labs

To our friends, former co-workers, and industry colleagues at ArenaNet: We are profoundly saddened to hear the news of the layoffs today. We feel a special kinship with ArenaNet given our shared DNA and our shared history of working together. We can only imagine what you are going through and...

undeadlabs.com

I still don't get what "best talent" left.

That happens with every acquisition. In case of Undead Labs 20% was given to employees, for a studio of barely 40 people at the time.

State of Decay 1/2 were AA games made by a very small team. It became very popular regardless of the budget

State of Decay 2 is at its highest player count ever, new content coming

The game keeps on growing!

www.windowscentral.com

So Microsoft bought them and giving them a proper budget and bigger team to make Class4, that they always wanted.

Q&A: Class4 And Design - Undead Labs

Happy Friday, survivors! To give your weekend an extra injection of awesome, I bring you our second Q&A session. In this set, we’ll talk a little more about Class4, and field a few more design-related questions. Let’s get started! Many readers have asked: “How big will Class4 be?” Short...

undeadlabs.com

State of Decay 2 is not Class4

It is very firmly State of Decay 2.

www.gamereactor.eu

This is not what are you hyping up for your dose of concern to be.

Concern trolling debunked.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

So, which person they perceive as a political opponent are they trying to cancel now with their hit pieces?
Ah, someone from Undead Labs. I see, I see.

I swear, at some point people are going to create a "Kotaku victim fund" and it will be better funded and run than Kotaku ever was...

 

[reksveks]

So, which person they perceive as a political opponent are they trying to cancel now with their hit pieces?
Ah, someone from Undead Labs. I see, I see.

I swear, at some point people are going to create a "Kotaku victim fund" and it will be better funded and run than Kotaku ever was...

It's not political, its just clickbait trying to piggyback off the Initiative story from a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Yoboman]

He walked around shouting "lombax tiddies" and making everyone uncomfortable

And forgot his privilege

 

[TheSHEEEP]

It's not political, its just clickbait trying to piggyback off the Initiative story from a couple of weeks ago.

It's Kotaku. Stuff like that is always political, even if they are trying to hide it.

 

[Ozriel]

MS took an AA developer, dramatically grew their employee count with experienced hires and has upgraded their budget to AAA levels.


GAF console warriors: “The studio was gutted!”

This is why Microsoft has issues. These guys take the money and dip with their best talent.

Sure hasn’t happened with Obsidian, Mojang, Ninja Theory, Zenimax studios, InXile, Double Fine, Playground etc.

 

[nush]

Just enough time for Jason to publish his story that he was working on that he totally knew about first.

 

[Dick Jones]

Just enough time for Jason to publish his story that he was working on that he totally knew about first.

Jason Schreier just rang me to confirm he knew about it first but will send me an email later to confirm he knew about it and to please credit his future email. #knewfirstpleasecredit

 

[Ozriel]

Jason Schreier just rang me to confirm he knew about it first but will send me an email later to confirm he knew about it and to please credit his future email. #knewfirstpleasecredit

Thoughts and prayers go out to all ‘Dick Jones’ on Twitter who will now be blocked by Jason because you posted this joke here.

 

[Dick Jones]

Thoughts and prayers go out to all ‘Dick Jones’ on Twitter who will now be blocked by Jason because you posted this joke here.

Jason couldn't find his own dick with his own two hands and a GPS. I'm safe.

 

[reksveks]

Allegations Of Sexism, Bullying, And Burnout: Inside The Microsoft Studio Behind State Of Decay 3

Staff say Undead Labs' transition to Xbox studio was hampered by toxic workplace conditions and lack of direction

kotaku.com

Story uploaded, confused by the following:

Some current and former developers suspect enough people finally complained directly to Xbox to force the issue. One current developer said Schlosser requested a morale review by Microsoft. Whatever the reason, Microsoft HR got involved, interviewed dozens of employees, and in September Schlosser quietly left on a Friday without so much as a farewell message, current and former developers said.

 

[GymWolf]

Thoughts and prayers go out to all ‘Dick Jones’ on Twitter who will now be blocked by Jason because you posted this joke here.

Lucky bastards...

 

[zeorhymer]

Allegations Of Sexism, Bullying, And Burnout: Inside The Microsoft Studio Behind State Of Decay 3

Staff say Undead Labs' transition to Xbox studio was hampered by toxic workplace conditions and lack of direction

kotaku.com

Story uploaded, confused by the following:

Look at that....I got a bingo!

 

[CatLady]

Allegations Of Sexism, Bullying, And Burnout: Inside The Microsoft Studio Behind State Of Decay 3

Staff say Undead Labs' transition to Xbox studio was hampered by toxic workplace conditions and lack of direction

kotaku.com

Story uploaded, confused by the following:

Wow the title of the article is so unexpected and not the usual Kotaku SJW clickbait at all.

 

[skit_data]

Xbox has a lot of stuff on their table when it comes to getting their studios in order, and Acti/Blizz will just add another really big one to handle.

I’m not saying Playstation is perfect but you rarely hear any complaints from devs outside of a few specific cases.

 

[jaysius]

The joke about rag magazines is that they'd always be good for toilet paper... kotaku isn't even good for that. So what is it good for?

 

[reksveks]

Xbox has a lot of stuff on their table when it comes to getting their studios in order, and Acti/Blizz will just add another really big one to handle.

I’m not saying Playstation is perfect but you rarely hear any complaints from devs outside of a few specific cases.

hmm, they are the ones with the lawsuit and the recent complaint about dropping a lead writer from the R&C credits.

i will agree that they don't have the productivity issues though.

 

[Timberwolf25]

They probably just use a template for their articles and just fill in names as they go

 

[DeepEnigma]

Fuck off Kotaku. Not going to read your ideological cult shit.

Glad they got out in front and stole their thunder from their typical mental diarrhea.

 

[elliot5]

There needs to be a better balance with management/HR from above and at the studios to handle these problems. Like a direct MS HR contact supplied to employees at a studio rather than the studio one themselves for more severe problems or if they feel ignored. That seems to be like what happened which caused the interviewing process to take fold (this month?).

Really these games in pre-production limbo need good leadership / directors to make everyone on board feel like they're contributing and working towards a unified vision. I think if that is solved then there will be fewer conflicts. But if you're acting like a jackass and belittling your coworkers (especially women) you need to get yourself under control or hit the streets.

 

[Papacheeks]

“We didn’t want to announce the game because we didn’t even know what it was at that point,” said one current developer. A zombie deer in the announcement teaser became a focal point for fans. Would the new game include undead fauna? It caught some developers by surprise as well, who didn’t recall ever settling on whether that would be a feature or not.

“It could be such a cool game and we’ve got a lot of great people working on it, and I just hope we don’t repeat the terrible habits of the last few years.” — current Undead Labs developer
An internal demo went terribly later that year, and management began to panic in 2021 when there still wasn’t a coherent slice of the game to show Microsoft. “The leadership team claimed that we were ‘prototyping,’ and yet we were attempting to make playable demos to show off to external stakeholders,” said one former developer. “There were contradictions everywhere.”

“They kept piling on more features for more demos,” said another. “It was a complete mess. People left and were replaced by juniors. To quote a producer, ‘I’m not an expert at the code or anything, but our systems should be past the prototype stage.’ Even when the experts at code told him, ‘no it’s not even working at all yet,’ they ignored that comment and added more features to the deadline.”

State of Decay 3 was supposed to have two internal demos last fall, according to three sources familiar with the plan. The first in September would primarily be a presentation composed of images of GIFs followed by a second in December featuring gameplay. Holt decided in late summer he wanted both to show gameplay, a move that would have put a lot of pressure on teams to work overtime to meet the new milestone.

Those who have stuck around are more optimistic, and feel like the 2022 incarnations of Undead Labs and State of Decay 3 have finally turned a corner. “It could be such a cool game and we’ve got a lot of great people working on it, and I just hope we don’t repeat the terrible habits of the last few years,” said one current developer.

But some don’t trust Holt or Microsoft to make that happen. In mid-February, Holt held an all-hands meeting telling staff a negative story about gender discrimiantion could be coming, and to not discuss it on social media. Some were disappointed he didn’t use it as an opportunity to talk more candidly about some of the studio’s issues, according to two sources who were present.

It remains to be seen if Microsoft’s approach to Undead Labs will prove the exception, or the canary in the coal mine. “There was no visible intervention or support from [Microsoft],” recalled one former developer. “Nothing ever improved from my perspective, things just got worse.”

Wow, fucking wow. Been 4 years under Microsoft, and this is what comes out of undead labs? Microsoft also not moving mountains to change the situation when it seemed dire, is also a little worrying. Hope Activision/Blizzard mess gets sorted when FTC approves of the deal.

 

[skit_data]

hmm, they are the ones with the lawsuit and the recent complaint about dropping a lead writer from the R&C credits.

i will agree that they don't have the productivity issues though.

It’s bad but it’s nowhere near having to take on last years biggest scandal in gaming in terms of working conditions.

I think MS will be able to get it fixed but with a great expense in terms of productivity on the behalf of Activision/Blizzard.

 

[GymWolf]

They probably just use a template for their articles and just fill in names as they go

They use the vice method