Layoffs at Uber today?

https://twitter.com/chelsea_douglas/status/527237657760657409

And people are discussing this on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2ko9hw/layoffs_at_uber_ent_today/

If I may ask, was it anyone working on PA?

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/layoffs-at-uberent

dunno why this link goes down to the bottom (moderator: ftfy )

Sorry didn't see that. Why is that thread in "Unrelated discussion"? Absolutely no one will see it there (is that the intention?)

Because it isn't directly related to PA. I would imagine most of the layoffs are from the HR team.

It probably should have been in the Uber Entertainment forum actually.

In fact I won't be surprised if a mod moves it there.


PS. ty colin (probably colin) I removed the url extension and still no luck

Well this is sad. What is worse is the comments on reddit- all they can do at this point is slate PA (some more), I mean really?

Anyway, good luck and thank you to all those who are leaving Uber!

Fun fact Chelsea was a concept artist for S/MNC.

Reddit is retarded. They complain when they are stuck with a lack of innovative games, and then complain when they do get them. They are pretty much the people that help EA destroy the indie competition through scrutiny. They should pretty much be getting paid by EA, except they are retarded so they do it for free.

I am pretty sure, once Uber builds a game, they no longer need bulk asset designers. Those guys could start another project, or be let go of. Well, surprise, another project somehow publicly was looked down on, but the same kiddos that talk crap still get their offline and ladders and still complain when their mom reads their text, even though they highly blonk their opinion about PA and HR and Uber in an invasive way like they have the business experience to critique another business.

So, this happens. Now, as I said in the other thread, you see gameplay programmers working on UI. It is the most irresponsible of all that reddit will cause damage and then blame it on anyone other than themselves. Sign your name at the corner of your work reddit, be proud of the crap you do.

Moderator edit: removed image.

Also, I believe, she was the artist behind the Megabeth character in SMNC. Which, imo, is one of the most recognizable characters in the S/MNC universe.

I think if these layoffs (no official word yet?) are actually true, then its more than likely the people they just hired on to work on Human Resources which has been canned so really not much has changed at all in my eyes.. not really... So people I think are quick to judge and going off on what they think they know about Uber as a company as a whole without even knowing the facts yet according to that reddit link......

Hmm #1: What does this mean for a re-launch of Human Resources in the near future? Preferably with offline play and when people aren't still pissed about PA?

Hmm #2: What is Uber going to do to keep PA financially worthwhile? How will they keep sales from tapering down to nothing? (c'mon c'mon c'mon .... giant content DLC expansion pack sequel COME ON!)

The HR team was people from the PA team. The whole "separate team" thing was just wordplay - it was a separate team composed of people that had worked on PA.

Planetary Annihilation absolutely could use bulk asset designers today. There is not a single resource that could not be used to improve PA given how much it is still lacking.

Well, it sucks that people lose their jobs, for whatever reason. Good luck and thanks to the outgoing folks, and the hope that you have awesome careers ahead of you!

I would not overrate that single one random "engineer changed some small dialog". Uber is not big enough to split every task that extremely.
The change to that dialog probably was required due to some work on things that the engineer in question was working on and it makes no sense to go to a more UI-related dev and say "can you please make this dialog, making it will take roughly as long as this discussion".

I'd guess it basically means: Uber grew while developing PA. More than they can now sustain, there are diminishing returns on adding more people to a team and if they want to continue working on PA for a long time a smaller team actually can be more effective and continue working much longer. Yes more people always means more could be done, but PA obviously is not generating a million dollars each day and Uber is not Blizzard, so they have to be very very careful about not carelessly growing teams too much.
So they came up with HR because they liked the idea of not having to layoff anybody. It failed. The result: The people who would've worked on HR have to leave Uber.

Not to mention they also had projects like Toy rush and that other game before that. They might also be involved in this.

Yep. Last I checked as well PA is now well outside even the top 100 best seller list on Steam as well.

You're working hard./s

Seriously I would not consider ups and down in the steam sales on short term THAT much.

This, Uber needs their specialists to continue working on specific things, like they did offline, and then ladders, and eventually map editor and such.

If they have bulk asset people, they could do another pass on terrain and make blue mushroom biomes, or units and create themed skins or something, but they could only do so for half as long of their development funding would allow a smaller specialized team to go. Basically, you are directly trading that for the unit cannon perhaps, and you couldn't get a popular forum vote to favor doing that.

I mean, they could just make a seperate project with the same engine and a few programmers and a ton of asset designers, and that would be justifying their cost given their talented value... but all the wannabe game production tycoons and critics red-lighted that idea, and here we are. 0/10, worst game production tycoons ever, would not buy resulting products.

OP in that thread got downvoted into oblivion for saying he liked SMNC and PA.

omg

Seriously?
Where are all these haters coming from? Are there really THAT many people who thought that Uber could develop the PA of their dreams within 2 years and now that has not happened have decided to spent a few hours a day to make sure it really is never going to get better? REALLY?