Lego 2K Drive Studio Hit by Layoffs
Visual Concepts South , the developer behind Lego 2K Drive, has experienced ‘silent’ layoffs this week. The exact number of affected employees remains unclear, because we mostly found out only from LinkedIn posts. [1],[2]
Impact of the layoffs may be felt in art, production, and engineering department.
This round marks the second one of layoffs this year, following reductions at its Austin studio in February. Third if we also count last year.
VC South is known for its work on Lego 2K Drive, and in general Visual Concepts is known for their sports games, in the 2K franchise.
Source: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/visual-concepts-lays-off-south-studio-behind-lego-2k-drive
Opinion
These news stories always hit close to home, even though I don’t work in the game development industry.
I see many similarities to software development. Management(or “stakeholders”) often set in stone unrealistic deadlines without consulting the team, leading to crunch time. Burnout is soon to arrive, due to the fact that you don’t have any sense of accomplishment or ownership while working overtime on a product. It’s even worse when you’re in a leadership position and your concerns aren’t heard. This cycle repeats with each project, sometimes leading to the same unfortunate outcome.
Launch day often brings bugs and unfinished features. The backlash usually falls directly on the developers.
Currently, we’re in a troubling era where engineering teams and artists are pushed to their limits and not valued as the assets they truly are.
More or all companies are interested in the quarterly business forecast, than the years that follow. This explains why they see a better approach now to layoff employees and rehire others when needed, at lower cost, disregarding the damage to morale, company culture, and the long-term productivity. I’ve discussed something similar in my tech blog.
The reasons for layoffs are many: over-hiring during COVID, a recent economic downturn, and, the rise of artificial intelligence.
I can’t wait to see the looks on the “AI evangelists'” faces in a few years when it’s revealed to be nothing more than a fancy autocomplete, devouring the world’s energy to generate halucinations words at an astronomical price.
“You work does not define who you are“, is something that should be said in this times, but is not something that puts food on the table. I honestly understand that there are worse places and events that take place all over the world: famine, civil conflicts, full blown wars, autocratic leadership that deny even the women’s rights to speak.
But this should also make headlines.
