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News Room Contributor  Posts: 2412 Joined: 11 Sep 2008     | |
Muckraker  Posts: 251 Joined: 25 Dec 2008     | First word that came to my mind: Owned. On the serious side. Shit, that seems really unethical to me. |
On the Record  Posts: 5592 Joined: 10 Jan 2009    | Yeesh. I hope that they weren't suprised there... that seems REALLY sudden. You have to wonder how they feel about that: I'd imagine that several of them are rather pissed off. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1881 Joined: 7 Feb 2008    | That's just total bullshit. Come on. "Thanks for all your hard work, goodbye." |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 78 Joined: 10 May 2008     | Jesus, talk about a case of thanks for the help, now feck off. Man, thats pretty crap. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1188 Joined: 1 May 2009    | Jaysus Chroist! Dat Shi' is bananas! But seriosuly...tough break, I suppose. To make something that must have taken a fairly large chunk out of your life, and then be thanklessly thrown out the door... |
On the Record  Posts: 6788 Joined: 7 Jan 2009  | I wonder where they'll get a job now... America's Army...No? |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 571 Joined: 8 Oct 2007   |
This and unless they were given AMPLE (like when the game started development) forewarning then how the hell could they get away with that kinda shit? |
SUSPENDED  Posts: 2707 Joined: 5 May 2008    | Erm WTF you guys realise that once a brickie finishes building a house they get laid off right ? Theyve released the game so why would they keep staff who makes games around after theyve finished making the game ? Im sure theyll keep the guys that can patch and map around but everyone else is now expendable. None of you guys run a business do yah :D User was suspended for: Religious Ignorance: A Plea to (some) Atheists. (14 days) |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 432 Joined: 14 Nov 2008    | Bad PR there...but this is t3H @rMy we're talkin' about here, like they'd care about PR. Though logically, they would've let the developers know ahead of time...unless the US Army views the developers and we gamers as not only cannon fodder, but a sub-human species as well...I think I might be onto somethin' here. |
Paperboy  Posts: 47 Joined: 29 May 2009     | That's what they get for releasing such a broken buggy mess of a game. P.S. Thanks |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1070 Joined: 3 Dec 2007  |
American's Army is very much focused on online play, which means constant updates are pretty much necessary. And it's not as though this version appeared out of nowhere; version 1 first came out in 2002, and this is (if I recall correctly) is version 3. I guess this means no version 4? |
SUSPENDED Posts: 2707 Joined: 5 May 2008 |
OK let me rephrase :- Im sure theyll keep the guys that can patch and map around but everyone else is now expendable. User was suspended for: Religious Ignorance: A Plea to (some) Atheists. (14 days) |
The Man So Nice They Named Him Twice  Posts: 793 Joined: 4 Jan 2008    | Such is the life of the game developer. Happens all the time. |
Anonymous Source Posts: 1 Joined: 19 Jun 2009 |
Sure weren't.
No joke. |
BANNED  Posts: 6237 Joined: 10 Aug 2008  | Haha, they got so used. It's like a guy promising to marry a girl just to get in her pants and leave the next day. I hate to say this, but epic ownage. Did people expect anything good from this game anyways? User was banned for: We need to cull the internet. (Permanent) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 4600 Joined: 9 Jul 2008  | Wow, that sucks. Then again, I've still yet to be able to play their game online, though I don't know that it's their fault. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1515 Joined: 28 Jul 2008   | It's the American Military. Not to be anti-American, but it's not the worst thing they've done. Although AA is such a blatant propoganda machine I refuse to play it (even though I'm Canadian). |
Paperboy  Posts: 26 Joined: 20 Mar 2009    | As others have said, this is not wholly surprising--developers getting laid off after a new release happens all the time in the industry. The only reason this may have come as a surprise to the developers is that the AA devs are rather notorious for always updating the game. By the sound of it, they've still got that covered at the Redstone studio, so you can't really fault them. Especially when AA doesn't make any money and is funded by tax dollars. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1913 Joined: 18 Mar 2009    | Well of course your gonna get laid off, the gov'ment and the military don't care about squishy little geeklings like you! Now perhaps they should start working on something better than a propoganda device? I played that game once.. Buggy as shit, the multiplayer downright sucks, and all the servers were dead. Deader than the fucking Sahara. Also, no singleplayer campaigns at all to compensate, other than the "training" missions. |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 602 Joined: 10 Mar 2009 |
In my experience, typically, the contractors / temps are all let go while the rank and file employees are assigned to other projects that need the resources. The management and lead types often start planning something new if they're not needed elsewhere. Occasionally there's a little trimming of the rank and file if there's no room for them on other projects. The termination of the entire team after release is...well...a little less common. Of course, the end of a studio - which appears to be the case here - usually signifies the release of most/all of its employees and that happens more often than I'd care to admit lately. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1763 Joined: 7 May 2009 | Seeing as the government is already making cut backs (allegedly), it only makes sense to shut down an operation making video games. It sucks to see happen, but hey, that's life, and sometimes life really effin' sucks. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 830 Joined: 17 Apr 2008   | I think it could be a PR move by the Army after everyone started whining that it wasn't perfect straight out of the box. Issues outside the developers control led to the game not working properly and now the Army seems to have been forced into a knee-jerk PR reaction. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1540 Joined: 10 Feb 2009  | |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1153 Joined: 11 Nov 2008    | Thats...So dick, Well, Another dude fucked by the "Man" |
PROBATION  Posts: 3498 Joined: 20 Feb 2008    |
Huh funny it said the exact opposite to me. It is harsh but it is also the law of the jungle so to speak. It is what happens when you have a job that can be finished. When it is finished you may not have a job. If you want a permanent job go for accounting or undertaker. User was put on probation for: Bioshock 2 DLC was already on the retail disc, gamers find. (3 days) |
Master Archivist  Posts: 8726 Joined: 28 Feb 2009   |
Somehow, I think that might be an understatement. The only way it could possibly be worse, in my opinion, is if they got closed down on the same day or the day before. Still, really sucks to be them, I've gotta say. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1806 Joined: 26 Mar 2009    | Reliving flashbacks of the two-faced moves the Army made when I enlisted. Whole deal seems very shoddy to me. |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 536 Joined: 10 Jun 2009   | to be fair isnt americas army a free game? maybe its too uneconomical to keep the team to patch up the game (if it needs patching but most games do now-a-days. still rather shitty and a good reflection of our times. hey good job chaps! oh speaking of job .... : / |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1285 Joined: 4 Mar 2009  | "Thanks for making our propaganda filled game, now get your ass out of here!" Probably not how the conversation went, but it's how I like to imagine it. Pretty fucked up though, your big reward for all of your hard work is getting fired. Sucks to be them I suppose. |
On the Record  Posts: 6403 Joined: 14 Sep 2008    | Well, the new America's Army 3 is so shitty, I've tried to register an account for two days and it doesn't work. And many people who made it through can't get past training session or get a crash on the start of a map. |
Paperboy  Posts: 38 Joined: 12 Dec 2008 |
But it's fun eh! |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1034 Joined: 9 Dec 2008   |
Yeah, I was gonna say maybe they got dropped because AA is...crap? I don't know, I've never played any of them. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 4241 Joined: 7 Nov 2007  | Has anyone been on the forums, the amount of people complaining how bad the game was coded and how poorly it runs. I get 1FPS, worse than Crysis. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1648 Joined: 12 Sep 2008   |
Completely agree this is worse then the first release of AA. They should have been set on fire for wasting gov't money to release this broken piece of shit. You can't even complete the fuckin' basic training for Christ's sake they should be glad their asses didn't get shipped to GITMO. |
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America's Army Devs Let Go One Day After Launch
Only a single day after the launch of their newest game, America's Army 3, the America's Army development team was laid off in an effort to "consolidate development."
Launching a game should be an event worth celebrating for any game developer, but for the team behind the U.S. Army's America's Army series, it must have come as a somber occasion. Today - only a day after America's Army 3 was released - the U.S. Army decided to close down the Emeryville, California studio that developed the America's Army games, according to Shacknews.
Development of the series will continue, but shift over to the America's Army office in Redstone, Alabama. The decision to shut down the Emeryville studio and move operations closer to the AA headquarters is a "consolidation" that will "allow us to gain efficiencies between our public and government applications," an America's Army representative said. I don't doubt that it is that, but I'm sure it's got plenty to do with tightening the budget as well.
"We appreciate all the hard work that every member of the America's Army team has contributed to the project, and we look forward to delivering future America's Army game releases in the months ahead," the America's Army representative concluded.
Details of the layoffs, including how many people lost their jobs or whether or not they had been given advance notice, weren't explained. I can only hope that the team was given a heads up to start looking for work - to ditch an entire studio the day after they finish putting out your game seems a little bit harsh.
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