Re: Sony: Blockbuster Games Are "A Death Sentence"

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On 10/22/2024 3:11 AM, Xocyll wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
 

On Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:06:53 -0400, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
>

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
>
<Big Snip>

[Shawn Layton doesn't mention this, but smaller games with shorter
development cycles would probably also alleviate the necessity for
mass layoffs after a big game completes, because rather than laying
off all those artists while the years-long pre-production and
programming for  your AAA game takes place, you can just shift them
all over to a smaller project.]

>
Ahh but firing them all means more bonus money for the executives.

>
True. The biggest problem with Layton's argument is that it depends on
long-term thinking by C-level execs. It requires them to consider the
future of the company _beyond_ the immediate quarter. Too often, their
concern is only, "what will pop the stock price up a few ticks" and
not "what's good for the long-term health of the corporation?"...
especially since they're protected by too-high salaries and golden
parachutes.

 
Even without the parachutes and such, there's no loyalty to a company
anymore.
The days of working your entire life in the same company are long gone,
so it's what will boost our stock value the most this year and therefore
make my stock options worth more, then I bail out and work for the
competition (which also forces them to divest their shares in the old
company before the long term pain sets in.)
 

That was back when companies were loyal to their employees.  Well, at
least a lot of them.  Company paid for pension plans and retirement
benefits used to exist so employees had a _reason_ to stay.  In turn
companies benefited from the ever more experienced work force.

Yeah the corporate raiders of the '90's put an end to that, wiping out
most of the old school companies and creating the "leaner, meaner,
what's in it for me, fuck the dead weight" type leadership.
Where the dead weight truly was dead weight originally, but became more
and more of the people who actually made what the corp sold.

They trimmed the fat, then they trimmed muscle and bone in endless
downsizings and killed the company dead, but jumped ship before it died.

Xocyll