The recent layoffs at BioWare, the creators behind the much-anticipated Dragon Age: The Veilguard, have sparked widespread discussion about the state of the gaming industry. This situation has drawn attention from industry insiders, including Michael Daus, the publishing director at Larian Studios, who has been vocal about the issue on social media.
Daus emphasizes the importance of valuing employees and argues that the responsibility for such decisions should not fall on regular staff but on those who make strategic decisions. He believes that it's possible to avoid mass layoffs between or after projects, highlighting the significance of retaining institutional knowledge for the success of future endeavors.
He critiques the common corporate practice of "trimming the fat" or reducing redundancies, often used to justify layoffs. While he acknowledges the financial pressures that might necessitate such actions, Daus questions the aggressive efficiency drives of large corporations. He points out that this approach might be justified if companies were consistently releasing successful games, but he sees aggressive layoffs as an extreme and unnecessary form of cost-cutting.
Daus suggests that the real problem lies with the strategies developed by those at the top of the corporate hierarchy, yet it's the employees at the bottom who bear the brunt of these decisions. He humorously proposes that video game companies should be managed like pirate ships, where the captain—those making the decisions—would be held accountable, rather than the crew.
This ongoing debate underscores the need for a more sustainable and employee-focused approach in the gaming industry, where the talents and contributions of the workforce are recognized and preserved, rather than discarded in the name of efficiency.
