Larian Studios has hit out at a number of companies laying-off development staff to maximise profits for shareholders.
2024 has started with a number of studios cutting huge swathes of employees. Microsoft laid off 1,900 staff shortly after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard was approved, Riot Games laid off over 500 members of staff, and today (February 19) it was confirmed that Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has cut a quarter of its staff.
Elsewhere, the Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch claimed it wasn’t making a profit after another massive round of layoffs, while Embracer Group admitted that its “overruling principle is to always maximise shareholder value in any given situation” after cutting 1,400 jobs over the past 12 months.
Last week, Baldur’s Gate 3 picked up a number of trophies at the DICE Awards including Outstanding Achievement In Story, RPG Of The Year, Outstanding Achievement In Game Direction, and Game of the Year. Larian Studios used their various acceptance speeches to call out the growing trend of cutting developers before shareholder bonuses.
“This is a really human industry, and we’re really bad sometimes at showing developers what they’re worth … it’s kinda the elephant in the room, especially surrounded by all this opulence,” said director of publishing Michael Douse [via PCGamer].
“Many, many people were let go at the start of this year. I want you to know that you are all talented, and that you matter, and that you are the future of this industry. Don’t let that flame be extinguished by our collective mistakes … we will persevere as an industry.”
“There’s an expression in Dutch—’honesty lasts longest’,” continued Larian’s head of production David Walgrave “We don’t make decisions where we think ‘this could make us the most money’ [because] in the long run, building a community, building a playerbase, building games that are actually fun is going to make you the most money, that’s it.”
GOTY @larianstudios speech at DICE 1/2
" Many, many people were let go at the start of this year[…] Don't let that flame be extinguished by our collective mistakes" –@Cromwelp
"We don't have shareholders, but we also don't think about them" -David Walgrave pic.twitter.com/Ne2cohHJnm
— Sarah M (@RetroCozyArt) February 16, 2024
It’s a sentiment echoed by former Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata. Iwata was president of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015 and oversaw the turbulent Wii U era of the company, which was considered a flop by many. Following the failure, he took a 50 per cent pay cut while other executives reduced their salaries by 20 per cent.
Speaking about the decision in 2013, Iwata said: “If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease. I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.”
That response has once again been shared countless times across social media following the recent trend of studios laying off the staff actually responsible for their products.
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