Peter Molyneux on Layoffs and Lionhead Restructuring

[fitbabits]

Next Generation (http://www.next-gen.biz) has posted an exclusive interview with Peter Molyneux where he talks about the recent layoffs and restructuring at Lionhead. You can read the whole article here (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2436&Itemid=2).

In an exclusive interview with Next Generation, Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has talked about the job cuts at his development house Lionhead, and the challenges facing game industry employers.

Molyneux says Lionhead has restructured in order to reflect its desire to focus on fewer products at any one time. Instead of three games at once, the firm will focus on just two next generation titles. The first is thought likely to be a Fable game; the other is unknown. As we reported earlier this week, Lionhead has laid off around 50 people, from an overall tally of around 230.

Tell us about the job cuts at Lionhead?

We’ve finished three games - Fable Lost Chapters, Black & White 2, and The Movies – and we’re going alpha on the relevant add on discs.

Of course, everybody here is saying 'what is coming next?' What we’re saying is that the next generation is all about focus. It's about keeping the talented people you’ve got working on something that is going to be incredible, revolutionary and all the things that I always say when we're about to start another new game.
It's pleasing that Mr. Molyneux came forward and explained the reasoning for the restructuring and layoffs.

[Dr Quincy]

What became of Dimitri?

[Vandenh]

Dimitri turned into Spore :)

Seriously... I think Dimitri was more of a PoC no? I am sure some of the features will end up in Fable 2.

[bean19]

Dimitri turned into Spore :)

Seriously... I think Dimitri was more of a PoC no? I am sure some of the features will end up in Fable 2.

Isn't Dmitri the unnamed project?

Btw, I didn't really enjoy this interview. I want to get into the game business, and I don't like moving alot. Since the game business isn't unionized, people aren't getting incredible salaries that allow them to live at a game shoot and then return to their homes until their next project.

It is all very frightening really.

[EvilBob46]

Between Black & White and Fable, this company has just been a colossal disappointment. I remember them saying that they're going to stop making unrealistic claims about their games and stop creating so much empty hype. I really hope so.

[Odwalla]

And the second the industry unionized and somehow got these magically huge salaries you think union members are due, bean19, prices for games at retail would go over $100.00 and the industry would implode.

Do you really think you'll find a job doing anything where they'll pay you a lot so that you can sit around after the project is over?

I've been in the games industry for almost 11 years and I've moved exactly once. I'm not rich but I make a salary that reflects my skill, knowledge, and level within the industry. Not once in the past decade have I ever thought a publisher has owed me a lot of money and the right to go sit on my butt for a few months. People with that attitude will not last long in any industry. People that understand what an honest day's work is will succeed in games, just like they should.

[Whitewind]

This is kinda scary.

I'm hopefully going to Solent Uni to do a BA (HONS) Computer games a Technolgys, and aparently at the end of the 3 years, you could posbily get a place at LionHead Studios for the summer.

Wonder if this will still happen, coz when I was talking to the team leader of the course, he seemed as though he was hopeing to make this arangement again o.0


Although currently dispointed with Black & White two, I still think there a great company. Plus they seem to be making progress with B&W2 and fixing the errors.

[Sensei-X]

It's sad to see so many people lose their job, the explanation doesn't do much to soften the blow but at least it's better than most corporations give their employees. If anyone had to go though they should've fired their game testers and everyone who works in quality assurance, after Black & White 2 it was pretty obvious they're not doing anything.

[Xerxes]

Between Black & White and Fable, this company has just been a colossal disappointment. I remember them saying that they're going to stop making unrealistic claims about their games and stop creating so much empty hype. I really hope so.

I don't think he ever promised anything unrealistic. One instance was trees growing through a life cycle in Fable. They showed that it was done just not something that would of been able to put in the game in time. Time is something alot of people don't get when making game it seems.

I enjoyed Fable. Insted of classing it as a RPG, probably would of been better recieved it he didn't talk so much about what he was working on putting in it and genre-nized it as Action/Adventure game or something.

[Demize99]

Its pretty normal for a company to let go of workers at the end of a project in the games industry. If its done right, its not a huge hardship on the people let go, and often this kind of restructuring ends up helping both the former and current employees and the company.

The way the industry brings people on for a short term to bloster a project means they're going to let some of them go when the project ends and there's not another project planned.

[RMan]

Well, like it or not, with the huge teams and huge releases, the most effective thing is consolidation. Companies like EA can retain enough development resources so they can shift people from project to project as needed, without having to hire and retrain people as frequently, while also being able to keep the effective employees. Smaller/episodic projects can schedule their resources properly, but big content driven games (AKA successful retail games) are really most effectively made by having small teams until the last part of the project, then a far larger one, and that’s something that becomes more efficient the more projects your working on.

[bean19]

And the second the industry unionized and somehow got these magically huge salaries you think union members are due, bean19, prices for games at retail would go over $100.00 and the industry would implode.

Do you really think you'll find a job doing anything where they'll pay you a lot so that you can sit around after the project is over?

I've been in the games industry for almost 11 years and I've moved exactly once. I'm not rich but I make a salary that reflects my skill, knowledge, and level within the industry. Not once in the past decade have I ever thought a publisher has owed me a lot of money and the right to go sit on my butt for a few months. People with that attitude will not last long in any industry. People that understand what an honest day's work is will succeed in games, just like they should.

In my head, I was comparing the game industry to the movie industry. Molyneux does this in his article.

That's the big difference between game designers and movie makers. If you were doing makeup for a movie then you'd go out and make a lot of money for the days that you worked and then you'd have time off between projects unless your agent had lined them up back to back.

This isn't the case with game makers. You are correct that the money just isn't there the way that it is with movies.

Still, I'm not playing Norma Jean and insisting on unionizing an industry that already pays their employees competitively given the profit potential of their market. I was just thinking about the comparison to the movie industry that Molyneux made in the article.

Btw, I work two jobs and I'm taking a full load of courses. Before that, I went to high school, worked a job in the evenings and helped on my parent's small ranch on my day's off. While college affords me a lot of free time between classes, I know how to work.

[RMan]

That's the big difference between game designers and movie makers. If you were doing makeup for a movie then you'd go out and make a lot of money for the days that you worked and then you'd have time off between projects unless your agent had lined them up back to back.
This is only practical for movies because they have very short shooting time and the people work very long hours in those times. There are many practical reasons why a movie should be shot as quickly as possible, but there are not for games, and there's no way a game's full production schedule can be done in 60 days like a movie shoot can. It is impractical to work developers like that for a game, and silly to try to model an employment system around an industry that's so dissimilar. Not to mention the American game industry is not nearly strong enough to pay it’s workers full time salaries for part time work, our movie industry is way stronger than our game industry.
I was just thinking about the comparison to the movie industry that Molyneux made in the article.
But even he said it doesn’t work. In the end, I still say the only effective model for huge projects is to be under a huge company, one that can shift it’s resources around and effectively develop large products. Not to mention, a large company can afford a failed project, the model Lionhead’s currently working under can’t afford a failure of any kind, unless they have a big warchest, which is unlikely.

[bean19]

Rman - Right. I said it wouldn't work too.

We are actually in agreement, though you've given me even more reasons to agree with you.

It's interesting to me that Lionhead was shopping around to become a part of a big publisher though. I wonder if part of this reasoning was the fact that he knew that they did not have the resources to work on 3 simultaneous projects and was hoping to have these workers moved about to other projects for EA (or whatever other big publisher might buy them up).

[RMan]

Rman - Right. I said it wouldn't work too.
Ahh, my bad.
It's interesting to me that Lionhead was shopping around to become a part of a big publisher though.
Yea, I'm sure many of these guys are seeing the writing on the wall, if you want to be an independent developer and publish retail games then you’re asking for a very hard job. The only way to support teams as large as they have is with at least one good retail success, and the easiest way to get that retail success is by being pretty much owned by a huge publisher (unless you’re id or Blizzard or something and already have IPs that can drive sales). I don’t know, I just don’t see them making it work, unfortunately. Even if they can make a great game, the marketing required these days to make it a success capable of supporting their development just isn’t likely to be put forth unless those paying for it control the IP, and at that point you may as well not be independent.