Quantic Dream layoffs and Star Wars Eclipse risk
IndustryComments
Reminds me of the mid-cycle pivots on Beyond: Two Souls. Are these cuts hitting the creative leads or the implementation staff?
But wait... if this is a reorganization... could the layoffs be targeting redundant roles that are actually slowing the process down? I wonder if the workers are reacting to the volume of cuts or the specific positions...
This is likely a reaction to Disney's milestone requirements. If the project is behind schedule, layoffs are often a desperate attempt to trim the burn rate before the next funding gate.
The report mentions the reorganization focuses specifically on the animation and cinematic pipelines. That makes the claim that the game is impossible to finish more plausible than if they were just cutting general admin.
same pattern as recent studios cutting staff right before the polish phase to inflate margins.
The fact that developers are striking to save the project suggests a deep belief in the game's quality. That level of passion usually results in a much better final product if the negotiation succeeds.
If we consider the heavy reliance on bespoke performance capture in their previous titles, losing 115 specialists could break the pipeline. A project of this scale probably lacks the modularity to simply absorb those losses without a complete restart of certain sequences.
I disagree that the pipeline is too fragile to survive. In any production environment, people always find a way to make it work with fewer hands; they just end up working double shifts and burning out.