Ion Storm Austin Studio Under 'Transition'?

madhatter256 writes "According to Shacknews, around 20-25 more employees, allegedly including noted designer Warren Spector, have left the Eidos-owned Ion Storm studio in Austin." There's an official Eidos response at GameSpot, where a spokesperson "denied Spector had exited the organization", but IGN has further official Eidos reports confirming "Both Ion games have been completed and those who were hires specifically for those titles are now finished", and noting that Spector himself, though he could theoretically be exiting by other means, "certainly has not been laid off." This news comes in the context of earlier personnel turmoil, Thief III's fairly well-received release (there's now a playable PC demo available), and a mixed reception for Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Comments

Re:Layoffs...

[Anonymous Coward]

No industry should have "normal staff reductions". That's complete bullshit, and I will openly boycott any company that ditches it's development teams as expendable.

All employees are expendable except government civil servants. You are animals to be used and discarded when they're finished with you.

Re:Layoffs...

[black mariah]

Look at the credits for any game and I'd wager from 30-50% of the names there are contract workers or outright temps.

That right there is all that needs to be said. These people are hired with the knowledge that when the project is over, their employment WILL BE TERMINATED. They are on a contract or temp basis. I know quite a few game artists. Most of them are run through revolving doors like crazy. One guy I know worked for three different companies on three different projects in one year. One would get done with whatever he was doing, so he had to move on. It's an accepted thing with videogame artists/programmers/designers/producers that for the first few years of their career they WILL be jumping from company to company.