Big Layoffs At Thief Developer Eidos Montreal

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It seems that Thief developer Eidos Montreal has laid off close to thirty people this week. This shouldn't come as a surprise if you read our Thief video card performance preview. Our video card editors found the gameplay lacking and the graphics dated, but no matter how you slice it, it sucks when this many people lose their jobs.

Yes it is true we've let 27 people go today, unfortunately it's something that every major studio has to do sometimes in order to ensure you have the right set up for current and future projects. It's never a nice thing to do but we are genuinely trying to offer as much support as much as we can.
 
Major project ends: People get let go.
This is the way things do and have happened for decades in the movie and game industry. If the people did their jobs well, then they'll get a call to come back for the next project or to stay on longer than a single project.
 
...I just realized, why is this stuff even posted? Is people's misfortune news?
 
Thief was massively outdated in graphics back in 98, the old Quake based Thief I mean. They used the same game engine in 2000 as well for Thief 2. The games were horribly buggy as well. But the games were so good that none of that mattered. Well, it does matter but it was overlooked.

I haven't played the new Thief, but everyone was afraid it would take too much from modern shooters and ruin the game. Not exactly sure what they did, cause I haven't played it.
 
Major title completed = another studio layoff = bean counters keep the sales dollars
 
just as it was said before. This is not news, happens almost every time a game is finished. This is how the gaming industry works.
 
Well, the provincial government basically funds all the major studios in Montreal; ubi$oft, ea, WB, ...etc... ubi$oft won the government funding lottery last fall, sorry Eidos. Need your bean counters to be more effective at acquiring government grants.

/end rant

Sucks to be laid off though.
 
This is the main reason I chose NOT to pursue a job making games... volatility.
 
On one hand I see this as part of the reason why the game industry churns out crap games, but I'm also ticked at these developers for taking a dump on the Thief series. Deadly Shadows was bad enough, now this garbage.
 
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