Industry News

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Seven45 Confirms Layoffs

  • MatrarchMatrarch1,732,798
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:18
    Power Gig developer cites restructuring

    Seven45, the studio behind the critically maligned Power Gig: Rise of the Six String, released a statement today regarding recent layoffs at the Boston, MA based developer:

    With Power Gig already on store shelves, last week Seven45 Studios restructured the company both as a part of the natural cycle of game development and to focus on the development needs of its upcoming games projects. The studio thanks everyone who contributed to our first game, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, and we wish the individuals impacted by the re-organization all the best.
    According to a post made at Joystiq, as many as 20-30 staff members, including the majority of the QA department, were impacted by the cuts.

    While the statement from Seven45 notes that they are focusing on upcoming projects, none of those titles have been revealed at this time.
  • SebastianSBSebastianSB206,104
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:22
    Yaaar....thar be a 37 on Metercritic.
    RBN Weekly Updates: http://www.trueachievements.com/leaderboard.aspx?leaderboardid=1576
  • Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:25
    I've never even heard of them?
  • MatrarchMatrarch1,732,798
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:25
    I'm most bemused by the claim of "natural cycle of development". Surely companies don't routinely finish a game and layoff most of their staff. -_-
  • XI AlphaMale IXXI AlphaMale IX1,151,288
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:26
    Who?
  • DaBIGWeaveDaBIGWeave311,602
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:36
    Maybe they should have made good games instead of a cheap rock band imitation fail on a grand scale
  • Barad 007Barad 007951,092
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:43
    seven45? lol never heard of them!
  • Removed Gamer

    Removed Gamer

    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:44
    those who dont know, they tried to play with the big boys at harmonix and activision and fell and scraped their knee and cried to mommy while all the boys at the playground laughed at the little sissy. And then they all got fired. cause the game was terrabad.
  • finallife6finallife61,784,750
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:47
    seven45 is a horrible name and power gig was a horrible game so why are they so happy?
  • Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:52, Edited on 19 November 10 at 16:58 by AutomaticOcelot
    Matrarch said:
    I'm most bemused by the claim of "natural cycle of development". Surely companies don't routinely finish a game and layoff most of their staff. -_-
    They do. Big games normally start with a team of 15-20 and grow to 150-200. Lots of those people are temporary positions and 1-2 year contractors. These news posts always spin it like people have tenure track careers. No, you're a tester. If there's no game to test, you gotta go work somewhere else. Being formally laid off helps with the necessary tax forms and gov't benefits, in case there isn't another project to jump on to.
    I have not yet begun to procrastinate!
  • MatrarchMatrarch1,732,798
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 16:57
    I understand full time programming staff going, but I thought QA was more fundamental to development. I of course could be mistaken since I don't know the ins and outs of game-staffing. :)

    What you say is true, but coming from this developer given what they developed, it surely just sounds like spin!
  • Posted on 19 November 10 at 17:05, Edited on 19 November 10 at 17:09 by AutomaticOcelot
    It's totally understandable to see it as spin when a small unknown developer's game does poorly. One benefit however is that it helps get the word out to other companies if they need to recruit staff. "Oh, 20 more warm bodies to play our broken Dora The Explorer game for the next 6 weeks." ;)

    Matrarch said:
    I understand full time programming staff going, but I thought QA was more fundamental to development. I of course could be mistaken since I don't know the ins and outs of game-staffing. :)
    I feel safe to say that you are mistaken. :) There is absolutely nothing that prevents the developers and publishers from ignoring everything a QA person says. Sadly, they get the public blame for not doing their job, when it isn't even their job to fix problems, only find and report bugs before we do.
    Check out the Penny Arcade TV episode for The Tester, and the comic that goes with it. One of their best.
    I have not yet begun to procrastinate!
  • MatrarchMatrarch1,732,798
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 17:12
    AutomaticOcelot said:
    It's totally understandable to see it as spin when a small unknown developer's game does poorly. One benefit however is that it helps get the word out to other companies if they need to recruit staff. "Oh, 20 more warm bodies to play our broken Dora The Explorer game for the next 6 weeks." ;)

    Matrarch said:
    I understand full time programming staff going, but I thought QA was more fundamental to development. I of course could be mistaken since I don't know the ins and outs of game-staffing. :)
    I feel safe to say that you are mistaken. :) There is absolutely nothing that prevents the developers and publishers from ignoring everything a QA person says. Sadly, they get the public blame for not doing their job, when it isn't even their job to fix problems, only find and report bugs before we do.
    Check out the Penny Arcade TV episode for The Tester, and the comic that goes with it. One of their best.
    That is highly informative. Thanks much for the insight. :D
  • iruhlmaniruhlman262,078
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 18:08
    Matrarch said:
    I'm most bemused by the claim of "natural cycle of development". Surely companies don't routinely finish a game and layoff most of their staff. -_-
    its happening more and more in this terrible economy
    Rock Band Network - twitter@brianruhlman
  • ShinUkyoShinUkyo189,979
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 18:11
    Their big selling point, originally, was that they used a real guitar for gameplay. Once Rock Band announced its own pro guitar mode, coupled with the almost-zero promotion that Power Gig had, the game was doomed to failure. It makes me curious, however, as to which developer actually decided to include the pro-style "real guitar" gameplay first. Power Gig announced it much earlier, which would make you think that Harmonix just assimilated the idea and made it better. But for all we know, Harmonix could have been developing it for a while and Power Gig just wanted to beat them to the punch.
  • CormyreCormyre207,954
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 18:17
    I've been wanting to check the title out but at 225 at Gamestop and 175 at Walmart it has put me off, especially since I'm saving up for their more expensive competitor. getting the Squire for RB3 in March.

    Think part of their downfall was the fact we've only really had one other competitor to RB/GH in Rock Revolution and it was horrid, so people aren't willing to try again... I know that's part of my reason on holding off lol
  • GR4V1G0R3GR4V1G0R3250,785
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 18:38
    not surprised that it's the QA staff mostly

    if they are a small dev, only working on a few titles, the QA staff aren't required until later in the process, many companies don't even employ their own, they use agencies as it's cheaper

    and clearly power gig was shit, so they deserved to be layed off anyway

    anyways, never heard of the game or the company....

    all the best to those employee's now looking for telesales work, as they clearly aren't that good at making / testing games
  • Removed Gamer

    Removed Gamer

    Posted on 19 November 10 at 19:17
    High Price Point + Low Advertising = Inevitable Failure.

    See example: Rock Revolution
    (Only RR wasn't that expensive...)
    http://www.petitiononline.com/PMMX360/petition.html SIGN IT NOW
  • QuanticJusticeQuanticJustice1,901,647
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 19:23
    iruhlman said:
    its happening more and more in this terrible economy
    Homefront is getting more and more plausible by the day... shock
  • QuanticJusticeQuanticJustice1,901,647
    Posted on 19 November 10 at 19:27
    Cormyre said:
    Think part of their downfall was the fact we've only really had one other competitor to RB/GH in Rock Revolution and it was horrid, so people aren't willing to try again... I know that's part of my reason on holding off lol
    The music genre has been waaaay over-saturated for some time now. And while IMO I wouldn't declare it officially dead just yet, I think the entire suite of music genre games is circling the drain.

    We'll look back at the end of this decade upon music genre games with the same fad-like nostalgia as light gun laser disc games in the early 90s.
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