Now Naughty Dog Is Reportedly Downsizing, Cutting Multiple Contract Jobs

I think they're going to bundle it in with tlou part 2 when it comes out on PS5 and pc

Sony, just cancel Factions 2 at this point lol. Cut your losses and move on

Now they probably focus on TLoUP3, and it is in such an early concept state that they can’t engage the whole existing team. At least from a consumer standpoint, that could result in a positive ending.

Wish ND would work on a new IP. Or at least a new game in their current line of franchises and not some pointless remaster of a 3-year-old game.

From what I can gather, ND tried to treat Factions 2 like a single player game that was online. Druckmann said the story would be on par with TLOU Part 1 and 2 in an interview a couple years ago and that it had grown into a full-blown AAA experience. I think Sony realized it wasn't going to be able to monetize it long-term. I wouldn't be shocked if the online game is being folded into TLOU3, keeping the story and weaving in Ellie. Not sure why ND couldn't have just made a simple Faction 2.

Contractors very rarely get any severance pay - as they are not fulltime employees. This is across all industries, not just the video game industry.

@QuietintheCorner I think the big issue is Factions 2 grew into something else. Druckmann has said multiple times it was a full AAA title with a story on par with their single player titles. I think it just got way too big.

I was really looking forward to this last of us online. I am sure it will launch at some point. Better to take their time and get it right. In the meantime bring out Part 2 on PS5/PC.

everyone at the studio is "being pressured to keep the news quiet"

Stay classy San Diego

At this point, I hope Naughty Dog scales back the scope of Factions 2 to something more like the original and bundles it with Last of Us: Part III. This more than likely won't happen though since Sony wants a significant return on investment through microtransactions.

@Sakai Yeah, classic Druckmann. That´s one of the reasons I don´t like the guy and ND direction.

This is awful, execs are making more money than they ever have. These contractors won’t even get severance pay.

@QuietintheCorner I'd personally rather they just move on from TLOU and make a new ip

I said it before and was called gloomster I said it again and was called alarmist and now I'm a say it again
NAUGHTY DOG IS A MISMANAGED STUDIO.

It's crazy that Bungie was able to get the game basically canceled.

As a hardcore player of Destiny 2, their live service is terrible. They have the unique position of having ZERO competitors in the space and great gunplay. All their core activities are so stale, their revenue models (seasons) have been so redundant and so much in need of a shakeup, they're being done away with next year.

U2, U3 and Factions had fantastic multiplayer and engagement. Especially U3. Let ND do their thing, don't turn it into the grindy checklist that Destiny is.

Although ND did massively screw up with U4 multiplayer which is insane to me since all they had to do was copy U3

“The quality assurance team is most heavily impacted”

When people are paying for “early access” to games in alpha or beta why pay for your own Q&A employees when you can get people to pay you to do the same work.🤷🏻‍♂️

@nessisonett I have many friends who work as contractors in the UK and they've told me that they make a ton of money on a daily basis (something like more than 500 pounds per day). Most companies beg to give them a permanent job, because they would cost far less, but they always refuse to accept it. Some of the downsides include that you have literally no days off, even if you get sick, you can get fired on the spot, and you have no benefits. They still choose it over a permanent position because it pays so well. Maybe it's not the same everywhere, but that's the experience they've had.

I think that simply turning the game into the TLoU3, and adding in Ellie would be a terrible idea, @jmac1686. Unless the game is built from start to finish as the second sequel, it will likely release as a horrible mess. I guess it would be possible to use some of the locations for the third game, but anything beyond that needs to be created from scratch.

After the hate that the second game got, Naughty Dog need to play it a little safer this time if they are to keep people invested in the games future. Personally, I enjoyed the sequel, but I know a lot of people didn't, so ND need to come out with something that resonates just as the first game did, and simply building on a failed multiplayer game is unlikely to hit the mark...

Factions is dead for sure. Yet the bigger story last week is not this. Right after it was announced that Ryan was leaving, reports began to emerge that most first party studios were basically thrown into turmoil over Sony's attempt to push them into live service projects under Ryan.

It's likely why we haven't heard really anything from any of them in terms of a roadmap. Sony first party studios sound like they are in a similar situation to what bgs did to Arkane with redfall. I do hope trajectory changed or changes before their is an exodus of core talent at these studios.

Sony really made a sad move trying to jump on the predatory design train far too late and it sounds like they did so at the expense of the integrity and satisfaction of their core studios in the name of greed.

Really weird that they're trying to keep the firings under the rug.

@Zombie9ers
Why are you telling truths so bad news dont look so bad, shame on you.
We should all spit on Sony but you make it hard.

If they made the multi-player like in the first I would be a happy camper I dont understand why they always make it so hard. Look at Twisted Metal make it like Twisted Metal World Tour and give it a only option why do they always try to invent the wheel two times.

Factions 2 or whatever you want to call it sounds like it would be a fascinating subject for a documentary. Would love a peek behind the scenes at what the ambitions were, how close they got, and might have gone wrong

@JAMes-BroWWWn 100% agree. Their output is brutal. Although besides Insomniac they all have long lags now between games. You’d think they would be more efficient working with their in house engines and pushing out these games.

@naruball For some people it works, taking extra money in exchange for being treated like animals. There needs to be more regulation in place though, companies can take massive liberties with contractors’ welfare.

@Zombie9ers

Exactly, if a person wants gig work, or the ability to farm out their talent to other contracts, or to work from home with a work-life balance that's appropriate to them, then contract work is a great fit. Some people may use it as a foot in the door to full-time employment but for the most part contractors/freelance workers do what they do because they want to.

@Constable_What It’s so easy for people on here to just write these people off as a commodity or something but this could be the difference between these workers’ kids going to college or not. A year or two of solid work on a project of this scale is at least more secure than work on the more agile side of development.

@nessisonett I don't know about being treated like animals. They said they didn't feel that way. They just had a task to complete and they were paid for that task. Nothing more to it. That's the the way they saw it anyway. Just to be clear. I'm only sharing what they told me. Nothing more.

Sad news. Naughty dog should have just added factions to part 2 or just the basic factions with the remake. Being pressured not to tell seems blown out of proportion. In alot of contracts there is section that keeps you from sharing in house information whether you are still employed or not. Being pressured has nothing to do with that. I had that section in almost all my contracts, especially when I was working in film.

Wait this is only contractors? So they aren't even employees of ND. I work as a manager in Mortgage that utilizes contractors due to the cyclical nature of our industry. The whole point of contractors is to have extra staff at high volume times, and can let them go during low times. As they aren't employees of ND, the thought that they get severance (from ND) is bewildering. These people know what they sign up for. It's a way to get your foot in the door and gain experience in the industry. I had 4 temp positions for instance before my career took off.

That's Jim Ryan cutting back on jobs to put that money on more Live-Service games before he gets to leave next March.

Makes sense if Factions is on ice. Hopefully everyone affected can land on their feet.

'and everyone at the studio is "being pressured to keep the news quiet". '
Between Bungie and that gem, it's been a great 24 hours of PR!

Sucks this is happening to so many

OK it's a group of contractors not permanent employees at a 400 something large studio how is this disastrous news for there development 🤔

Something like this has been a long time coming. The industry seems to be divorcing itself from consumer wishes and Covid-19 obviously didn't help either.

@nessisonett I worked in tech recruitment for years and contractors know this is part and parcel of the game. @naruball is absolutely right, a lot of them earn a truly obscene amount of money, sometimes as much as 3x what their perm counterparts earn and with that comes the risk that you could be let go with very little notice. One of the reasons for the governments IR35 legislation in UK was because private companies were treating contractors like perm staff who paid a fraction of the tax while earning extortionate amounts of money….essentially contractors were being treated too well because they were desired for their skills and perm staffing is laborious and comes with its own set of trials (paying benefits, being stuck with an employee who is amazing during probation period and crap afterwards etc)

Obviously ND is an American company so things might be different over there but if it’s anything like here they have probably been earning in excess of $400 a day (over $100,000 p.a) to do the exact same job as their $45,000 salaried counterparts. When ND start getting rid of perm staff I will be among the first to condemn but contractors know exactly what they are getting themselves into when they decide to go down that employment route.

Can we get rid of Druckmann? A lot of people are tired of his torture porn games.

Remember when Naughty Dog made fun games?

contract workers are given no benefits or severance pay, no matter the job industry. everyone working as a contractor knows this before they accept the job. these job cuts are no better and no worse than what goes on everywhere, so let's not try to spin this as anything unique. these contract jobs at nd may have been related to tlou factions...

I wouldn't cry too much for the contractors, they probably get paid more the double the 'permies' do and would probably just be leaving anyway (end of contract).

@Pat_trick Exactly. ND used to be a better developer back before he was in control.

@Gamakazil and you're here because...?

When an article says 'sources familiar with the situation', it never bodes well does it.

"Cutting contract jobs" is not really downsizing. This feels like a non-story

I feel like ND have really fallen from grace in the last few years. Only a single console generation ago they were Sony’s star player and now it feels like they’re lost. Remaking their own games and wasting time on Factions. I never would have believed they’d end up like this.

@MagisterMagi Their probably going to add on TLOU3

@Zombie9ers but they generally get paid more to counter balance it

@ItsBritneyB_tch was it ND decision though or sonys

@Gamakazil but it's a playstation website. I'd get if it were a video game website. If you hate the brand that much, it makes no sense.

@ItsBritneyB_tch I mean, it's only been one generation and the generation is not even over yet. I'll give them time. Santa Monica was also struggling before God of War came out on ps4 and it was by far their biggest success, so who knows?

Sony is busy restructuring and fixing Jim's "We must make a bunch of live service games" mistake.

It sucks that the fans of the last of us games are probably not going to get factions. I dont like the last of us and i had zero interest in factions so i'm not bothered in the slightest about this. I can see why people love these games as they are quality titles and deserve their accolades but they just dont do it for me at all. I hope everything turns out ok for the fans and naughty dog as on the surface it looks pretty bleak.

Seriously, enough with the destiny stuff. Stick naughty dog on a dark sci-fi or single player fantasy game and collect the monies. It's sad a studio like this is in the wilderness. Reminds me of Media Molecule, stranded on 'grand projects' for years whilst talent fades away.

@ATaco I think that's right. Apparently Sony were even uncomfortable with the pivot themselves (Eurogamer article). No idea how much this nonsense has set them back. Hubris.

What a brutal news from the past weeks, fear this not the last news of it.

Where are all the 'I'm glad Sony are doing GAAS for people who want to play them' crowd?

The same crowd who also say 'I'm glad Sony are releasing their games on PC, it means more people can play their games'

A lot of people told you it will all spectacularly backfire, these next few years are going to be rough for Playstation.

Luckily I've hooked my PC back up to my TV and I don't spend any more money in the PS eco-system outside of PS+.

@Toot1st I don’t know but it’s sad to see this once great studio going through a rough patch. Hopefully they can bounce back like Insomniac did. I just never thought we’d see them in this position.

@naruball yeah, I really hope they come back with something great but if the rumours that their next game is TLoU Pt3 are true, I couldn’t be less excited.

@VaultGuy415 Absolutely, the way this is phrased in articles feels very disingenuous. Contractors are not actual employees, severance packages don't apply and even calling them "lay offs" is inaccurate. There's nothing to see here, but hey that wouldn't make for an interesting story with a bunch of comments now, would it.

As much as I loved factions and as much fun uncharted multiplayer was. It was just that a fun time.

They should of never had the main teams and everyone working on a live service game. They should of just moved on and do what they are good at. Making single player games and just leave the last of us and uncharted behind for awhile.
Unfortunately for me Naughty Dog have become stale before this news.

Feels like it a real bad time. To be in the games industry or even trying to break into it....

So many people losing their jobs