This could either be really good, or really bad

[Danger Mouse]

Highlights.

66% of the San Fran office terminated, including the entire QA team.

Reliable source says that Gree are likely moving away from active game development.

So, either QA will completely sink, never to be seen again, and let the glitch fest begin before they pull the plug entirely.

Or, the outsourced development and QA team might actually do a far better job. Let's face it, they couldn't do a worse one.

Interesting times.

From Gamasutra:

Update: This story originally cited a statement from Gree CEO Andrew Sheppard that the company laid off 30% of staff in its San Francisco studio this week. Gree representatives later contacted Gamasutra to issue a revised statement (used below) claiming that the company laid off 30% of staff at Gree International, the Western arm of Gree, which is headquartered in San Francisco.

Japanese mobile game company Gree has laid off a significant number of people working in its San Francisco office this week, months after shuttering its Vancouver studio entirely.

"Today we made the difficult decision to reduce the workforce of our Gree International Inc. business by 30 percent," Gree chief Andrew Sheppard said today in a statement issued to GamesBeat and Gamasutra. "This was done to better align operations with our development goals and business strategy. Several teams in San Francisco were impacted — we are working closely with each and every person to ensure the smoothest transition possible. Offices in other locations were not affected."

The company is struggling to compete in a crowded mobile games market, and has been reporting declining profits for some time.

As always, if you or someone you know was affected by these layoffs you can email Gamasutra to tell your story confidentially.

Update #2: A verified source involved in the layoffs tells Gamasutra that the entire QA department of Gree's San Francisco office, as well as a large number of engineers, artists and other development staff, lost their jobs this week.

The source estimates that the headcount in the San Francisco office was reduced by as much as 66 percent by the cuts, and went on to speculate that Gree International is moving away from active game development and focusing more on publishing by relocating some of its internal development to other Gree offices and outsourcing its QA efforts.

[Tony81]

http://youtu.be/rynxqdNMry4

[Pidgeot]

And all they had to do was listen to the players.

[bam bam.]

And all they had to do was listen to the players.

Ha, word for word what I said to other members on other social media.

Just sell the game


It is coming to the end of its days

[Jg48]

I'm bet it's about to end

[Speed ump]

I see that story was edited to show the most negative aspects. No suprise considering those who posted it. Go back and read or post everything that was in that article to be fair. He also said that they would work to improve customer service and content for their best games( my words paraphrasing, so go read it for yourself) now, is modern war one of their better games? I have no idea, so either expect better service ( hmmm, not sure how when they cut the numbers by 30 percent, not two thirds as posted above, though that was refering to the whole western division based in San Frasisco, no idea what that means for us) I'd have to believe based in the move, that modern war, and any of the U.S. Based games originated by funzio, are not indeed their best performers, which leads me to think that their Japanese based games must be. Tick tick tick, the clock is counting, when it stops, who knows.

[good gawd noooo]

now people are waking up.. but yet still some are clinging to the dream. I have to admit it last longer then I thought.. but like many I seen this coming a long time ago.. its been along road ... just plan on playing threw to the end

[Danger Mouse]

I see that story was edited to show the most negative aspects. No suprise considering those who posted it. Go back and read or post everything that was in that article to be fair. He also said that they would work to improve customer service and content for their best games( my words paraphrasing, so go read it for yourself) now, is modern war one of their better games? I have no idea, so either expect better service ( hmmm, not sure how when they cut the numbers by 30 percent, not two thirds as posted above, though that was refering to the whole western division based in San Frasisco, no idea what that means for us) I'd have to believe based in the move, that modern war, and any of the U.S. Based games originated by funzio, are not indeed their best performers, which leads me to think that their Japanese based games must be. Tick tick tick, the clock is counting, when it stops, who knows.

Sorry speedie, but wrong. Posted verbatim word for word, no editing at all, from the gamasutra news article. Look it up. Google gree layoffs and it's right there exactly as I posted. Nice try chump.

[Danger Mouse]

I see that story was edited to show the most negative aspects. No suprise considering those who posted it. Go back and read or post everything that was in that article to be fair. He also said that they would work to improve customer service and content for their best games( my words paraphrasing, so go read it for yourself) now, is modern war one of their better games? I have no idea, so either expect better service ( hmmm, not sure how when they cut the numbers by 30 percent, not two thirds as posted above, though that was refering to the whole western division based in San Frasisco, no idea what that means for us) I'd have to believe based in the move, that modern war, and any of the U.S. Based games originated by funzio, are not indeed their best performers, which leads me to think that their Japanese based games must be. Tick tick tick, the clock is counting, when it stops, who knows.

And here's the link so everyone can see just how full of BS our friend speedie here is:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2...0_of_staff.php

Rebuttal speedie, or had enough facial egg for one day?

[bam bam.]

Spend ump is in denial. He doesn't want to lose the game and us all being jelly of him all the time. 3 more cycles to go...possibly 4

[Speed ump]

If you're going to use a source, make sure they've used the full context. I do not know how to load anything here, but look for the article on game beat, it shows more details of what was said, and updating the rumor of 2/3 of the staff being payed off. So sorry mouse, balls in your court

[Speed ump]

Of course you guys are great at posting rumors ( mostly made up by yourselves) and gossip, so carry on

[Speed ump]

Ahh, crickets now.

[Danger Mouse]

Well, if we're on the topic of spin......

The gamesbeat article is several hours older than the gamasutra one, hence the updates on gamasutra.

The gamesbeat and gamasutra articles agree on 30% across the board for Gree International. Gamasutra sources say 66% in San Fran, gamesbeat only says several teams in San Fran, without mentioning or denying any percentage (unlike speedie would have you believe).

And also unlike speedie, I'll post the link to the "updated" gamesbeat article so you can see for yourself.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/21/ja...ncisco-office/

Make up your own minds on who's trying to spin the situation and peddle rumours.......

[JB5]

http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/21/ja...ncisco-office/