14 SCi Projects Cancelled as 25% of Jobs Cut
By Chris on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 6:52 PM PST In Eidos, Game Companies, Games Industry
In order to complete a radical restructuring plan, Eidos parent company SCi has announced that it will be cutting 25% of jobs – a maximum staff of 800 – and will cancel 14 projects currently in development to either insufficient quality of an inability to provide an acceptable return on investment.
“Following our business review over the last six weeks, we are initiating a clear action plan based on three fundamental strands of activity: a radical change in our structure to a studio-led business, a top to bottom programme of product improvement and efficiency and a considerable cost reduction plan,” CEO Phil Rogers explained.
“To get SCi on track we have to act rapidly and effect change quickly. We must allow the world-class people that we have within the Group to focus on strong, profitable titles which will create the value our shareholders deserve.
“I am confident our staff share this vision and excitement for the future, and determination to build a working environment where our innovation and creativity can be commercially realized.”
GamesIndustry.biz reports that the company will switch to a studio-led business model that will focus on its major titles, including Tomb Raider, Hitman, and Deus Ex.
“Our quality has slipped below acceptable standards and, through disappointing game development and working within an ineffective operating structure, we are failing to realise the commercial return our creative ability and our shareholders demand,” said the company. “Our infrastructure is too big and expensive for the scale of the business.”
This is a growing trend in the industry, and doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Companies are going to need to rethink their business strategies in order to compete with the growing competition from companies like Activision Blizzard and EA.
“Following our business review over the last six weeks, we are initiating a clear action plan based on three fundamental strands of activity: a radical change in our structure to a studio-led business, a top to bottom programme of product improvement and efficiency and a considerable cost reduction plan,”
I feel that structuring a sentence with humongous erroneous phrases, decreases the overall atmosphere the original statement was attempting to formulate.
“To get SCi on track we have to act rapidly and effect change quickly. We must allow the world-class people that we have within the Group to focus on strong, profitable titles which will create the value our shareholders deserve.”
Bottom line here: the value our shareholders deserve
“I am confident our staff share this vision and excitement for the future, and determination to build a working environment where our innovation and creativity can be commercially realized.”
I bet the 25% losing their jobs don’t share the vision.
I don’t think leting 25% of the work force in your company go is going to make Tomb Raider any better than it is. Hell, it’s apparent to me that you need all the help you can get just to make it playable. Trust me, I’ve played all of them and they all suck. I’m sorry, but you know it’s true.
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When you churn out crap, you get owned…
A friend of mine was working on one of those cut projects.
Now he’s unemployed.
But I’m really happy for the shareholders.
Where the hell is Carmageddon 4…c’mon guys, a remake of Carmageddon 2 for the PS3 / 360 would be pure gold. So sayeth i!!!