Vogster scales back workforce

CrimeCraft and Roboapocalypse developer Vogster Entertainment, have begun laying off development staff, citing a slowdown in work now that both games have finished the development cycle of both games. This is a pretty normal occurrence when you have huge development teams working on games and no work for them.

“Vogster has seen a number of releases this year. As an independent developer, we need to be very strategic in our use of available resources and shift from already launched titles to support the ongoing development and growth of CrimeCraft,” said Daniel Prousline, vice president of development at Vogster. “We regret the necessary staffing changes and the talented employees that this impacts, but it is an unavoidable step in moving to the operational stage of CrimeCraft and optimizing for the development of yet to be announced titles.”

Vogster said that, despite these layoffs, work will continue on new and exisiting Vogster projects.

Raven Software confirms staff cuts

Raven Software and studio owner Activision have confirmed with Shacknews that it has cut 30 - 50+ employees from its development studio in the post-development period following the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Wolfenstein. While this is typical behavior for studios who finish up big projects and have nothing to keep its employees busy there has been some speculation that the layoffs may be the result of lackluster Wolfenstein sales. Tom Chick’s Wolfenstein review may have the answers to those questions - to say he felt the game was lacking would be a major understatement.

Currently the company is working on Singularity, with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 set to ship on multiple platforms very soon.

Microsoft Cuts 100 Employees

According to multiple source including VenuteBeat and Gamasutra, Microsoft has laid off 100 employees from Massive, the in-game advertising company in bought in 2006. This is a continuation of the workforce reduction it announced earlier this year. In January the company announced that it would be cutting 5,000 jobs in the next 18 months. Microsoft had already cut 1,500 of those 5, 000 jobs prior to today’s news, closing Microsoft Flight Simulator developers ACES studios in the process and finally closing Ensemble Studios

“As part of the plan we announced in January to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, today we are eliminating additional positions across several areas of the company,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Gamasutra. “Microsoft is not breaking out layoff figures by divisions.”

“While job eliminations are always difficult, we are taking these necessary actions in response to the global economic downturn,” the rep told Gamasutra in a separate statement.

Big Huge Games For Sale

THQ has informed us that if the company can’t sell Big huge Games it will be forced to close the studio. In a statement, which was a reaction to a story earlier today about layoffs at Big Huge Games, THQ’s Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Julie MacMedan, told us that it plans to close the studio if a sale is not completed in the “near future.”

The company also said that it has notified Los Angeles-based Heavy Iron Studios and Carlsbad-based Incinerator that they will become independent companies.

THQ says that this is all part of the company’s business realignment that it announced earlier this year. Full statement from THQ after the break.

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Circuit City Doors Close for Good

All good(?) things must come to an end, and this weekend marked the end of Circuit City. Since announcing back in January that the company was going belly up, Circuit City stores throughout the country started dumping their inventories, culminating in last weekend’s final sell off of all remaining merchandise. While the last couple of months have seen Circuit City inventory clearanced out at upwards of 80 percent off, some customers (as well as potential employees) held out hope tha there might still be some sort of last minute reprieve, similar to what happened when Tiger Direct parent company Systemax bought out CompUSA’s assets when that company went under. Sadly, there was no last minute stay of execution and the switch was finally thrown, leaving all 567 Circuit City stores as nothing more than a memory.

One interesting note about this story, though. While all of Circuit City’s retail stores throughout the US have been shut down, there may still be a glint of life left in the company. A message on the company’s website states, somewhat cryptically that, “CircuitCity.com is also temporarily closed, although we anticipate the website will reopen in the coming weeks. Please check back for updates.”

Have we really seen the last of the Circuit City brand, or will the name rise up from the ashes of liquidation in some new form, such as an online-only retail presence? Only time will tell.

Microsoft: Oops, We Over-Paid

Do you know what it is like to get kicked in the face after you’ve been beaten half to death? Maybe it’s a bit of an over exaggerated comparison, but I think some recently laid off Microsoft employees do. Imagine if you received a big, fat severance check from Microsoft and then you get a letter in the mail from the company saying “hey we need some of that money back because we over-paid you.” Well, that is exactly what has happened.

A letter, which has been confirmed by Microsoft as authentic, asked former employees for money back. Here’s the choice morsel from that letter - posted on TechCrunch by a perturbed former employee::

“We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to you.”

The letter goes on to say that those who do not pay back the money will take a tax hit. Microsoft confirmed that the letter was authentic but refrained from commenting; only saying that it was a private matter between the company and individuals who received the letter.

I understand that the company made an accounting error and it wants to recoup the extra money, but for once couldn’t someone at corporate do the right thing and say “screw it, these people need it more than we do.” It would be nice if they did that but obviously it’s not happening.

G4 Scales Back Shows, Cuts Staff

G4’s X-Play and Attack of the Show are being scaled back, and some staff from both television programs have been let go according to a report on Joystiq. Citing an earlier conversations with “reliable sources” close to the company and a confirmation from G4, Joystiq reports that both shows will be scaled back to three original episodes a week beginning March 3.

The company confirmed that both shows had been scaled back and that some staff were let go, but didn’t comment on actual numbers. A company spokesmen said that the saving will be used for more “original programming.” The company also said that these were not budget cuts, but more of a roll-back to the old number of new episodes per week.

G4, much like MTV, VHI and even TV Land are suffering from an overabundance of unoriginal bullshit programming like Star Trek and a multitude of Japanese game shows and anime. It’s a shame because they were at one time the best game related network on television. Now, not so much.