Epic's Layoffs Should Be Blamed On A Quixotic Pursuit Of The Metaverse
Epic has rocked the video game industry by laying off 16% of its workforce, nearly 900 people. While layoffs and studio closures and game cancellations are all too common in the industry, this was worse than usual, given the context in which they took place.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/09/29/epics-layoffs-should-be-blamed-on-a-quixotic-pursuit-of-the-metaverse/Open linkView original on kbin.social
14 replies
Someone set out with the goal of using the word 'Quixotic' in their article today
They're really tilting at windmills with that one, eh?
It is truly a Giant undertaking
I, too am on a Quixotic quest to use that word wherever possible.
Plus it’s a little more Captain Ahab that Don Quixote
It's a shame, Sweeney was involved with some good games back in the early days, and Unreal engine and the Unreal Tournament games were great. But I think he's better off being a programmer, you can't treat the real business world like program code.
Digital Extremes also did, since UT'99 I believe. And they are still okay. Their current f2p game feels better than UT3 ever did, if not for it's own problems.
Because of Metaverse? Wow, that's just sad.
Of course, I've got an Epic account specifically for the weekly giveaways, and have spent no money of my own (because fuck paying for DRM if I don't have to). So I guess I'm also part of their problem? Meh.
The CEO (or another manager) mentioned that the free games are paid by what would otherwise be their marketing budget so I don't think you need to consider yourself part of the problem.
You should also check this out:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games
Of course
I assumed it was corporate greed, but Meta is basically the same thing so that scans.
Paywall
here, three paywall busters
https://12ft.io/
https://demo.thisischip.com/
https://archive.ph/
Or. Frequently, just the reader mode in Firefox.