BioWare is laying off 50 people

Huh, In Canada isn't it mandatory? 

An employee has the right to collect severance pay if they have completed at least 12 consecutive months of continuous employment before their layoff or dismissal resulted in a termination of employment.

They are entitled to 2 days' regular wages for each full year that they worked for the employer before their termination of employment. The minimum benefit is 5 days' wages.

www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/workplace/federal-labour-standards/termination.html

All tech and entertainment companies turn evil, its just a question of when.

Well at least CDPR got better again and took their sweet time with Cyberpunk 2.0 and Phantom Liberty. Pretty good stuff as far as game industry related redemption stories go.

BioWare on the other hand seems to have gone from "we pull teams from other projects to crunch for 18 months" to "we call in external help, fire 50 people with a pittance for severance, then pull in teams from other projects and crunch for 18 months".

BioWare was fed from the cake baked by EA Sports and now they aren't sitting at that table anymore.

"Doubt it." lol, lmao, I get you are a fan of what Bioware produces or used to produce, most of us are, and you want to be optimistic but the reality's staring you in the face.

It's a husk of what it once used to be.

there is also this on Polygon on the Keywords Studios workers (a separate issue)



www.polygon.com/23903782/dragon-age-dreadwolf-qa-workers-laid-off-keywords-studios

So...

1. I have been half wondering in the back of my head for the last few days whether or not this was a result of cross cultural/ legal standards in regards to differences of local custom. This report seems to confirm that theory, at least in part. Afterall as githcheater brought up the expected severance package in the United States is two weeks...the same two weeks that BioWare apparently offered their said employees which also, in this case flies in the face of Canadian law. However the EA part of it is an american company thus they would be a lot more likely to deal with things from that perspective. And, while this could have its own associated issues, simply be ignorant of the local customs/ laws. This would also explain why the dev from BioWare Houston, an American city, would've felt the same severance package was generous whereas the Canadian ones, after being informed by a lawyer, likely took umbrage and hey...more money. But this is the kind of situation which often results when you get politicians getting heavy handed and sticking their noses in things that they do not understand and hopefully this situation is resolved a lot more quickly and justly then the lawyer is expecting. And EAs motives seem to be one of ignorance and not maliciousness. 

2. Meanwhile though despite this the complaints about Frostbite...especially given all the conversation we've had it on the forum...seems more then a little absurd. My increduality radar when it comes to this particular argument is well over 9000 now. Given that A. these devs already have a leg up being professionals within the industry over any new comer. Their years of experience would make it easier to get jobs in the industry over someone trying to break in, or advance into a new position. Them being forced to work on Frostbite is quite irrelevant to this considering they have worked on many engines since then, DA 2 has had its own propritary engine, ME used Unreal, Inquisition and Anthem Frostbite. Essentially, again, if they have a portfoilio of any work and references then they should be able to get work and to be blunt this just sounds like red meat for the anti frostbite crowd. And B. This situation would result no matter what they will do. Companies even change engines all the time and every time there is a risk that any hard earned experience from the previous engine would have to be unlearned...this happened when Bio went from Unreal to Frostbite and is likely to happen again as BioWare moves from Frostbite to Unreal. Which is to say nothing of moving onto new companies especially ones that also use their own proprietary engines, no matter what they do, in any new job, there would be a learning curve with new company policies and new company technologies. Thing is they, being game professionals have to know this, and the thing is their new perspective employers also have to understand that. If the gaming industry doesen't understand, as a general rule, that new employees will need training for their technology that they haven't used before then the industry is in far worse shape then I thought...thus making the statements highly suspect/ illogical. Yes, they may have a case and I hope they get just compensation in accordance with Canadian law and what they are owed but using such poor logic to defend themselves does not do them any credit.

Why take the time to train someone when Unreal is such a common engine that it's just easier to hire someone already familiar :S For example, a lot of CDProjekts new job listing was citing experience with Unreal Engine, or more specifically unreal engine 4 or 5, with at least one listing I saw for a senior position citing the need for "deep knowledge of unreal engine". Training someone not already at the company sounds like a waste of money in many instances.

gamejobs.co/Game-Programmer-Unreal-Engine-at-CD-Projekt-3104

Unreal Engine 5 is honestly a game changer and a lot of companies are going to be using it. A lot of developers will be familiar with that engine and they'll likely find it easier to switch between studios. Disney is using Unreal Engine in their films. Also apparently Facebook was hiring devs with Unreal experience to help develop Meta. I assume knowledge of the engine will give you an advantage