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SpaceX reportedly fired employees behind letter criticizing Elon Musk
SpaceX has reportedly fired employees who participated in writing and distributing an open letter criticizing Elon Musk.
US labor board will investigate Google's recent firings
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has launched another investigation into Google. This time, the NLRB is investigating whether Google violated federal labor laws when it fired four employees late last month. The investigation will determine if Google discouraged employees from engaging in union activity, an NLRB spokesperson told CNBC.
Fired Google employees will file federal labor charges against the company
Four Google employees fired last week say they were let go for engaging in protected labor organizing, and that they plan to fight back. In a letter shared today, they say they're filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
Apple fires hundreds of contractors hired to listen to Siri recordings
In the wake of revelations that Apple has people listening in to some Siri requests, Apple has fired more than 300 contractors in Cork, Ireland. As The Guardian reports those contractors were hired as part of a "grading" program that reviewed audio recorded by Siri. News broke last month that those contractors often heard sensitive information -- like medical info, criminal activity and "sexual encounters." After temporarily suspending the program, Apple has reportedly decided to terminate it.
UK sacks Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson over Huawei leaks (updated)
UK Prime Minister Theresa May fired the country's Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson today over his role in a recent Huawei leak. Last week, we learned that the UK plans to use Huawei tech in "non-core" parts of its 5G infrastructure. That news was shared with The Daily Telegraph following a meeting of the National Security Council. Now, after an investigation, the UK believes Williamson was the source.
Rex Tillerson gets his bad news just like we do: on Twitter
Donald Trump tweeted today that Rex Tillerson will no longer be serving as Secretary of State and will be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. However, according to State Department Under Secretary Steve Goldstein, Tillerson didn't find out about his removal from the president and it appears that he may have heard the news through Trump's tweet. "The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling," Goldstein said in a statement. Tillerson just returned from a week-long trip in Africa and the New York Times reports that there had been no sign that Tillerson was set to be fired while he was on that trip. This isn't the first time a Trump-appointed official has found out about their removal through an announcement rather than a conversation with the president. Ex-FBI Director James Comey reportedly thought he was being pranked when he learned about his firing through the news last year.
How to get fired in the tech industry
Step 1: Decide you'd like to write a memo. The topic is completely up to you. But, remember, you want the title to be both alarming and relevant to current social conversations. (#SEO #Content) For example, we'll use a memo called "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber." Its title plays off the widespread hand-wringing over filter bubbles on social media, reminding readers of their enemies and immediately placing everyone on edge. That sucker's gonna get a lot of clicks.
Destiny parts ways with composer, growing 'close to shipping'
Destiny Composer Marty O'Donnell was either fired or peacefully left Bungie last week, depending on whether you take his or the studio's testimony on the event. In either case, the fact remains that O'Donnell is no longer part of the studio. Bungie Chief Operating Officer Pete Parsons refused to comment on the specifics of the decision but said that the game is still on track for release. He said that O'Donnell's contributions will remain part of the soundtrack, which is also being worked on by a few others. "We have a fantastic team. We're pretty close to shipping. There's a lot of polish left to do, lots of tweaking and tuning, but a lot is already complete," Parsons said to Eurogamer. Bungie claims that the studio and O'Donnell parted as "friends" while the composer tweeted yesterday that he was "terminated without cause."
Halo, Destiny composer O'Donnell says he was fired 'without cause' [Update: Bungie COO Pete Parsons responds]
Halo series and Destiny composer Martin 'Marty' O'Donnell is no longer working for Bungie, and he claims the studio's directors fired him "without cause" last Friday, April 11. O'Donnell tweeted the news this morning, and shortly after Bungie responded on its blog. Community Manager David Dague said the studio and O'Donnell parted ways "as friends." "For more than a decade, Marty O'Donnell filled our worlds with unforgettable sounds and soundtracks, and left an indelible mark on our fans," wrote Dague. "Today, as friends, we say goodbye. We know that wherever his journey takes him, he will always have a bright and hopeful future. We wish him luck in all his future endeavors." We've reached out to Bungie for further details. O'Donnell's departure is certainly a surprise given his stock with Halo and Bungie fans, especially with Destiny rapidly approaching its release date of September 9. The veteran composer had collaborated with former Beatle Paul McCartney on a "musical prequel" to Destiny, titled Music of the Spheres. It has yet to be released. Update: Speaking to a group of journalists at a studio event (keep your eyes on Joystiq for Destiny preview coverage soon), Bungie COO Pete Parsons made the following statement. "I'm sure many of you have heard the news about Marty O'Donnell. At Bungie, we don't take that kind of thing lightly. We don't make decisions lightly. We're a team that's committed to making an amazing game, set in an amazing universe." He added, "At this time, we won't be commenting any further on it." [Image: @PaulMcCartney]
Layoffs at CCP's Atlanta office confirmed: World of Darkness development affected
Rumours began circulating just a few hours ago about layoffs at CCP Games' Atlanta office. It was reported that an unknown number of staff working on the World of Darkness MMO had been unexpectedly laid off right before the Christmas holidays. The originally unconfirmed tipoff came from several posts on Twitter, and GameBreaker later reported that an anonymous source named the layoffs as Level Designers and various other Producers and Designers on World of Darkness. Massively reached CCP Games for comment and received the official statement below confirming that the layoffs are real and that they are from the World of Darkness team: "CCP today made strategic adjustments to the staffing on the team working on the World of Darkness project in Atlanta that resulted in the elimination of approximately 15 positions at the company. The change was due to our evaluation of the game's design and ongoing development needs. While this was a difficult decision, CCP remains committed to the franchise and our promise to make a compelling, rich, and deep World of Darkness experience."
CM James Nichols leaves Trion as part of studio shakeup [Updated]
RIFT CM James "Elrar" Nichols is no longer with Trion Worlds, according to Director of Community Elizabeth Tobey. "As we mentioned last week, we are undergoing some changes here at Trion and that also includes changes among your community team," she wrote. "In addition to all the names you already know on the dev tracker, you'll want to keep an eye out for me, OverloadUT, and Morgana –- we'll be around a lot more from here on out. I'll also be your main point of contact for all things community as Elrar is no longer with the company." The former community manager's departure is part of the recent shake-up of Trion's organization. Tobey said that this is according to the new plan that CEO Scott Hartsman has put into place: "I'm not going to be able to give you the exact details, but I want to let you guys know that this is part of a plan helmed by Scott, and one I believe in. That doesn't mean it's always easy, or fun, but it will result in something better and greater than ever before." "We all love RIFT," Tobey assured players, "everyone on this team, Scott -- everyone. It's not going anywhere or getting worse if we have anything to say about it." She concluded by promising the community more communication and details of the future of the game in the coming weeks. [Update: Elrar has posted his goodbye on the forums. Thanks to Dengar for that tip!]
Zynga closes OMGPOP, the creators of Draw Something
Zynga announced yesterday that it was laying off about 18 percent of its work staff, or about 520 employees, which is bad news for any company. But it turns out that this set of folks includes most of the crew of OMGPOP, the company Zynga acquired for its uber-popular app Draw Something last year. It was only last March that Zynga picked up OMGPOP for $200 million after Draw Something became a big hit, and while the app did both grow and spawn a sequel under Zynga's oversight, OMGPOP's CEO Dan Porter left the company just a few months ago, and now most of the original staff is out of a job. Or at least on to the next one -- one former Zynga staffer says to TechCrunch that most of the team members "had new jobs lined up by the time they left the building anyway." It's true that the OMGPOP acquisition was extremely public, and while Draw Something was always popular, it wasn't hard to see that the audience lost a lot of engagement after that initial acquisition. I don't think this is the death knell for Zynga just yet -- the company has been cutting titles, but still has successful games running, and it's working on more to come. But this is definitely a wakeup call that the once huge social and mobile juggernaut needs to do things a bit differently in the future.
Ubisoft fired another THQ Montreal veteran yesterday, Desilets says
Ubisoft fired original Assassin's Creed creative director Patrice Desilets yesterday, after his rocky transition from Ubisoft, to THQ Montreal and back to Ubisoft. One of his colleagues, Jean-François Boivin, was also fired yesterday, Desilets tweeted. Boivin traveled from Ubisoft to THQ Montreal, before being pulled back in at Ubisoft, just as Desilets did. "Thinking of my good friend and producer @JFBoivin who also got fired yesterday," Desilets wrote. "I'm sharing your support with him." Boivin's LinkedIn profile says he joined Ubisoft in 2005 and held a variety of production roles – including production manager for Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed 2 with Desilets – until 2011, when he joined THQ Montreal to work on a new IP. Desilets left Ubisoft in 2010 and began work at THQ Montreal after a one-year non-compete agreement. When the agreement was up in 2011, THQ brought over three people from Ubisoft, whom Desilets said he needed. During the THQ bankruptcy auction in January, Ubisoft bought THQ Montreal, effectively rehiring Boivin and Desilets. There's no word if Boivin's firing was as dramatic as Desilets'.
Disney shutters LucasArts
Following Disney's acquisition of Star Wars and its related companies and properties, gaming fans have wondered what might happen to developer LucasArts. Out of all of the possible scenarios, the worst has happened: Disney has stopped development in the studio and laid off its employees. From the official Disney statement: "After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles." Massively conveys its sympathies to those affected by the decision. There's no word yet how this might affect Star Wars: The Old Republic, if at all.
Report: Valve fires dozens of hardware, Android staff [Update 2]
Valve let go "several" employees on Tuesday, Gamasutra reported, following a tweet from hardware designer Jeri Ellsworth that read, "Yup. Got fired today. Time for new exciting projects."Initial reports from employees included the phrases "great cleansing" and "large decisions," and a few claimed as many as 25 people were affected, though this number is unconfirmed, Gamasutra reported. The layoffs hit more than one department, including Android and hardware staff.Ellsworth, at least, confirmed her own firing. She began working on next-gen gaming hardware at Valve, specifically living room PC controllers, in 2012. Ellsworth was concerned with transforming keyboard and mouse controls to a gamepad in a way that wouldn't interfere with current Steam game designs, or turn off those more comfortable with a traditional controller.Valve's recent focus has been on the Steam Box, a hardware system that allows PC streaming and gaming on living room TVs. Ellsworth worked on controller prototypes alongside the launch of Big Picture Mode, a Steam interface designed for controller navigation.We've contacted Valve for more information about the layoffs.Update: Develop reports that Valve's Director of Business Development, Jason Holtman, left the company. Valve has yet to respond to requests for comment.Update 2: Valve's employee page changed significantly sometime in the past month, as demonstrated by this comparison from Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman. There are eight names gone in the latest version: TF2 art lead Moby Francke, former Weta man Keith Huggins, Half-Life 2 programmer Tom Leonard, Portal team member Realm Lovejoy, Half-Life man Marc Nagel, ex-Lord of the Rings animator Bay Raitt, engine programmer Elan Ruskin, and Jason Holtman, mentioned above.
THQ formally drops Farrell, Rubin, executive staff
THQ's storybook is down to the final pages, following the rising action of its dropping stock, and the climax of its bankruptcy at the end of 2012 and asset sale in January. Now for the falling action: THQ formally terminated CEO Brian Farrell, President Jason Rubin and Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kay on January 30, made public in an 8-K form filed today.Earlier in February, Rubin said that THQ's failure was its own fault, and it boiled down to missteps with franchises such as uDraw, the Warhammer 40K MMO and Homefront. "THQ had every chance to survive, had it not made massive mistakes," he said.THQ's epilogue is up next, wherein we find out what all these new companies will do with its former properties.
Apple shows "father of iOS 6 Maps" the door
A tweet from Bloomberg News a few minutes ago says Apple has fired its "Maps manager" in the aftermath of the iOS 6 Maps controversy. Gizmodo points to executive Richard Williamson as the unlucky guy. Williamson's LinkedIn profile shows that he's been with Apple in various roles since 2001 (after a previous stint with NeXT) and served as the Director of iOS Software from 2005 until the beginning of this year. His January transition to senior director, iOS Platform Services would have involved him with integrated offerings like Siri, parts of Game Center and Maps. The bloodletting in Apple's iOS leadership team clearly wasn't finished when Scott Forstall's run at the top of the division ended last month. Williamson, who co-authored several key patents behind iOS and Maps specifically, may not be the last to go. Photo by Shannon Archuleta | flickr cc
TERA Producer Chris Hager leaves En Masse
TERA Producer Chris Hager has left the fields of action combat and big-ass monsters, according to the studio. A PR rep released the following statement to Massively: "Yes, we can confirm Chris Hager is no longer with En Masse Entertainment. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors." Bluehole Studios' Harns Kim first made mention of Hager's departure on his Twitter feed. It is unclear whether Hager left of his own volition or was let go. Prior to working for En Masse, Hager was with NCsoft, developing titles like Guild Wars, Lineage II, and Aion. [Thanks to Maniac for the tip!]
JailbreakMe hacker Comex let go by Apple after failing to respond to offer letter
After developing JailBreakMe, cracking such devices as the iPad 2 or iPhone 4 and finally scoring a paying intern gig with his nemesis, hacker Comex tweeted that he's no longer working at Apple. Also known as Nicholas Allegra, the talented coder's Cupertino situation apparently came asunder when he failed to respond to an email offer to re-up with the company, though he also told Forbes that the situation was more complicated than that. He added that "it wasn't a bad ending," and that he has fond memories of his Apple experience, but if you're hoping the Brown University student will have an iOS 6 jailbreak soon, don't hold your breath -- he's concentrating strictly on his studies, for now.
