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Stardock creates staffing company to avoid cyclical layoffs
We've reported on the standard industry cycle time and time again: game ends development, layoffs happen. Stardock (Galactic Civilizations 3), which is also invested in Mohawk Games and Oxide Games, has created the Stardock Staffing Company (SSC) to shift that greatest of assets ("people") around without layoffs. "This lets us have a much more stable environment, because no one has to be laid off. Before they're done with their projects, [staff] can just be assigned to something else, without having to move," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell told Gamasutra. The basic idea is that Stardock would find other work within its network of studios and "lease" the employee, without them having to move, which should theoretically help the organization retain talent, reduce costs, and create a greater sense of job security. We've seen versions of this concept before, most notably from Ubisoft and Activision, which have several studios working on annual projects like Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty, respectively. This is a newer concept for a smaller publisher to test across different projects. Anything that helps us reduce the use of the always-depressing "layoffs" tag is fine by us.
Civilization 4 lead designer starts Mohawk Games
Soren Johnson, best known for being the lead designer on Civilization 4, has founded Mohawk Games through the Stardock Strategic Investment Fund. The founding of the studio was hinted at by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell earlier this year, who will serve as president of the company. Rounding out the trinity of co-founders is Dorian Newcomb, another award-winning alum of the Civilization series, who will act as art director. "Our goal is to make games that will be played for years, based on elegant, replayable systems that are not limited by finite content creation," said Johnson. "Our development process emphasizes rapid iteration above all else, requiring our games to be playable as soon as possible so that we have time to find the fun." The Baltimore-based studio is currently recruiting top game industry talent and has begun development on its first game, which will use the Nitrous Engine, created by Oxide Games. Oxide happens to be another studio formed of Civ vets funded by Wardell's Stardock. At least now we know what Wardell did with some of that Impulse sale money.
