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Google fired 28 workers who protested Israeli government cloud contract
Google has fired 28 employees involved in protests against the company's "Project Nimbus" cloud contract with the Israeli government.
Amazon is reportedly using algorithms to fire Flex delivery drivers
Amazon's contract Flex delivery driver fleet already has to deal with various indignities, and you can now add the fact that they can be hired — and fired — by algorithms.
US senators ask Amazon why it keeps firing COVID-19 whistleblowers
A group of nine senators, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, want to know why Amazon keeps firing COVID-19 whistleblowers.
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.
Ford replaces CEO Mark Fields with self-driving chief
Ford has fired CEO Mark Fields and replaced him with self-driving car chief Jim Hackett, the company announced this morning. The news comes amid turmoil in the company, including a steep 25 percent drop in car sales so far this year and layoffs of 1,400 salaried employees, with possibly more to come. The news confirms a New York Times report from earlier today.
Some Rdio staffers will lose their jobs during Pandora takeover
A few weeks back, we reported that Rdio's collapse was going to hurt Sony, Roku and Shazam -- companies that it still owed money to when it went under. Now, VentureBeat has discovered that 123 of the defunct firm's employees are going to be laid-off between now and the end of the year. The information comes from a WARN disclosure, a legal document that gives the state 60 days notice before a mass-firing, that the company posted to California's employment department. New owner Pandora, meanwhile, has said that it'll offer 100 jobs to Rdio's former employees, mostly in the product engineering and licensing teams. Update: This post has been updated to reflect that Pandora is not laying off Rdio's employees directly. Rdio has also provided the following statement."As is required by law, Rdio issued WARN notices of layoffs to all 123 employees in the United States. Pandora has announced plans to hire approximately 100 of our employees after the bankruptcy court approves the transaction and the deal closes, which means the majority of Rdio employees will continue having jobs."
Turbine suffers another round of layoffs
Gamasutra and Twitter are reporting that an unspecified number of Turbine employees have been fired today in a new round of layoffs. A Warner Bros. representative responded with an official statement: "As part of our normal business process, we're routinely looking at the strategic alignment of our company. Unfortunately, in order for us to invest in growth areas at Turbine, we have to eliminate some positions. These are always tough decisions, which we don't approach lightly, but it's crucial that Turbine is structured in a way that reflects the current and coming marketplace." Massively has reached out to Turbine for additional comments.
Mark Kern addresses his departure from Red 5 Studios
Using a mixture of geek culture references, former Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern posted a brief statement on MMORPG.com to address his departure from the Firefall studio. Kern referenced the event as his "Kobayashi Maru test" and insinuated that fans shouldn't fully believe what they may have heard. "While there have been rumors about whether I was demoted, terminated, or maybe even corporately executed, I will only say this: Remember that Han always shot first," he wrote. Kern said that he had fond memories of his time with the company and wished the studio success in the future. Mark Kern was let go from Red 5 on December 19th and replaced by acting CEO James Macauley. [Thanks to ArchDevi for the tip!]
Mark Kern removed as CEO of Red 5 Studios [Updated]
According to a recent report from Gamefront, Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern has been terminated by the company's board of directors, effective immediately. Vice President of Development James Macauly has apparently sent an email to all employees informing them of the change in leadership, with this latest dismissal coming in the wake of several previous layoffs at the Firefall studio. No official statement has been issued to the public by the company at this time. An anonymous source within the company has also spoken out against Kern in The Escapist, claiming that the CEO was frequently absent and arrived sporadically to hand down arbitrary decisions. How true these statements are cannot be confirmed, although the company does hold a low rating for employee satisfaction overall. We'll have more on the situation if and when a statement is issued regarding Kern's continued employment or lack thereof. [Update: Red 5 Producer Matt DeWald has issued a formal statement on the now-confirmed rumors: "As of Thursday, December 19th, Mark Kern is no longer the Chief Executive Officer of Red 5 Studios. Mark founded Red 5 Studios in 2006 to provide exceptional game entertainment along with a world-class team of developers working on the MMO Shooter, Firefall. Red 5 Vice President of Development, James Macauley, will be moving into the role of acting CEO. The team at Red 5 continues work on Firefall and looks forward to all that we have to offer in 2014."]
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!]
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'.
EA suffers additional layoffs
Citing a reorganization to focus on new technologies and mobile development, EA announced that it has let another round of its employees go. No firm numbers or estimates on how many were fired have been officially released, however. The publisher released the following statement on its blog: In recent weeks, EA has aligned all elements of its organizational structure behind priorities in new technologies and mobile. This has led to some difficult decisions to reduce the workforce in some locations. We are extremely grateful for the contributions made by each of our employees – those that are leaving EA will be missed by their colleagues and friends. These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us. A Gamasutra source said that the EA Partners publishing label has been abolished in the reorganization, although the games it was handling are still in the works.
MMO devs most in danger of layoffs, study claims
In an attempt to answer the question of whether the games industry is dying or not, Twisted Pixel Lead Developer Dan Teasdale conducted research into all of the layoffs of 2012 and believes he has found that, among other things, MMO developers had the highest risk of being fired. "Looking at the the raw number of people affected, MMO teams laid off more developers than console teams," Teasdale argues. He notes that 38% of video game industry layoffs hit MMO studios, although only 26% of MMO studios did any firing. Layoffs in Boston and Austin, including the closure of 38 Studios, accounted for a third of all industry layoffs, which could look good or bad depending on the total number of studios in those two cities relative to the rest of the industry (info hard to come by and not included in the study). One upshot of the report was that MMO studios tended to lay off fewer people when firings happened in comparison to social, mobile, and console studios. "While this probably isn't a surprise, it's a clear indication that it's way harder to survive as a social or MMO developer than a console developer," he concludes. However, the analysis does not break down the types of employees laid off, such as designers vs. support, community, and temporary contractors, roles common in the MMO industry.
Glu Mobile closes Brazil office; Washington and California studios hit with layoffs
Glu Mobile, the developers behind mobile versions of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty: Black Ops, has announced that it is closing its San Paulo, Brazil office and laying off employees in Kirkland, Washington, and San Francisco, California.A statement from the company says that it needs to hold its research and development investments flat over the next year, and to do that, changes are being made. Twenty-five percent of the Kirkland office and 5% of the San Francisco office are being let go today as part of the restructuring process.Glu's plan is to add "the necessary monetization and server-side research-and-development resources" to the company's existing titles, and "focus on increasing average revenue per daily active user company-wide." More monetization and more revenue per daily active user should help turn the company's financial future around, though game quality often suffers when those two elements are focused on. Joystiq hopes affected employees land on their feet soon.
RadioShack parts company with CEO James F. Gooch in management shakeup
RadioShack's board of directors have asked current CEO James F. Gooch to step down from his position, effective immediately. While the management team doesn't have a replacement in mind, current CFO Dorvin Lively will assume control of the retailer while a recruitment agency begins headhunting. Neither party offered any reasons for the announcement, but the wording of the release (below) did bring to mind the phrase "bloodless coup" for some reason.
OnLive sells company, lays off about 50% of staff
Just in case you didn't hear over the weekend, the cloud computing service OnLive experienced a little bit of a crisis: On Friday morning, the CEO of the company spoke to staff to essentially tell them all that they were fired, and that the assets of the company were being bought by another investor. The good news here is that the OnLive service hasn't gone down at all, and it reportedly isn't going down any time soon. But the bad news is that many of OnLive's employees have lost their jobs, and any investments in the company's potential future that they might have had. What does this mean for those of us on Mac and iOS? Right now, not much -- both OnLive's gaming service and the OnLive Desktop service (which provides a free streaming Windows computer and Microsoft apps) are still working just fine. The former employees of OnLive went through a rough situation, and for that reason you may not want to support a company like this going forward, but if you've come to depend on either one of those services, you're fine for now. The future of the company is definitely in question, or at least more question than it was before. Some of the news coming out of the whole event says that OnLive averaged only about 1800 users, which would make the service much smaller than anyone had thought. CEO Steve Perlman also reportedly has turned down previous offers to buy the company, instead hoping that OnLive's patents and other assets would eventually be worth much more. OnLive showed us an iOS app at one point, and even released an actual Bluetooth controller to work with the iPad, but while the company has released an Android app, it's never been able to get the iOS version approved. There is still an OnLive Desktop app on the store, but that gaming version wasn't ever released. We'll see how the company comes out of this situation going forward -- if things don't get any better for OnLive, this could end up being a service that simply arrived before its time.
Funcom layoffs confirmed as temporary [Updated]
Apparently having suffered a mediocre launch with The Secret World and a severe dip in its stock value, Funcom has announced temporary layoffs to its staff. The layoffs are part of a company-wide cost-cutting strategy in response to TSW's failure to hit expected sales scenarios, which Funcom predicted in a press release earlier this month. The layoffs appear to confirm parts of the anonymous tip we referenced in our Secret World column last Thursday. Funcom Director of Communications Erling Ellingsen confirmed the layoffs to Gamer.no, stating that operations on Funcom's three MMOs will continue and that The Secret World's revenue model will continue as planned. Unconfirmed reports put the layoffs at 50% to 60% of the studio's workforce. "We're in the middle of the process and we can not go into more detail now," Ellingsen said. On its Twitter feed, Funcom posted the following: "Thank you for your warm thoughts and support. More information to come soon." [Update: Funcom has made a new statement to Massively in light of the layoffs, stressing that the layoffs are temporary. "As we announced in the stock notice that went out on August 10th, Funcom is in the process of reducing operational costs and this process includes temporary layoffs as well as other initiatives. As we are currently in the middle of this process we can not provide any further comment at the present time. Rest assured however that we have long-term plans for the company and that we remain fully committed to all of our games. We aim to provide more information soon."]
BioWare responds to SWTOR layoffs
If anyone knows just how brutal and unforgiving the MMO industry can be, it is certainly the folks at BioWare. Last week delivered a one-two punch to the studio, as the team had to contend with layoffs while breaking the news of server merges to the playerbase. Star Wars: The Old Republic Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi admitted that this came with the territory: "The MMO is the toughest part of the game industry without a doubt, and we live in tough economic times in general." Despite the layoffs, Lusinchi said that the development team is still "one of the biggest" in the industry and has detailed plans for SWTOR's future. Still, that didn't make dealing with the realities of the job cuts any easier. "On a personal level it's quite difficult to have people that you've been working with for a long time that you know personally, you go to their barbecue and you meet their families and it's never easy," he said. "I doubt it'd be easy in any industry for anyone, but it happens."
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins reportedly 'clearing house,' laying off numerous executives
With BlackBerry World only weeks away and RIM's earnings report merely hours away, it looks as if newly-appointed CEO Thorsten Heins will be leading it with quite the bang. While Heins has done a truly exceptional job of laying low (really low) during his first few months in the corner office, he's evidently been hard at work rearranging chairs... mentally, at least. According to The Globe and Mail's Iain Marlow, a trusted source has informed him that the BlackBerry maker's head honcho has begun "clearing house," with senior vice presidents and VP-level executives being informed of the imminent changes today. We're tracking down more on the story right now and will update this post as details flow.Update: The report is up in full, with an unnamed source explaining: "Lots of high level people within RIM were let go today. Quite a few. Big shake up." We're still awaiting official word, which is apt to be found buried deep within the eventual earnings release.
Mark Jacobs elaborates on departure from EA Mythic
It's been a couple of years since Mark Jacobs abruptly left -- or perhaps was let go -- from EA Mythic, but curiosity around the split persists in the MMO industry. Yesterday, Jacobs opened up about the event that occurred after EA's acquisition of Mythic and BioWare. Long story short: The merge brought about changes, and Jacobs wasn't on board with them. "They made a decision on a direction they wanted to go and obviously, as we put out in our joint statement, that wasn't a direction that had a role for me, or at least the role that I wanted. It really is as simple as that. Or at least publicly. Whatever went on behind the scenes, whatever we talked about, I have no intention of sharing that," he said. Jacobs insists that EA has been kind to him in the subsequent years. "One thing I'll say publicly about EA, they have been very good in what they've said post-departure regarding me. Similarly I've been good about what I've said about them post departure." He has since gone on to form a new company to create social and mobile games. In an ironic twist, Jacobs says that the idea for getting into the social gaming market took root while he was at Mythic, but he left before acting on that notion.
