All employees of Annapurna Interactive (Stray, Outer Wilds) resign en masse after requesting to stay independent and owner said No.
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Looks like it's actually the workers who bring value, and not the owner.
Funny how that works.
I mean, I'm not sure how well this particular case will prove that point. They are a publisher and they've (at least so far) insisted that they will rehire and honour existing contracts. I'm not an expert in the field but I don't see this hugely impacting any upcoming games' quality.
"We had to rehire our talented employees to continue making good games" would seemingly make the point very strongly that the workers bring value, not the owner?
They don't make the games though.
Fair point, but it's kicking the can down the road. Insert "...to continue publishing good games," "...to continue doing good work," "...to continue functioning" instead and the argument still works. But you're right, they're a publisher, not a developer, that's my mistake.
If the workers don't make the games, who do you think does?
The workers at the game studios that Annapurna works with, seeing as how they are a publisher not a developer.
To be fair - the best publishers I've worked with have actively worked to make sure resourcing that's needed is allocated even if it's been beyond our means.
They're a publisher, not a developer. Publishers don't make games. They sell them.
Really not a great example for that.
This is the equivalent of a salesperson leaving the company because their branch was getting made redundant. And the parent company said that all former customers will know who to send emails to imminently (basically the other branch). So basically Michael Scott made a big deal about leaving and everyone was immediately told to just email Jim and Dwight instead.
Time will tell what happens to The 25 People Formerly Known As API. But considering that publishing inherently requires a large source of cash...
If this team reformed under a new brand they would have the proven track record and clout in the industry to score a lot of funding money - assuming they didn't just want to self-fund on loan (and a bank would likely be pretty receptive to that).
All the value (outside of the IP held by the company) is in the people that resigned. This is an excellent move and I hope more employees feel empowered to make moves like this to ensure an equitable share in decision making and revenue distribution.
This. It's the creativity, inspiration, imagination and hard work of the employees that give the company its value, NOT the owners. Proof: all the franchises that have failed spectacularly once all the smart, creative people have left the company and the only ones left are untalented hacks.
Also, it is LONG past time we got over our child-like worship of billionaires.
It’s the publishing company, not the game devs or writers. They are not the creative ones, just some MBA stooges.
You do know these aren't game developers that quit, right? They're a publisher.
That is what everyone is missing these are the publisher MBA people. They bring no value, it’s not like they are game devs and story writers.
I wouldn't say they bring no value.
But they aren't a uniquely creative team that can't be replaced either.
they would have the proven track record and clout in the industry to score a lot of funding money
No they wouldn't. Their money came from the overall Annapurna empire.
assuming they didn’t just want to self-fund on loan (and a bank would likely be pretty receptive to that).
That... I don't know enough about how hard banks are dicking people over these days but I can't imagine anyone with knowledge of video games wanting to go into significant debt these days.
The reality is that they would need to find financial backers. Which... are often really bad for a lot of reasons.
I wish them the best of luck. but the AP empire has already been in the process of moving games away from API and the remnants of API have a lot of challenges ahead of them. I do not doubt for a second they have something planned if they all resigned en masse but... publishers are very much more The Man than Labor.
Best case scenario? I think it is the amongus devs who have formed their own publishing corp (I know it was a game I dislike but that made more money than many small nations)? If THEY hired API that would be amazing. But... there are lot more bad actors than there are worker-ish owned collectives.