I was really fortunate, as I got to work with an incredibly talented pool of guys and gals who’d worked on games for decades. They were once basically a third of the legendary game studio “Ensemble Studios” - aka the guys who made Age of Empires.
When they were shutdown, all of them split in to basically 3 different new companies from the ashes :
Robot Entertainment
Bonfire
New Toy
From those 3 companies we got things like “Orcs Must Die” as well as “Words With Friends.”
Bonfire and New Toy eventually got bought by Zynga - and eventually were merged into a single studio in the Dallas area.
I was there for a couple of years. Was my first real game job after a couple of smaller gigs, including some contract work and a few months beforehand at a very small studio. Yes, it was Zynga, but I worked with guys who’d been making games like Age of Mythology since the 90s and they were MASTERS and were actually making stuff that was pretty fun to play - considering it was “Facebook” game work.
Then, a new CEO was hired at Zynga… A guy who’d been at Microsoft during their “Project NATAL” days where the Xbox One had been all about TV and SPORTS… rather than video games…
This CEO was Don Mattrick.
I remember when we’d be having lunch in the cafeteria, they’d often do things like play E3 stage presentations on the big projector… and a lot of the older guys would just boo and get up and walk out when Don Mattrick was on stage during his Microsoft Xbox tenure.
I never had put it together why they hated him so much until I realized who had shut down Ensemble. It was Don Mattrick.
And in 2012 when Mattrick became CEO of Zynga, one of the first things he did was start shutting down satellite studios.
One of those studios was the one I was at.
Now, I was of course upset, but I landed on my feet and am okay… but do you know what that means for those guys in their mid to late 50s that I worked with originally from Ensemble?
It means they had the studio they worked for… shut down TWICE… by the same guy at 2 different companies in a row.
I don’t work in the gaming side of the industry but I’ve been in tech for a few decades myself as well. I have (luckily) avoided similar situations but I’ve seen it happen to folks that I worked with where they were laid off by some shit bag CEO who didn’t know fuck from shit and then ended up being the head of the company they went to a few years later and pulled the exact same maneuver. It’s wild how once you reach a certain level you’re basically too big to fail there is no consequences for you other than a golden parachute until you land the next gig with your crony buddies.
I hope you’ve landed at a better place that at least provides some semblance of stability. Good luck out their friend.
My exact same thoughts. Still like him more than Don Mattrick.
Man, forgot about that tool. What a joke. He went on to fuck up other game studios IIRC.
Want to hear something depressing?
I used to work in games.
I was really fortunate, as I got to work with an incredibly talented pool of guys and gals who’d worked on games for decades. They were once basically a third of the legendary game studio “Ensemble Studios” - aka the guys who made Age of Empires.
When they were shutdown, all of them split in to basically 3 different new companies from the ashes :
From those 3 companies we got things like “Orcs Must Die” as well as “Words With Friends.”
Bonfire and New Toy eventually got bought by Zynga - and eventually were merged into a single studio in the Dallas area.
I was there for a couple of years. Was my first real game job after a couple of smaller gigs, including some contract work and a few months beforehand at a very small studio. Yes, it was Zynga, but I worked with guys who’d been making games like Age of Mythology since the 90s and they were MASTERS and were actually making stuff that was pretty fun to play - considering it was “Facebook” game work.
Then, a new CEO was hired at Zynga… A guy who’d been at Microsoft during their “Project NATAL” days where the Xbox One had been all about TV and SPORTS… rather than video games…
This CEO was Don Mattrick.
I remember when we’d be having lunch in the cafeteria, they’d often do things like play E3 stage presentations on the big projector… and a lot of the older guys would just boo and get up and walk out when Don Mattrick was on stage during his Microsoft Xbox tenure.
I never had put it together why they hated him so much until I realized who had shut down Ensemble. It was Don Mattrick.
And in 2012 when Mattrick became CEO of Zynga, one of the first things he did was start shutting down satellite studios.
One of those studios was the one I was at.
Now, I was of course upset, but I landed on my feet and am okay… but do you know what that means for those guys in their mid to late 50s that I worked with originally from Ensemble?
It means they had the studio they worked for… shut down TWICE… by the same guy at 2 different companies in a row.
So FUCK Don Mattrick.
I don’t work in the gaming side of the industry but I’ve been in tech for a few decades myself as well. I have (luckily) avoided similar situations but I’ve seen it happen to folks that I worked with where they were laid off by some shit bag CEO who didn’t know fuck from shit and then ended up being the head of the company they went to a few years later and pulled the exact same maneuver. It’s wild how once you reach a certain level you’re basically too big to fail there is no consequences for you other than a golden parachute until you land the next gig with your crony buddies.
I hope you’ve landed at a better place that at least provides some semblance of stability. Good luck out their friend.
A high bar