Firaxis hit by layoffs

A cynical part of me wants to say that this is a consequence of 2K realizing they don't need to spend that much resources or manpower on Firaxis specifically to reek in a profit. This is the reason we have seen AAA companies announce layoffs despite making more money than anyone knows what to do with. That has basically been the name of the game for the past decade and a half in the gaming industry: it doesn't simply do to make money, you have to make ALL the money. Worst case scenario is basically that 2K considers Civilization "too niche" to spend money on any longer
 
They're ramping up to start having AI do their coding. That's my guess.
I hope the AI can code better game AI, one that doesnt need the brutal handicaps and can handle units.
 
AI isn't nearly good enough to program much of anything.

This. From what I've seen, it has many errors in its coding. Unless there is a significant leap forward, AI won't be programming anything complex.

I would expect the job losses to be from the XCOM and other teams, not the Civ team, that's my guess.
 
Based on all the high-tech companies that are laying off 10,000 employees a month.

Based on all the news about ChatGP4 you read every single day.
No, this isn't a thing. Nobody is replacing their programmers with ChatGPT. ChatGPT and similar programs are terrible at writing code. Any company that seriously considers this without massive improvements to the AI behind ChatGPT is a company that's going to lose a lot of money.
 
It'd be kind of dumb to announce a new Civ game and then cut the Civ team just two months later. We haven't heard anything about a new X-COM game, so it makes more sense for the cuts to be there while they plan for the next iteration in that franchise.
I agree and I think there’s zero reason for anyone to think this forecasts bad news for Civ 7.
Based on all the high-tech companies that are laying off 10,000 employees a month.

Based on all the news about ChatGP4 you read every single day.
The huge layoffs in tech companies are primarily coming from non-technical roles and are wholly unrelated to AI. The biggest impacted role is actually recruiting/talent acquisition.

The layoff at Firaxis is 30 people. The same thing happened in 2010 after Civ 5 released, by the way.

It just seems like baseless speculation to accuse Firaxis of firing people for AI to replace their jobs. Is it possible to even name a single major developer that is doing anything like this? I agree with Kwami and don’t think AI is ready for prime time in any capacity.
 
AI in a world of microservices for sure. Not ready for large projects technically, legally a lot to work through. Definitely exciting but as others have pointed out, not there yet.
 
I agree and I think there’s zero reason for anyone to think this forecasts bad news for Civ 7.

The huge layoffs in tech companies are primarily coming from non-technical roles and are wholly unrelated to AI. The biggest impacted role is actually recruiting/talent acquisition.

The layoff at Firaxis is 30 people. The same thing happened in 2010 after Civ 5 released, by the way.

It just seems like baseless speculation to accuse Firaxis of firing people for AI to replace their jobs. Is it possible to even name a single major developer that is doing anything like this? I agree with Kwami and don’t think AI is ready for prime time in any capacity.

The most likely random speculation is that since the Marvel game didn't sell very well, they're probably not eager to make a sequel for it, so lots of the staff that they used to work on that don't have a role anymore.

30 people is a lot for a studio Firaxis' size, but it's really not that uncommon for game studios to grow a team leading up to release, and then reduce the team afterwards, especially if sales lag.
 
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