Can we preemptively shitcan the 'EA sucks' chatter until Pop-Cap's product starts dropping in quality?
Solitaire Blitz on Facebook is strong evidence that this freakishly talented game shop remains freakishly talented and capable of applying unprecedented levels of polish to their titles, even the 'Freemium' ones.
If a company with the ability to make games as well as PopCap is being forced to lay people off, what does that say to the entire space?
Between news like this, Zynga's share-price plummet, and the general "tech bubble" sentiment out there, the social gaming world is in for some serious turbulence. Consider this the bellwether.
Alternatively, you could look at the state of Zynga/social games as analogous to the video game crash of 1983, which was largely caused by a deluge of poor quality products from hastily financed startups.
From the standpoint of the core gaming demographic, the free to play browser based gaming space looks wide open (see Riot Games/League of Legends, Kixeye, wargaming.net, bigpoint).
That's the problem exactly. Too many me-too knockoffs are flooding the market and consumers are likely to get option fatigue soon with so many duds to sort through.
Explosive growth can't be maintained forever. All those employees you needed to manage a meteoric rise just become financial burdens when your company begins to stabilize.
Layoffs are a shame and suck for everyone involved, but it's not always an indication that the business is failing, but rather that the business is settling in.
Even a growing company (like PopCap) can still have a layoff be a good idea for business. Their main reason they cite is that the business model is changing. This is phenomenally important.
If Kodak had laid off three-quarters of its film staff and hired like crazy to get into the digital business back before digital cameras were a hit, they would have been crucified by the city of Rochester and in the court of public opinion. In hindsight, though, it would have been a smart decision and one that could have saved the company.
If your people can't adapt to the market, you need to change your people. It's an unfortunate reality, and it sucks for all involved, but good businesses make hard decisions like this. I hope things work out for PopCap, and my heart goes out to those laid off--life is about to really suck for them.
I don't think this is going to kill off PopCap, and I agree that layoffs are a part of business. My point was that, for every PopCap laying off some employees, there are 10 sub-par studios going to be forced to downsize or close due to the same market conditions.
Then again, I don't think anyone who followed this space closely didn't see this coming. The industry is maturing. If it frees up some developers to do (in my opinion) better work, that's a "good thing".
Solitaire Blitz on Facebook is strong evidence that this freakishly talented game shop remains freakishly talented and capable of applying unprecedented levels of polish to their titles, even the 'Freemium' ones.