Not sure it was the crashing...although watching CR blame the computer was hilarious...I think it was more of the crunch beforehand.
Labor laws are fickle things, and employee morale is hard to grow after abusing it. CR abused both last year.
Forcing employees to work every day for multiple weeks, including Sat and Sun pushes the limits on many labor laws in the US, and I have no idea how much that was pushing the limits in the more employee friendly UK/EU.
Secondly, it absolutely destroys morale to do something like that, and CR melting down in public probably means he through an absolutely dire temper tantrum behind the scenes.
All while going through major restructuring and downsizing.
I can guarantee you that if you read the room in CIG, you probably have a bunch of employees at CIG that would not stick their necks out for Chris again this year. I think CR knows this and if he tried it...his employees would walk. To quote Jenene from Ghostbusters...I've quit better jobs than this...
Combine that with the very unhappy crowd reactions and the major mistakes/walkbacks that CIG had to do after CitizenCon 2954 (like them trying to sell us that they NEVER said the Galaxy would have a base building module, and that what they said was merely speculation and people taking what they said the wrong way), the extreme reduction in the plans for 1.0..Come on, 5 systems, including one that is pretty much rubble? Especially as they had been saying 100 systems even just a few months before CitizenCon...they killed a lot of the mood.
It's smart, because I think they now know that SQ42 in 2026 isn't going to happen. I know it will happen prior to 2028 unless CR can pull a ton of money out of his butt, but if they held CitizenCon and didn't announce a specific release date, or a least a quarter that was not Q4 2026, I think people would probably boo him off the stage.
You are going off on a weird trip man...
I agree that the mood at CIG is probably fragile, with the upcoming release and grind and constant failure of the live PU, and CR doesn't want to risk pushing it. I agree on that point. I think they shouldn't do digital CitCon at all!
I just find your arguments very out of touch with what I'm seeing, that's all.
Unhappy Crowds? Haven't seen it. Show was a blast, everyone cheered all day, both on live feed and in chat. Now, in person if You were there, I dunno. You tell me!
5 systems was known, or at least heavily speculated, before Citcon. It's good, less time, more dense. We get a game with substance instead of a bloated corpse like ED/NMS/Starfield...
CIG was confirmed to be in the clear with labor laws.
Those who couldn't/didn't commit might get fired? So what? We need the best, not the rest. It's YOUR money being not wasted so..
Downsizing? What? Where? Who? Seriously, am I missing some news of them letting go of 200 people or something?
They moved, had a few casualities, sure. I don't think that destroyed the morale. What could have, the move itself. New place, new everything, it must have been rough. But some good bullshitter mid managment and CR should be able to mitigate that in a 5 minute speech.
They are a AAA studio, not a mom n pop shop. Those who want to work there will know this and expect that kind of treatment.
Hundreds will be let go when Squadron is done. Their contract runs out, it's the normal, expected, and healthy thing to do for a business currently employing over a thousand ppl. I wonder how the morale will look then... Oh, it won't change cos that's how it works, and been working for the past 30+ years, and it's entirely expected.
For real though I regularly talk with my buddies at Digic that went through a real downsizing due to being sold off. They were about the size of CIG now. They let go of 20-30%? 400ppl at least. They got wage cuts via cutting workdays ("voluntary" but you know where that leads, out the door next time there is downsizing), new strict rules on lunch-time activates, loads of benefits like free massage and parking and fruits and whatnot got deleted overnight. Now that, that's what tanks morale, not 12 ppl going "oh my cubicle buddy couldn't make it over" in a company of 1200.
Crunch is normal, expected, and accepted. Digital "artists" aka everyone who does games, programming or CG for movies or ads and such, are a different breed, we got passion, dedication, substance abuse and arguably some brain damage, so we even like it! Up to a point. Crunch wouldn't tank morale in itself, especially because it was worth it. The crowds cheered, the demos rocked, the presentations slayed. Get your head out of reddits ass and smell the real world. CitCon 2024 was a success.
I do hope you are wrong on the 2026 release not being a thing. It has to be, or there will be pitchforks, whether digital or not.
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