Gamers encouraged to plunder and pillage to fix games

Recent layoffs at BioWare, the studio behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard, have sparked widespread conversation about the current state of the gaming industry. Larian Studios' publishing director, Michael Daus, has again taken to social media to address this issue, emphasizing the importance of valuing employees and holding leadership accountable for job cuts.

Daus argues that significant layoffs between or after projects are avoidable. He stresses the critical role of retaining institutional knowledge within development teams for future projects. While acknowledging the financial pressures that sometimes necessitate "trimming the fat," he questions the excessive efficiency drives of large corporations, suggesting they are often unnecessary. This aggressive cost-cutting, he points out, is only effective if a company consistently releases successful titles. Layoffs, in his view, are a drastic, last-resort measure.

Daus ultimately places the blame squarely on upper management's strategic decisions, noting that lower-level employees consistently bear the brunt of these choices. He uses the analogy of a pirate ship, where the captain would be the first to be thrown overboard in times of crisis, suggesting that game development companies should adopt a similar approach to accountability.