Located 20 minutes from Microsoft headquarters, Seattle Studios, founded in November 2009, does not seem to have exploited the transformation of the independent studio studio of Xbox Studios, which is now expected to lead to Crash Mode. 3 with AAA ambition. Within four years, Undead Labs doubled in size while losing its founder Jeff Strain, who announced its new business last fall.
Ethan Gach’s investigation first brings bad news to players: although State of Decay 2 was released in May 2018, Damage Condition 3 It will still be stuck in the pre-production stage. The studio logo here on the subject of allegations of maladministration, arson and sexual harassment, is far from the shared image that Phil Spencer and his team strive to paint every day. Most of the 12 employees who participated in the article believe that Undead Labs has been in an unresolved crisis period since it was taken over by Microsoft.
Surprisingly, the first reaction of Undead Labs members to announcing the takeover of Microsoft in 2018 was to fear that the company would be too strict with its former independent studio. In the end, it is the opposite of the extreme freedom that Microsoft has given to its studios which shows its limits when the team needs help, an objection previously heard recently during an investigation into the behavior of the founders of Moon Studios. “We were afraid they would come to change our culture, but our destruction came from within, and we might need their hand.“, it sums up the developer.
“Over the past few years Undead Labs has seen a number of positive changes and I am confident in the direction the team is taking to Decent State 3, one of our most ambitious development games.“, Microsoft believes its response to Kotaku, by opening some statistics such as recruiting women or non-binary people (42% of employment in 2021) and people from ethnic minorities (29% of employment in 2021 figures which, surprisingly, does not reflect much on the health of the studio.
Evidence points to a lack of direction and coherence felt at the beginning of the design Damage Condition 3. We are talking about a studio divided into groups responsible for presenting their own activities but not directly communicating with each other, due to the lack of effective leadership to ensure the sustainability of the various systems. Anxiety is compounded by the large number of changes in the workforce but also the culture of discrimination against women, non-binary people and other discriminated workers. Ignoring, rejecting or harassing sex workers, women are at the forefront of staff complaints about Undead Laboratory.
Acclaimed founder Jeff Strain officially left Undead Laboratory at the end of 2019 but has already taken a step back from managing the studio in early 2018. His deputy, Philip Holt, is much younger than his co-workers. Accused of kinship, he would also have contributed to the departure of young women who play a key role in the studio. As is often the case, too, she is a woman who we hold the position of director of human resources, but despite her experience with Dell and Microsoft, Anne Schlosser did not live up to her expectations of resolving disputes between staff members or fighting discrimination. To make matters worse, she has often made matters worse by joining the ranks of the wrong people. And since she left the studio in March, due to what appears to be Microsoft’s direct intervention, so many employees have. “If the pre-production looked like this, there was no way for me to stay in the actual production“, summarizes one of the beginnings.
The investigation told us that Undead Labs had no motivation to announce Damage Condition 3 In 2020 it was released, but the application came from Microsoft, which needed to collect announcements for its summer show, a few months before the launch of the Xbox Series. Other games far from being baked, such as the upcoming Fable, Everwild and Forza Motorsport, were also featured at the conference. “We didn’t want to advertise the game because we didn’t even know what it was at the timeThe announcement video was limited to a short film showing deer being produced. ‘They still do not have an integrated version of the game offered by Microsoft.
Concerned about appearing to be an effective leader in the eyes of the experts, Philip Holt then put undue pressure on his team by calling them to produce a performance in the summer of 2021, originally scheduled for December of that year. “Surprisingly the situation descended on Philip putting pressure on the team, not the Xbox. Philip was pressuring us because he was crazy to pretend to be a leader inside Xbox Game Studios. He used this as an ability to develop his skills and appearance, to undermine development“, she blames the developer.
The group was finally able to listen to their manager because of the compromise. The ambitious demo model planned for December was finally introduced in September. And since? Latest news. Damage Condition 3 It has not yet come out of the pre-production stage, but some of the staff who have not left the studio are optimistic about Undead Labs, which looks healthy by 2022. “It can be a great game and we have great people working on it. I hope we do not repeat the ugly practices of the last few years“, summed up the staff.
Note that one of the people interviewed by Kotaku did not hear any Microsoft checks to help the studio get out of its internal problems. “There was no visible interference or support from Microsoft. Nothing has ever been better in my view, things have gotten worse“, developer comments. Philosophy”hands free“That makes you wonder at a time when Microsoft has to clean up a lot of problems reported by Activision Blizzard, a company of nearly 10,000 people that cost almost $ 70 billion.
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