"Most layoffs are sad. You imagine big corporate settings where security is there to lead people out of the office so they don't make a scene. This was the opposite."
- a former OMGPOP employee describes how his team felt after being laid off by Zynga.
Zynga confirmed earlier this week that it was closing the doors on its Los Angeles, New York and Dallas offices, letting go of 520 employees in the process.
"There were no hard facts or figures. No real explanation. Just typical corporate BS," said the former employee. "Everyone was just like, 'Yep.' Not surprised at all. It was like the weight had been lifted off our shoulders, that a decision had finally been made."
The team had been reduced to simply fixing bugs in the recently-released Draw Something 2, and with no other assignments on the horizon, the layoffs were expected by most.
"You could almost feel things were slowing down," the employee noted. "We were all champing at the bit for something new."
And according to this employee, the OMGPOP team wasn't exactly upset to be let go from Zynga.
"Music was being played loudly, and people were ripping up Zynga hoodies and T-shirts," the employee said. "Anything that was Zynga was completely left there. The sentiment felt positive."
"It never felt like anyone other than Pincus was really happy about us," they continued. "I think everyone else was just pissed off because Zynga acquired a company that no one had really heard of before to do mobile."
The employee added, "We regret nothing, not even being acquired. We got the chance to push Draw Something to the level we wanted, and we never took anything for granted. We lived through this experience that is very unique. It was a great ride. I think a lot of these people will be meeting up again in the future."
I know that feel.
I'm picturing someone in an executive chair scratching his head, wondering why these folks who just had massive retention bonuses a year ago, and who've had the luxury of working regular hours on easy tasks, would be so miserable, and so happy to be let go.
It speaks to our motivations, as developers I think. Most of us want to CREATE things, and so a stale environment like this can be suffocating.
Here's hoping they all land on their feet, and in a spot where they can be more happy with their daily work.
same thing,
to be honest these guys made a lot of money of that deal, if I remember correctly (not sure if the employees got money as well but I thought so) so in that sense a lot of cash for a year of misery... I have seen worse deals...
but yes it is truly sad to see big companies buy up these small indie devs and kill them
probably the worst 210 million spending I have seen in a while...
Quite the relief! OMGPOP died (and got $200M) when they bought you, then it's just one short year of soul death working for your evil corporate overlords and now you're free to repeat.
I'm picturing someone in an executive chair scratching his head, wondering why these folks who just had massive retention bonuses a year ago, and who've had the luxury of working regular hours on easy tasks, would be so miserable, and so happy to be let go.
It speaks to our motivations, as developers I think. Most of us want to CREATE things, and so a stale environment like this can be suffocating.
Here's hoping they all land on their feet, and in a spot where they can be more happy with their daily work.
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga_Why_I_left_after_the_21
0M_Omgpop_buy.php
to be honest these guys made a lot of money of that deal, if I remember correctly (not sure if the employees got money as well but I thought so) so in that sense a lot of cash for a year of misery... I have seen worse deals...
but yes it is truly sad to see big companies buy up these small indie devs and kill them
probably the worst 210 million spending I have seen in a while...