Gears of War studio head addresses layoff worries after E-Day release, and says the next game won’t take ‘nearly as long’
“We just need to focus on the things that we can control,” Mike Crump says
The head of Gears of War studio The Coalition has addressed reports that staff are concerned for their future.
Last week a report suggested that employees at The Coalition were worried they may be laid off immediately following the game’s release.
Now, in an interview with the BBC, studio head Mike Crump says his message to the team has been to continue doing their best because things like layoffs are out of their control.
“What I say to myself, what I say to the team, is we just we need to focus on the things that we can control,” Crump said.
“For us that’s about shipping a great game that people are going to love and I feel like, as a team, we’ve done that.”
He added: “We’ve got a great team here. And the leadership team in particular has worked together for upwards of 20 years. So there’s definitely a continuity of knowledge and experience.”
Crump also stated that E-Day, which was largely built from scratch instead of building on top of previous Gears titles, will provide “a great foundation” for future entries in the series, meaning “the next game will not take nearly as long to make”.
Last week Eurogamer cited sources who told it Xbox‘s decision to lay off story director Juan Vaca two weeks before the game’s release was “very demoralising” for the development team at The Coalition.
Another source raised concern that if staff are laid off soon, they may miss out on a contracted bonus which is paid out should the game reach a certain score on Metacritic (something that’s almost certainly set to be paid, given that it currently sits at a Metacritic score of 87).
VGC’s Gears of War: E-Day review called it “an absolute blast, even if it focuses on commotion over emotion”, adding: “Gears of War E-Day’s campaign offers balls-to-the-wall action and rarely lets up, but that means the story takes more of a back seat than I’d like.
“It’s good that time is given to the backstories of new protagonists Mags and Lucas, but given that the game is literally the playable Marcus and Dom backstory fans have been waiting decades to see, more time could have been spent on their relationship. In terms of pure gunplay, however, very little beats it this year.”
