Apex Legends writer gets laid off 24 hours after the character she wrote is revealed, because that's
By Dr. Eleanor Vance | Published on January 01, 0001
EA has laid off hundreds of employees——across its studios, including around 100 at Respawn Entertainment, developers of Titanfall and Apex Legends. Among the many developers left scrambling in an industry where this has become shockingly routine, one in particular leapt out.
Heather Woodward, a now-former narrative designer at Respawn, was laid off a literal day after the character she'd spent a whole year writing debuted. On April 28, Apex Legends introduced a new character by the name of Sparrow:
"My first born is finally here," Woodward . "I’ve been working on this sweet ragazzo for well over a year. Writing a music video style trailer was a tough but rewarding challenge and I can’t believe I get to see my [[link]] work animated by the incredible team
at Sun Creature."
Then, on April 29, the layoffs hit and Woodward discovered she'd been : "Well, this is awkward but… I was just mass-downsized at Respawn. These things happen and my time with Apex has been a top to bottom blast, my favorite job I’ve ever had. It’s been a true joy to write Sparrow, I’ll continue to be insufferable about him for weeks to come."
Woodward appears to be taking this on the chin in a way that's downright enviable—but it really does feel like a perfect nutshell of how messed up and unsustainable this industry has become. There's just zero guarantee of anything, anymore. Let's take a look at the reasons why you might get laid off while working on a game, shall we?
- , which, sure. Harsh, but understandable.
- by Microsoft. Microsoft then lays you off.
- You help make a game as . You are then laid off.
- Your . You are then laid off.
- You that forces you into making games your studio isn't good at making. It doesn't go well. You are then laid off.
- needs to be aligned/reorganised/restructured to become more flexible/agile/versatile under economic/industry conditions. Meanwhile, . You are then laid off.
Now we can add "You dared to work on a videogame" to that list, I guess. Woodward's work on Sparrow could be either good or bad and it clearly doesn't matter—make a good game, make a bad game, make a game at all, and your job's at risk. But maybe I'm being too up-in-arms about it. , after all.
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