#NerdsUnite: PopCapt, a Human Approach

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

In the last couple of days there has been a lot of talk of PopCap, the developers behind the massively popular Plants versus Zombies and Peggle, letting go a large portion of their staff. This seemed immensely odd since they had just announced Plants vs Zombies 2 yesterday. Recently the co-founder of PopCap, John Vechey, addressed everyone in a letter that is incredibly sympathetic to all of those losing their jobs and devoid of marketing terms, it is very human. It is sadly rare for a company to be this open about everything that is going and to address the situation so thoroughly. John explains that PopCap is indeed letting many people go, mostly in their US studio, but they are still pushing forward into the gaming world and trying to deal with the new challenges put forth by the free to play and social gaming market. Here is two of my favorite paragraphs from the post, 

"But this morning we informed our employees about a reorganization in our studios that will include a “Reduction In Force” in our North American operation – mostly in our headquarters here in Seattle – and an “exploratory consultation” to evaluate the future of our PopCap office in Dublin, Ireland.

And now in English: “Reduction In Force” means that some people are losing their jobs. “Exploratory consultation” means we’re talking to our Dublin team about the future of that office and whether we can find a path to improve our profitability in Europe without having to close the operation. Today’s news is something you expect periodically from a company in a fast-changing industry, but it sucks if you’re one of the people losing his or her job. These people are our friends and we don’t like doing this."

Check out the whole post here and see everything he had to say. I wish more companies would take this approach that says exactly what is going on, why it is happening, and what it means for the company. Thanks for checking it out and take a look at my previous post for the news on Planets versus Zombies 2.

-Written by Sean Cargle

#nerdsunite

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