MC2-MICROIDS LAYS-OFF EMPLOYEES – Article

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Only one year after acquiring new management and being taken over by businessman Emmanuel Olivier, MC2-Microids proceeded with laying-off a substantial amount of employees on Friday, Oct. 29th.

“While this was a difficult decision for us, it was necessary in order to ensure that Microids continues to produce high quality games, and that all our loyal and talented employees can keep working on creating those graphically stunning titles that we’ve been known for. We’ll work hard to ensure the speedy return of our troops,” Emmanuel Olivier, President of Microids told Just Adventure.

MC2-Microids, known to the adventure community as the developers of such popular games as Syberia I & II and Post Mortem, was recently formed through a merger of Microids and MC2 to create and develop video games for multiple platforms. Much of the staff is comprised of the same team members who were responsible for the atmospheric Amerzone, the classic Syberia series and the gritty Post Mortem.

So how will these lay-offs affect the development of the much-anticipated Still Life? Just Adventure also spoke to Nathalie Bergeron, Senior Consultant for High Road Communications, the company that handles public relations for MC2-Microids:

MC2-Microids had to proceed with temporary layoffs in the studio, effective last Friday. It is only a temporary situation, while management is restructuring the activities and evaluating its production process.

As you might know, the industry is fast evolving; production cycles are changing rapidly and conception cycles are longer. This affects staffing, as while the core team is going through the first stages of creation, other team members are not “busy”, their expertise being needed later in the process. This in turn creates a heavy financial weight on smaller studios. Employees will be called back as early as January, gradually.

This situation will in no way disrupt the development of Still Life, which is coming along great and still scheduled for release in Spring 05.

So before the rumors begin flying, let’s end any speculation of MC2-Microids being in financial straits. While we do empathize with any employee being laid-off, we are also cognizant of the financial restraints in today’s marketplace that is increasingly driven by big-budget titles and look forward to MC2-Microids employees returning to work early next year and providing the adventure community with many more quality titles.