Flight Sim World: Closure Announcement

[Bjoern]

I see Chevrolet are closing their doors. So all their existing stock should be free or in a flash $5 sale. Yeah, that makes sense.

Sale - $5 from me.
No sale - $0 from me.

The car-based example doesn't work. If retailers are clearing their stocks for the new model or due to the end of production, there is usually quite a bit of rebate passed on to the customer.
Same for clothing. End of season means low prices before it gets shipped back to the warehouse until the next year.
Heck, even food that's about to expire is thrown out at lower price!

Its not like there is a warehouse of CD's to be cleared out. It's a clump of ones and zeros on a server.
Make a sale, send a copy. The available quantity doesn't change one byte.

All of a sudden folks who didn't support it before want to get a copy of everything on the cheap. Too little too late folks.

Instead of hoping to gain from this you should be thinking about all the employees who probably came to a weekly company status meeting and learned that their source of income was shutting down in 30 days.

I don't think it was a "sudden death" since all companies have regular performance and status reviews.
And I'm pretty sure the devs will get on their feet again. It's not that the entertainment industry is choking on an excess of manpower.

 

[Alan_A]

I don't think it was a "sudden death" since all companies have regular performance and status reviews.

Yeah, you'd be surprised. At various times I've been asked to blindside staff - and in good karmic fashion, I've been blindsided myself. It's one thing to have the sense that sales aren't running as expected. It's another to be called into a room, told your whole unit is being let go, and then you're given an hour to pack your stuff while the security guards watch you - all without warning. The decision often happens in some other part of the business, and it catches everybody completely off-guard. Sometimes the higher-ups haven't made up their minds 'til the last minute (and I've been part of that dynamic, too, poring over spreadsheets and trying to save at least some of your people while they keep changing the parameters on you). Sometimes they've made the decision well in advance and decided to keep it to themselves. And sometimes something changes suddenly in the business, and it's a bad shock for everyone. In any case, it's usually an ugly scene. I truly hope the team lands well - but in a world where businesses don't like to carry full-time employees with their attendant costs, it's by no means guaranteed. Wishing all of them the best.

 

[bazzar]

Why is it that when a business fails for whatever the reason, people feel they have an entitlement to expect free or discounted product as a result of that failure. Whatever happened is done and is between the principals of that business and their employees and shareholders. It really is nobody else's business.

Why it happened is also of no import to anyone except creditors and staff. What is the average most people are "down"? $20? you can still play the game, for those that have not yet got the game, you missed the boat. Tough.

We are saying that the true value of the thing should be a few dollars? How does that help or reward all the hard-working people who worked on it? How does that show them any respect?

The fact is that, unfortunately for those involved, it has happened and for all but those unfortunates it is time to move on. Get over it.

 

[Bjoern]

Yeah, you'd be surprised. At various times I've been asked to blindside staff - and in good karmic fashion, I've been blindsided myself. It's one thing to have the sense that sales aren't running as expected. It's another to be called into a room, told your whole unit is being let go, and then you're given an hour to pack your stuff while the security guards watch you - all without warning. The decision often happens in some other part of the business, and it catches everybody completely off-guard. Sometimes the higher-ups haven't made up their minds 'til the last minute (and I've been part of that dynamic, too, poring over spreadsheets and trying to save at least some of your people while they keep changing the parameters on you). Sometimes they've made the decision well in advance and decided to keep it to themselves. And sometimes something changes suddenly in the business, and it's a bad shock for everyone. In any case, it's usually an ugly scene. I truly hope the team lands well - but in a world where businesses don't like to carry full-time employees with their attendant costs, it's by no means guaranteed. Wishing all of them the best.

Things do seem to be tougher in other parts of the world, but I assume that workers in the UK do enjoy some rudimentary legal protections against all too sudden job termination.

Why is it that when a business fails for whatever the reason, people feel they have an entitlement to expect free or discounted product as a result of that failure. Whatever happened is done and is between the principals of that business and their employees and shareholders. It really is nobody else's business.

Why it happened is also of no import to anyone except creditors and staff. What is the average most people are "down"? $20? you can still play the game, for those that have not yet got the game, you missed the boat. Tough.

We are saying that the true value of the thing should be a few dollars? How does that help or reward all the hard-working people who worked on it? How does that show them any respect?

The fact is that, unfortunately for those involved, it has happened and for all but those unfortunates it is time to move on. Get over it.

Don't worry, I won't lose any sleep over it.

 

[Alan_A]

Things do seem to be tougher in other parts of the world, but I assume that workers in the UK do enjoy some rudimentary legal protections against all too sudden job termination.

Fair enough. My experiences, as you can probably tell, were with publicly held companies in the U.S. I spent many years in that environment and don't miss it. I have a nice cardiac stent as a souvenir. I hope things are a little better for workers in the UK.

 

[fsafranek]

I don't think it was a "sudden death" since all companies have regular performance and status reviews.

The employees were told one hour before it went public.

 

[Naismith]

I see Chevrolet are closing their doors.

Not so amusing today considering what Ford just announced.

 

[wombat666]

Not so amusing today considering what Ford just announced.

Not to get too far OT but it's the way of the World at this point in time.
Australia doesn't have an automotive manufacturing industry now, we simply have vehicle importers or maybe assemblers.
And despite employees having around 12 months or more 'notice' many remain in difficult circumstances or worse, especially those who have spent their entire working lives with the same company, an object lesson in the Corporate "tough s--t' mentality.
'Their employees were told one hour before it went public.'
One hour or one year, it must feel just as bad for the people caught out by Corporate hypocrisy.
And FTR, I paid for FSW, quite liked it despite the glacial pace of development, and am dissapointed to see a relatively promising concept vanish, so unless the posters in this thread did the same, they do not have a dog in this fight.

PS: Unlike many people I've had a long 'career', never been forced to sack staff, only required to 'terminate' malcontents who attempted to do me harm!

 

[Alan_A]

The employees were told one hour before it went public.

So things are appalling all over.

PS: Unlike many people I've had a long 'career', never been forced to sack staff, only required to 'terminate' malcontents who attempted to do me harm!

That's fortunate - much better than having the overlords (who come from another industry and have no idea what your work actually involves) show up and say, "Good job hitting the 15 percent profit target we gave you last month. This month we need 17 percent. Who are you going to cut to give us the extra two percent?"

I currently work in a network of solo practitioners and small firms - all of us are refugees from the big firm that got bought by a public company. We live better - no visits from the inquisition - and nobody I know would ever think of going back.

 

[Bjoern]

Fair enough. My experiences, as you can probably tell, were with publicly held companies in the U.S. I spent many years in that environment and don't miss it. I have a nice cardiac stent as a souvenir. I hope things are a little better for workers in the UK.

Well, the "hire and fire" culture isn't as prevalent on this side of the Atlantic. There's always some degree of social security to at least cushion the fall.

The employees were told one hour before it went public.

Out of the blue?
In that case, I'd set the f'in place on fire on my way out.

 

[Stefano Zibell]

They could at the VERY least release the beta branch that is now inaccessible. There was a career mode that is now lost.

 

[simondix]

Very sad, especially for the people who now have to look for new employment. I brought it on offer and although I hardly used it I kept it to see how much progression would be made. There was just something about it that although I could not put my finger on it I did not like. I dipped into it when updates were made and although I liked the aircraft available I was not using it seriously. I thought it might progress to something good given time. The closure has meant really that I can now concentrate on P3D and free up space on my PC. I am still using FSX on planes I cannot use on P3D and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

 

[stovall]

This thread has run its course, time to close.