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Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

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Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recession = two quarters of negative growth. We've had a lot more. I'm not playing with the kafkaesque political redefinitions and find them pretty pathetic actually.

They aren't "kafkaesque political redefinitions". You are just choosing to use an overly simple definition because it supports your argument. The NBER determines recession based on a sophisticated methodology. One that considers the holistic status of the economy. This whole "two quarters of negative growth" is unga bunga economics

So then it's not a recession solely according to NBER - and this departs from their characterizations for the last 60 years before this last election cycle.

"A recession is a significant, widespread, and prolonged downturn in economic activity. A common rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth mean recession, although more complex formulas are also used."

- [investopedia]("https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp#:~:text=W....")

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#263

This is probably just continued post-COVID demand normalization. Basically all software and gaming got a massive bump that was obviously going to have an unsustainable component to it. But in many cases companies planned like it was totally sustainable and would continue. That’s why even super profitable companies like Microsoft and Epic are doing layoffs in 2023. The other reason of course is that they went a bit cr…

This is starting to get even more irritating than the “put a blockchain on it” spammers ever were.

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#264
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economy is about to take a nose dive if you haven't been reading the tea leaves. This is both pre-emptive for the coming downturn and a correction for the covid over hiring. Buckle up.

The economy has been "about to take a nosedive" for quite some time now.

Well... How are medical prices? Education prices? Food? Energy? Savings? Rent? Housing? What about the massive layoffs? Even if you're not struggling - many others objectively are dealing with the realities of a harsh economic downturn.

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#265
post #21

Fingers crossed they kill the Games Store.

Why?

I would have used it in its current state, even if it was worse if they did not resort to shitty business decisions. They directly stole titles away from me that I was playing on linux through steam. They can crash and burn for all I care now.

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#266

This is probably just continued post-COVID demand normalization. Basically all software and gaming got a massive bump that was obviously going to have an unsustainable component to it. But in many cases companies planned like it was totally sustainable and would continue. That’s why even super profitable companies like Microsoft and Epic are doing layoffs in 2023. The other reason of course is that they went a bit cr…

This is standard for economic conditions. When there's a lot of easy to come by money (loans) there's a lot of disposable income and excessive employment. As soon as the money supply tightens (or in this case year on year the money in the economy goes negative), businesses trim the fat and get conservative about only keeping people creating value/profits. Which is why unemployment figures lag in a collapsing economy.

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#267

Unity also had 3 recent mass layoffs. I compiled their headcount since 2004 here: https://www.contextualize.ai/mpereira/the-growth-of-unity-in...

Great chart! But it's so weird to see companies go on a hiring spree AFTER their product was essentially done. I cannot name a single feature that I use that wasn't present in the 2020 version. Since then, their headcount has more than quadrupled. What are those people doing?

Unity is currently redesigning their engine from the ground up using an ECS architecture. They're calling it DOTS or Entities.

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've had massive government spending for >20 years now. When looking for explanations for new conditions, look for what has changed, not what hasn't changed.

"I'm not obese because I've been over eating. I've always over eaten" The printing isn't new and neither are the recessions. They're just making them worse.

Good metaphor. One does not get suddenly obese, it happens gradually and steadily and is well correlated with overeating. Your metaphor illustrates my point, not yours.

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massive government spending? Sure. But "massive recession"? Really?

Recession = two quarters of negative growth. We've had a lot more. I'm not playing with the kafkaesque political redefinitions and find them pretty pathetic actually.

They've been playing games with the numbers but it's true, we're looking at a depression not a recession as it's going to last much longer. US debt t GDP ratio > 120% which by IMF definition means the US is in an economic death spiral. By 2028 the payments we make on all that money they printed (at our expense) will only go to the interest and no longer the principal. After that the death spiral becomes irreversible with US insolvency by 2042. Historically, inside the next ten years is when we have a depression/massive austerity for everyone, war, and/or a new monetary system. Which if you ask me is more stupid and irresponsible than a balanced budget amendment and single line item spending bills. Social Security will be insolvent in 10 years, too, and I've also heard the medicare liabilities ae being hidden because they paint an even darker picture about how far gone things are.

We've known this for a while BTW, I first learned about the timeline in 2014 watching the budget committee hearing on CSPAN. They showed the slide with the timeline yet no one talked about it. Austerity back then was scheduled to start by 2020 but we got stimulus, like they were steering into driving off the cliff.

This guy wrote and updated his book on the topic. https://www.amazon.com/COMING-COLLAPSE-AMERICA-BALANCE-FEDER...

Re: Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff

#270
post #179
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this. I was going to reply with the same thing but thought it wasn't worth. There is a lot of hate towards Epic due to EGS, which I get - but Tim has never said anything about losing income due to other stores existing. Sure he's said a lot of bad things about Apple, but never about Valve. He's actually a really good guy, all the hate towards him really irks me - fine, hate the epic game store, I don't personall…

When Microsoft announced Windows Store he was one of the biggest fud spreaders about it. And everyone was praising him about it.

your use of fud indicates that you are old enough to remember 90s microsoft so I'm surprised that you don't feel a huge dollop of skepticism was warranted for the windows store. If you weren't active in the 90s, then I can understand not getting just how anti-competitive MS had a strong history of being - now that we truly have a "new microsoft" these days.
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