Heads of game development studios around the county seem to be of one mind about the industry’s work practices,the whatever, whenever work ethic doesn’t cut it anymore.
It used to be that the creative types who do all of the rendering, animating and programming for games had a lot of leeway when it came to how they got stuff done.
If inspiration struck at 3 a.m., then that’s when they logged productive hours.
Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., now part of Vivendi SA’s Activision Blizzard Inc., is known for its cave-like offices where workers are there nearly around the clock.
For some, the all-hours work schedule is starting to change.
“It used to be that this was a young man’s game,” said Michael “Saxs” Persson, studio head of Irvine’s Double Helix Games. “The deadlines were crazy, the hours were crazy and there was no space for a normal schedule. It’s changed a lot and it’s attracting more senior people, who don’t want to work 80-hour weeks. A lot of us have grown up within the industry and we have developed more responsible work habits.”
Being part of a smaller studio used to mean working intensely with just a few people to crank out a game,some of which can take roughly two years from start to finish.
Now there are a lot more people, each with very specific tasks, involved in creating a finished game.
Some game developers have instituted policies that require workers to show up during a few daytime hours, but leave the rest flexible.
Irvine’s Ready at Dawn Studios LLC, which makes video games for consoles, has what’s called “core hours” from 10 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. when workers are required to be in the office.
“I think now as the industry is maturing, we are going away from people expecting to have a schedule that is whatever they want,” said Didier Malenfant, president of Ready at Dawn who’s also worked at Blizzard.
Workers rely on each others’ input to make decisions about the game, he said.
“It boils down to communication,” he said. “Games are a collaborative effort, so a lot of times you need someone else to be able to do your job.”
Malenfant, who’s been working in the industry for a dozen years, said the old way isn’t as productive.
“I’ve seen companies before that have tried to be completely open, but people end up drifting a lot of the time,” he said. “They’ll come in later and later and later and before you know it, they work at night. It’s all fine if they can get their job done, but more often than not, someone is going to need them during the day. Then you start getting into trouble.”
Betting on Western Digital
A shrinking financial customer base doesn’t have analysts worried about Lake Forest disk drive maker Western Digital Corp.
“All of our industry discussions continue to include significant praise for Western Digital’s consistent and profitable execution,” said Richard Kugele, analyst with Needham & Co. in New York, in a note to clients. “We believe that the company should be able to meet our estimates.”
For the September quarter, Kugele is expecting Western Digital to post about $186 million in profits on $2.08 billion in sales.
On average, Wall Street is looking for profits of $191 million on sales of $2.1 billion.
Still, uncertainty rules the day for the balance of the year, Kugele said.
“We believe doubt and despair are likely to hang like a pall over the information technology industry through the end of the year,” he said. “At this point in the financial services crisis, we do not believe that anyone can pinpoint with certainty the potential impact to technology spending.”
He lowered his estimates on the stock for the December quarter to $208 million in profits on $2.14 billion in sales, down from his previous estimate of $244 million in profits on sales of $2.2 billion.
Kugele kept his “buy” rating on the stock, which has seen shares fall 17% in the past year.
E-mail Scam
Tustin’s Ricoh Electronics Inc., part of Tokyo-based Ricoh Co., posted a series of alerts on its Web site to help counter a widespread scam offering jobs at Ricoh,for a tidy $500 “processing” fee, a copy of the applicant’s driver’s license and a passport photo.
Yeah, just a little bit shady.
Ricoh first got wind of the scam more than a year ago when someone sent out official looking e-mails with the wrong headquarters location.
In May, another scam e-mail went around offering jobs at Ricoh as collections agents. Last month, the offer was for an accounting post in Tustin.
Ricoh Electronics is the manufacturing arm of West Caldwell, N.J.-based Ricoh Americas Corp., the Japanese company’s U.S. unit.
Ricoh Electronics makes digital copiers, assembles chips onto circuit boards and builds all-in-one machines that can print, copy, scan and fax in Tustin. It also has operations in Santa Ana.
