raze2012's recent activity
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Comment on Microsoft's decision to close down Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin and other game studios is largely motivated by the desire to keep IPs, and ensuring the studios can't work for Microsoft's competition in ~games
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Comment on EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentBecause to be frank, most people are only casually engaged with any given sector at any given time. Maybe there are enough game enthusiasts to push back, but those same game enthusiasts won't...Sometimes I wonder whether we're setting ourselves up for a situation of such brute profit-seeking that it will eventually come crashing down
Because to be frank, most people are only casually engaged with any given sector at any given time. Maybe there are enough game enthusiasts to push back, but those same game enthusiasts won't necessarily go up to bat when they see commercials on Netflix, or political ads in their mail (email or snail mail). Each given company has peoople employed full time to care while a single person only has so much energy to care.
That's ideally what a privacy advocate group does for the people, but they are still outnumbered as well.
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Comment on EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentMy library is mostly fine, but Sadly libraries in some cities have many social and logistical issues that's an entirely different rabbit hole to dive into.My library is mostly fine, but Sadly libraries in some cities have many social and logistical issues that's an entirely different rabbit hole to dive into.
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Comment on EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentI could see it working in a cheap/f2p setting for a hyperrealistic world like GTA (not by EA, but I'm unsure if they have a proper IP for this. The battlefield/Need for Speed ads from the PS2 era...I could see it working in a cheap/f2p setting for a hyperrealistic world like GTA (not by EA, but I'm unsure if they have a proper IP for this. The battlefield/Need for Speed ads from the PS2 era clearly didn't work out for whatever reason). but, that involves building a brand as desirable as GTA first. As infpossibilityspace mentions, that's hard to do when they shut these kinds of games down at the drop of a hat these days.
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Comment on Should moderation be more transparent? in ~tildes
raze2012 (edited )Link ParentLike I said, it's only in theory. I just don't want that article to be a universal defense for vague rulings in internet community. I'm fairly neutral towards Deimos, personally. And yes, that's...If you don't trust Deimos to run the site more or less fairly (with some allowance for human error, as he's only human),
Like I said, it's only in theory. I just don't want that article to be a universal defense for vague rulings in internet community. I'm fairly neutral towards Deimos, personally.
And yes, that's the dangers of a benevolent dictator for life (BDFL). If they cease to be benevolent, the community more or less collapses. It wouldn't be the first time.
It may not even be that Deimos "corrupts". People move on in life, retire, get sick, and die. If there's no proper successor, then a BDFL ends with that life. Some people out there should remember that as a general sentiment when revering a certain brand or company.
EDIT: and we're locked, wonderful. This is pretty much what I'm talking about, but I guess if the OP wanted it there's some weight here. Real shame though: this also has the issue on how much control a poster has of a public post once it goes public. Who truly controls when a topic goes dormant?
I just don't think there's any possible way to prevent the community from collapsing should Deimos cease to be benevolent...So what's the point of discussing it in theory
That's exactly what rules do and the other half of my point of why transparency is important. We can't read Deimos' mind, but if we get a decent enough ruleset and especially psychology on how to approach rules, you can create a group or more of proteges who can in fact take up that mantle, be it here or on future sites. A properly written ruleset can keep a legacy alive and make a transition from a BDFL feel natural, instead of this end/beginning of an era.
The internet is still relatively young, but these are issues faced all the time by other physical communities. Forums are dying as is, but I'd want to try and preserve what integrity is left if possible.
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Comment on Should moderation be more transparent? in ~tildes
raze2012 Link ParentI'm a bit ambivalent. Mod transparency gives room for "lawful evil" styles of malice, but hiding the rules shifts towards potential malice of the moderator. I can use the very article linked as an...it's a lot of extra work for little benefit, and total moderation transparency would also likely have serious drawbacks like encouraging rule lawyering and needless meta drama/debate.
I'm a bit ambivalent. Mod transparency gives room for "lawful evil" styles of malice, but hiding the rules shifts towards potential malice of the moderator.
I can use the very article linked as an example on why there may at least be some sort of transparency:
You can’t think of a good counter-argument for this, so you unban them. You also add a new rule, prohibiting linking to websites.
Now the majority of the community is affected, because they can’t link their own work any more. This won’t work. You repeal the previous rule, and instead make one that limits the number of website links to one per day.
This is an argument set to use how the minority can spoil the barrel for the majority, which makes sense (and I've seen dozens of times on other platforms). Sometimes you simply need to moderate based on a vibe, one respectful of the community.
But when otherwise active posts are removed and there's no obvious malicious actor (after all, if its a few bad actors, you simply ban those users), we start to horseshoe back over to the same result; a lot of interesting discourse was deleted due to the opinion of one moderator, and many honest actors suffer.
This in some ways can be considered worse, because the community can somewhat keep a bad peer in check (ignore/block, report, etc.). A disagreeable moderator simply leaves you SOL. That's usually how the other worst case happens where users migrate off a site, their own recourse when they cannot enact change but want a certain behavior. And that's something I've done several times, sometimes out of personal disagreement, sometimes because the site itself did indeed drastically change and cause an exodus.
This is all theoretical and this isn't the first time this topic came up, so I don't think much will change this time. I just wanted to make a proper rebuttal to the ideas of that article. It does a good job helping to empathize with a benevolent moderator who may feel opaque otherwise. And I appreciate that they don't pretend to have a good idea, because there isn't one. (fwiw, I was always privy to the Victorian Sufi Buddha Lite policy, as SSC calls it)
But like all malice, the practice leads lots of room for corruption to seep in. Road to hell and all that.
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Comment on Reddit shares soar 14% after company reports revenue pop in debut earnings report in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentThey were either bluffing, outright lying (they never even bought stock), or simply outnumbered by genuine investors. I don't have long term hopes for RDDT, but I'm not entirely unsurprised that...lots of people publicly stating they planned to short it.
They were either bluffing, outright lying (they never even bought stock), or simply outnumbered by genuine investors. I don't have long term hopes for RDDT, but I'm not entirely unsurprised that it IPO'd well. That's basically what companies these days excel at.
What went wrong here?
Reddit these days is largely visited by passive users, so even if somehow the blackout had all but the mods of the top 20 subs left, it'd be hard to truly impact a stock on a noticeable level.
But of course, the discourse between mods and users were already mixed during the blackout. Many remaining commenter, i.e active users, were opposed to blacking out and dismissed it as a temper tantrum. And if that's the thought of active users complaining about reddit, there was no hope the passive user base would bother.
Long term, the core issues remain, even if we only look objectively. Reddit struggles to be profitable, and it's big strategies either increase the incentive to game the system with bots, or simply decrease the quality of the site's original premise of grassroots "organic" marketing.
I don't know when/if Reddit will truly "die" (i mean, Digg is still technically around, as a wolf in sheep's clothing). But I would not be surprised if by the end of the decade Reddit starts to be the new Quora in terms of its quality. It'll only be more resilient becsuse most of Reddit as is did not rely on being a knowledge base; that was merely a convinent side effect of the community format.
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Comment on Reddit shares soar 14% after company reports revenue pop in debut earnings report in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentYeah, I agree. Reddit comments for the last 7 years or so have been low effort enough that you could even get away with bitting very simple "I agree" level comments and use that to leverage karma....Yeah, I agree. Reddit comments for the last 7 years or so have been low effort enough that you could even get away with bitting very simple "I agree" level comments and use that to leverage karma. That's nearly impossible to distinguish from the humans.
Now with all these sophisticated LLM's, some slight tweaks can make them sound like top contributing redditors. The best ones are probably never truly called out as a bot, and that's the scariest part.
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Comment on Reddit shares soar 14% after company reports revenue pop in debut earnings report in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentThey all shifted to TIFU, relationships, and various job/job rant subreddits. There's no particular distinction between truth and fiction on reddit these days, so you may as well target the...The main thing I've noticed is the engagement dropoff on NoSleep and WritingPrompts, and that leaves me disheartened as they used to be where I'd go for a daily dose of fiction.
They all shifted to TIFU, relationships, and various job/job rant subreddits. There's no particular distinction between truth and fiction on reddit these days, so you may as well target the biggest communities and increase your engagement by having people argue of the validity of your story.
EpicSeven, that one's always been kinda small
Yeah, mobile game discussions all more or less shifted to discords these days, and that was happening even pre-pandemic. Not a huge fan, but the format does fit for the way those games pace themselves.
EpicSeven is relatively big, but no other (original) mobile game these days outside of Hoyoverse's portfolio will ever get that level of traction on reddit again. Maybe some Cygames title if they ever decide to localize again.
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Comment on Reddit shares soar 14% after company reports revenue pop in debut earnings report in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentGames subs are more or less on the same (downward) trajectory. Definitely a lot less sympathy for the workers in industry than say, pre-pandemic. But that selfishness always existed in some form....Games subs are more or less on the same (downward) trajectory. Definitely a lot less sympathy for the workers in industry than say, pre-pandemic. But that selfishness always existed in some form. The usually increase in aggression and strawmanning of the rest of Reddit exists.
To be honest, I'm more disappointed by a lack of a proper alternative after all this time. Hacker news did a great job replacing most of the technical space, but the lack of a proper modern gaming forum is depressing, to say the least. Specific games tend to be relegated to a discord that may or may not be active, most other general forums still pale in activity compared even to the ancient Ganefaqs (now owned by Fandom, so its on its own timer).
Industry news/game dev communities are still strong on XTwitter, which I was never really into and am especially less than interested in attempting to participate in these days. I thought maybe Bluesky would at least have a fighting chance (even if I still hate the Twitter format), but with that bizarre founder's statement I lost a lot of confidence.
It's all a bit of a mess and it doesn't seem like there's even much demand to go back to long for discussion in games outside of whatever was grandfathered.
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Comment on Sony backed down from the PSN requirement to play Helldivers 2. How will this change how the community reacts to game changes? in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentThis is where the whole country/region distinction gets muddy. And I'm not 100% sure if that page Wiki links to is updated. if you go to Xbox.com, you see there are up to 90 supported...This is where the whole country/region distinction gets muddy. And I'm not 100% sure if that page Wiki links to is updated.
if you go to Xbox.com, you see there are up to 90 supported "country/regions" or so. availability will vary by hardware, but Xbox Game Pass is available everywhere except China, so 89 regions by my count. Suppoort for the Xbox console is scattered, but it makes sense on account of Xbox not being sold in all supported regions.
I was unable to find an equivalent chart for Steam.
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Comment on If we can't block users can we at least filter out topics posted by those users? in ~tildes
raze2012 Link ParentPerhaps, but I feel a lot of the time a block isn't too personal. It may not even be for malicious reasons. You simply see some user post content you don't care for, but are otherwise a very...I think it's also an underexplored avenue for detecting problematic users. If someone is collecting an awful lot of blocks that's a sign there is an issue
Perhaps, but I feel a lot of the time a block isn't too personal. It may not even be for malicious reasons. You simply see some user post content you don't care for, but are otherwise a very active user.
That's one reason I really hated when Reddit changed its block from an "ignore" feature to a full on punishment that disrupts discussion. I don't care if people want to talk "behind my back", I just don't want to personally see it. Maybe that's a distinction Tildes can make if it ever implements this. I very, very rarely want to block anyone (And no one on Tildes comes to mind, at least no one who wasn't already banned before I could blink). There's a few I'd like to ignore; I ignore all the time on Reddit thanks to RES, and I don't even need a reddit account to do it!
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Comment on If we can't block users can we at least filter out topics posted by those users? in ~tildes
raze2012 Link ParentFor longer form content, it's basically your "back of the cover". A quick way to see if this article is worth clicking on, or video worth watching. If it's a short read it doesn't matter, but I'd...Why does there always need to be additional context provided, and an explicitly stated reason to justify why someone submitted something?
For longer form content, it's basically your "back of the cover". A quick way to see if this article is worth clicking on, or video worth watching. If it's a short read it doesn't matter, but I'd definitely want a quick synopsis if I see an hour long video or 5000+ word article posted.
I don't need to know why you posted it; A proper submission statement should serve to give context to the story, not the poster. I think the "why" reasons come more for people (as you see in your other replies) that want a sense of community. I'm fairly neutral in that regard. It can help, especially if the poster has a different lens from the article itself. But that tends to be a rarer occurance.
Unless you are also subscribed to the same channel, and also enabled the bell notifications for that channel, what are the odds you would have actually stumbled into watching the same videos that get posted here by directly browsing YouTube.
well, I won't encounter every video, but probably every video within certain groups. I browse other social media and there aren't too many videos in my domain that I truly discover here first. But if someone does post it here I do tend to find the conversation here the most civil (mostly offset by being much quieter here. Most posts here get < 100 comments, but a video submission slashes that by over half).
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Comment on Sony backed down from the PSN requirement to play Helldivers 2. How will this change how the community reacts to game changes? in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentYour comment prompted parts of that discourse, which is why I replied. Specifically: The talk about being "upfront" wasn't really an interesting part of what I wanted to talk about. It's a...but consider that doing so directly in response to my comment carries the implication that you believe my comment is part of that in some way.
Your comment prompted parts of that discourse, which is why I replied.
Specifically:
selling the game in countries where you can't sign up for the PSN
The talk about being "upfront" wasn't really an interesting part of what I wanted to talk about. It's a company, companies are rarely upfront (be it via malice
It does not mean you are all people, however. That's the power of a threaded discussion which is why I like this format; you can expand upon a topic and branch it out without derailing the entire classical forum, or getting lost in a web of wisps like Twitter.
ou're the one who brought up how small the percentage of players living in these regions might be, and my point was that that's entirely irrelevant and it's gross to even consider that percentage when talking about something that's obviously misleading to do when selling a game on a storefront that allows you to limit which regions you sell the game in.
I'll be brutally honest here:
- I'm not going to care if some people can't play a specific piece of media in their region. It's a video game, you don't get to have everything in life. Suck is up. Epsecially when
- It is not that hard to spoof a region
- Sony is not hunting down people that hard that spoof a region. You are 1000x more likely to be banned for region pricing exploits than being in an unsupported region but choosing a different country
- The internet these days is so openly brazen about piracy regardless. Y'all will find a way. I'm no snitch, but don't expect me to feel sorry for pirates either. Yo do you.
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This is an easy problem with a fix built-in: get a refund and move on in life. Its already half the price of a AAA game, barring regional pricing. You are not going to be unable to pay rent because 3 months later you were betrayed by a video game. Again, have some life perspective and stop centralizing all your energy around video games. A single video game at that. My life professionally revolves around video games and I don't do that. They are just toys (yes, the absolute worst thing to say in a gaming forum).
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This discussion as a whole about "consumer protection" falls completely tone deaf on me as a dev when the very next day I see talented people get kicked out by a trillionaire company. But all the discussion in the gaming sphere is "well they are a business, they gotta make hard choices", and even detractors are like "yeah, they should backtrack like Sony", already forgetting the drama. Yeah, losing your job is comparable to being inconvenienced by playing a game made by those devs and you can just complain on the internet to get them re-hired.
So yes, call me gross if you want. Maybe I'm grosser than you think, because I'm feeling particularly bitter at all gamers right now, not just the ones in underserved areas. They pretend to support us until the slightest roadbump comes up and then we're fed to the wolves. We somehow make a good game, our reward is being fired by corporations, and we can't even get the smallest gesture from the cusomers we served. My goodwill from this drained months ago, and the discourse is entirely to blame.
We don't get to just turn on a VPN and go around getting a new job, Pirating doesn't save us from harassment. Y'all have tools to fight corporations, we don't. Use them next time when (not if) you lose.
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Comment on Sony backed down from the PSN requirement to play Helldivers 2. How will this change how the community reacts to game changes? in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentIt's not really the dev's job to figure out what the publisher wants to do long term, they are probably about as aware of the long term strategy of Sony as you and me. And if we're being honest,...Maybe it was a genuine mistake on the CEO's part.
It's not really the dev's job to figure out what the publisher wants to do long term, they are probably about as aware of the long term strategy of Sony as you and me. And if we're being honest, when a company sees a lot of money, they make a lot of exceptions, especially to blockers.
So I think the blame still mostly lies in Sony's court. They chased raw numbers and should have simply set this up properly if this was important to them long term. Or at least bore the inevitable controversy if it's really important. The decisions shows they still are in "short term" mode.
But it was a brilliant strategic decision on his part because he got a hell of a lot more people playing the game at launch than he would if they had PSN back then.
ehh, we've seen how other protests lasted with much more historically "bad" companies, PR-wise. If it was a requirement at launch, I'd be surprised if less than 90% of the current playerbase played. Vietnam was not going to make or break the virality of such an unexpectedly huge release.
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Comment on Sony backed down from the PSN requirement to play Helldivers 2. How will this change how the community reacts to game changes? in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentThis is less about you and more about the general discourse around the game over the weekend. A "slight exaggeration" can travel the world before the truth has a chance to put on its shoes and all...This is less about you and more about the general discourse around the game over the weekend. A
lie"slight exaggeration" can travel the world before the truth has a chance to put on its shoes and all that. I just think the hypocrisy behind the people accusing Sony of lying is more poignant when these kinds of issues happen in the very community .The idea that doing this is fine because the countries without access to PSN accounts are small or poor and thus less likely to make up a large portion of the playerbase is kinda gross af.
Valve doesn't support all regions either, that's simply how business works. You can't please everyone. I can assure you that "official" support is more of a CYA situation rather than an excuse to ban.
many region/territories spent decades getting officlal support from nearby regions in these cases
So I think your reply is s a bit of a dishonest interpretation, both in how you chose to interpret this part of my comment, and the implication that I was accusing you of saying any of the stuff personally.
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Comment on Sony backed down from the PSN requirement to play Helldivers 2. How will this change how the community reacts to game changes? in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentIf we're being frank: The non-supported regions would have been a fraction of a percent of players the whole "unsupported regions" narrateive was getting way overblown. People were claiming "190...If we're being frank:
- The non-supported regions would have been a fraction of a percent of players
- the whole "unsupported regions" narrateive was getting way overblown. People were claiming "190 unsupported countries" despite the fact that the world has 196 recognized countries. As usual , nuance on the internet gets lost as they blurred the line between countries, regions, teritories, and the fact that many region/territories spent decades getting officlal support from nearby regions in these cases
To add a tiny cherry on top, people were even claiming Steam supported more regions than Microsoft. Well, quick scan (and realizing than an Xbox account is a microsoft account) shows how misguided that notion is.
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Comment on Microsoft closes Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentNot surprising, but depressing all the same. Blizzard took a huge hit, so nothing is sacred in Microsoft. If you aren't working on a huge IP right now, you're in the redzone. Wouldn't be surprised...Not particularly surprising.
Not surprising, but depressing all the same. Blizzard took a huge hit, so nothing is sacred in Microsoft. If you aren't working on a huge IP right now, you're in the redzone. Wouldn't be surprised if Ninja Theory gets a hit next when Hellblade II doesn't get 10m sales at launch, while being a day one gamepass release.
This is all to say that I've seen the past year and a half of game layoffs and that this is still completely unacceptable for a publisher who'd ideally want to retain talent and foster new IP's, instead of relying on Marvel and whatever else Hollywood throws at them. But maybe that's what these billion dollar studios prefer with the current short term strategy. Relying on Disney has historically ended well...
I think the saddest part was that more consumers would be justifying the shutdowns if Tango wasn't here and made a critical darling last year, out of nowhere.
To list a complete contrast: https://twitter.com/maxnichols/status/1716315408784085022
To put Nintendo's incredible continuity into a bit more perspective-
Super Mario Bros. (1985) was made by a team of five people, 38 years ago. Of those five people, four of them worked on Super Mario Bros. Wonder.(and the fifth may still be at Nintendo, he was last credited in 2019 and there's been no retirement announcement)
Nintendo has its own shares of contractor hell, but when they see talent, they do their darnedest to keep you in for life.
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Comment on Microsoft closes Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda in ~games
raze2012 LinkYup, welcome to games. You make a critical stinker and you're probably laid off, even if your contributions are purely technical. You make a dark horse game of the year contender and you're still...Yup, welcome to games. You make a critical stinker and you're probably laid off, even if your contributions are purely technical. You make a dark horse game of the year contender and you're still not guaranteed job security, maybe because a completely unrelated game didn't completely soar with success.
If I had to guess, location may have been one factor for these studios:
- As is in the name, Arkane is in Austin, Texas. A bustling scene for gamedev but definitely a state of... various contention as of late.
- Tango is located in Tokyo, from what I can tell. Microsoft seems to turn on and off on the idea of having reach in Asia every other year, and I guess we're in the off year. As a bit of consulation, you can't just "layoff" people in Japan at the tip of a hat (see: Twitter), so I imagine they will have a very generous compensation package.
- Alpha Dog is in Canada, Another strategic gaming scene growing but also a country with various issues regarding housing and business stipends and all that. I'm guess MS simply wants to pull out
- Lastly Roundhouse Studios is situated in Wiscounsin. Most interestingly, it's the only one being absorbed instead of shut down. It's a sucessor to HumnanHead Studios (makers of rune, support studio for games like Prey, Brink), but as Roundhouse it only worked on supporting Redfall. I guess the location is low cost of living enough to keep supporting, but since Arkane is shutdown they want to integrate it into Zenimax's other services.
Anyways this all sucks and I doubt this is the end of the culling. It's just going to be a very rough 2024 for games, with much less scapegoating of the slurry of high quality games to sugarcoat it (which mostly came as delays due to the pandemic).
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Comment on Sony backed down from the PSN requirement to play Helldivers 2. How will this change how the community reacts to game changes? in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentYeah, that's what I meant. Good way to sneak in the policy with a single player prominent game. But it shows that that are still adamant in putting that overlay in on future games.Yeah, that's what I meant. Good way to sneak in the policy with a single player prominent game. But it shows that that are still adamant in putting that overlay in on future games.
I'm not entirely sure how much stock I take in this angle, but I can believe this was part of the mentality in the executive's heads.
The idea of scatter the talent about seems pretty outdated, though. More people than ever are creating their own independent studios, and while the industry is in freefall they are still hiring, especially as rebounds for these layoffs. It's basically free pickings to snatch them up in the market compared to buying the talent directly.
In Japan it doesn't seem to be an effective strategy at all. Mikami will probably snatch up a few or more of the lai off employees in Tango and basically continue where Microsoft left off. Basically the worst case scenario for this scheme. On top of that, Japan' gaming industry will devour the talent in weeks. I don't imagine many will peter out of the industry as a result of this; their culture conditions them to seek a company and spend their entire career there, after all.
I do think a lot of these layoffs were simply ones of environment. For various reasons Microsoft didn't want to support studios in certain locations, pulling out their remaining Japanese presence (again...), pulling out of Canada in its tumultuous economy, and simply shuttering a studio in Austin (which I think they still have a presence in?) due to ol' fashioned "game failed, staff cut" reasons.