Life without layoffs, or why they are an avoidable part of game development. We talk to veteran game designer and CEO, Jesse Schell, who hasn't laid off any devs in 22 years

Despite what the headlines suggest, no – layoffs are not an inevitability. Jesse Schell – a veteran designer and author…

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You guys do know that outside the US you can't generally advertise permanent positions and then just decide it's temporarily more convenient not to have people on payroll, right?

Y'all need employment reform
- I know a generally wonderful human being, taking care of his disabled parents, scraping by at a manufacturing job. He is hardcore against unions, says that he can negotiate for himself.
  
  We're fucked.
  
  When you're reliant on every penny you make, having part of your paycheck going towards a union can seem like a bad decision at face value.
- Thanks, we know, we will instead be getting theocratic fascism in about a year.
  
  Can I marry you and move to wherever you live?
This really shouldn't be mind blowing. It's pretty obvious that proper planning can absolutely result in utilizing dev time effectively. There are loads of underlying technologies you're using and you don't have to have the next project fully planned to improve your systems and get prepared for it.

And how much money do you think you're saving by firing people and hiring a new team 6 months later? Recruitment costs money. Hiring costs money. Onboarding takes a lot of man hours from your whole team, which costs money. And you lose all the institutional knowledge and familiarity, so you lose efficiency, which costs money.
I looked up the company to see what they made. Nothing too crazy, VR games mostly. I Expect You to Die was a hit from what I remember.

edit: wiki link

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