GFA Games studio, working on the shooter Pioner, is in a protracted crisis. According to App2Top sources, an acute conflict is growing within the company: management and developers actually look at the state of the project from opposite sides, and some employees have not received salaries for months.
Top management, it is claimed, prefers not to pay attention to the negative reaction of the audience and specialized media. The arguments given are relatively good user ratings on Steam and the overall revenue of the game. However, the picture is not so clear: if in some regions the rating looks acceptable, then in aggregate it is noticeably lower, and the project's income, according to various analysts, ranges widely - from 900 thousand to 2.6 million dollars.
At the same time, the mood within the team is much more pessimistic. Developers closely monitor player feedback and largely agree with it. Users massively complain about technical problems, unstable server operation, loss of progress and controversial game design decisions - and the employees themselves, according to sources, criticize both the already implemented elements and new initiatives of the management.
The main point of tension is the refusal of managers to recognize the scale of the problems. According to App2Top sources, this leads to incorrect priorities: instead of fixing key shortcomings, the team receives tasks that are weakly related to the real needs of the game. An example is the hasty introduction of a subscription to a paid project after the start of early access - a decision that diverted resources from fixing critical bugs. A similar situation occurred with the in-game store: its development was either frozen or urgently returned to work, sacrificing the preparation of the release version.
In general, according to sources, many mechanics were added literally on the finish line without proper testing and polishing. This directly affected the quality: a significant part of the systems either works unstably or does not arouse interest among players.
The situation is aggravated by financial difficulties. Part of the team, according to available data, has not received payments since February - and this is the first such serious failure in all the time of development. Management explains the delays by external factors: problems with transfers, currency control and account blocking. Nevertheless, this has already led to an outflow of personnel.
In the last month alone, at least ten people have left the company, and many employees have suspended work due to wage arrears. At the same time, according to sources, payments continue to be received not by everyone: some specialists receive money, some do not. It is also noted that outside of Russia the payment situation looks more stable, although there are delays there as well.
