Amidst another wave of layoffs at Microsoft, former Halo 4 mission designer and recently laid-off Marathon developer Dan Callan shared a story about how out of touch, in his opinion, gaming industry executives can be.
Callan recalled a demonstration of Halo 4 to former Xbox head Don Mattrick. During the presentation of a mission featuring the first appearance of the Mantis combat mech, the executive unexpectedly interrupted the presentation with the question: "Has anyone here played Diablo 3?".
According to Callan, Mattrick then suggested implementing a real-money auction idea in Halo 4 for purchasing mech skins in the campaign — similar to the infamous auction from Diablo 3.
The developer noted that this idea came after the auction system in Diablo 3 had already faced severe criticism from players. It negatively impacted gameplay, created problems with the game's economy, and was subsequently completely removed by Blizzard.
Callan claims that the employees present at the meeting understood the absurdity of the proposal but were forced to pretend to take it seriously and even discuss possible next steps to avoid disagreeing with management.
That's when I realized that game executives live in a completely different reality.
Commenting on the current layoffs at Microsoft, Callan emphasized that, in his opinion, the responsibility for the current situation lies not with the developers who lost their jobs, but with the people who made key management decisions.
So yes, executives remain stupid, detached, money-greedy idiots.