Ken Levine: "We've never had a layoff in the history of our company"

According to 2K Boston head Ken Levine, hiring the right people for your studio creates not only stability, but does away the need to hire loads of employees to finish a job, only to let them go afterward.

"We've never had a layoff in the history of our company, and I'm very proud of that," he told Gamasutra. "When we were a private company, and now that we're part of a public company. And, you know, I can't make predictions for the future, but I think culturally we've always felt it was very important to hire the right people -- and not hire too many people so things get out of control -- and think about a plan.

"One of the reasons, I think, that you see a lot of layoffs in this industry is that you have these huge products, and you don't have a plan for what you do afterward. So the product ends, and -- you see this day after day, you know -- teams get cut in half or shut down after the product ships, because there's no plan to move on for the future.

"We've fortunately planned well. And that was very tricky when we were a private company, but it was very important to me. And, frankly, I think that's one of the reasons we've always been relatively small. It's because, if you get a huge staff, that makes you feel good, and you sit out there, and you go, "Oh, look at my domain, here. I've got 200 people working on this product."

"But that's a tough number to carry at the end of a project."

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