Original｜Odaily
Author｜Loopy
Last week, Yuga Labs’ leadership team made a decision that will have a huge impact on the project after conferring in New York. Yuga Labs said on its official Twitter account that its team will be reorganized to better focus on core priorities, but these changes are necessary for the growth of the organization.
Layoffs and team reorganization
The encryption industry is a market that is highly connected to market conditions. Layoffs are a bear market standard for almost every crypto company. And Yuga Labs, like other companies struggling in the bear market, began layoffs as scheduled.
The team said it had some difficult news to bring to everyone, that many roles will be eliminated across the company, and that the reorganization will impact many colleagues.
For colleagues who have been optimized away, Yuga Labs said they are committed to providing them with all the support they need. Includes generous severance package, COBRA coverage and assistance finding new employment opportunities. A meeting will be held today with affected employees in the United States. Discussions will be held with affected employees, their department heads and personnel teams.
One phenomenon that is not so Web3 is that off-chain practitioners are citizens of various countries in the legal sense, and layoffs naturally have nationality differences. Yuga Labs pointed out that Todays reorganization affects U.S. team members, and we are actively reviewing the impact on the international team. The official did not elaborate on the difference between the U.S. team and the international team in the reorganization matter, and we can only wait and see what happens next. follow up. However, the official also made a notice and will disclose more details at the upcoming all-staff meeting.
Can Meebits and 10 KTF be saved?
In this layoff, the brands most affected may be 10 KTF and the acquired Meebits.
Official information shows that the teams of NFT projects Meebits and 10 KTF will be reorganized. This also means that it is difficult for these two NFT projects to have their own teams, and the collections of these two series may suffer a major blow.
After the reorganization, the teams of Meebits and 10 KTF will become part of Otherside.
Although Yuga Labs stated that this does not mean that the creative storytelling opportunities for the brand have disappeared, there is still a lot to be done in Otherside. However, the brand value of the two series will still be affected.
As for the outlet for the two NFT collections, Yuga Labs said, “Meebits is a collection built for the Metaverse, and the 10 KTF store will finally have a permanent home.”
How does the future develop?
Yuga Labs put it bluntly that its team will be reorganized to better focus on core priorities. So what are priorities?
In the disclosure, the team gave three directions:
1. Committed to community expansion, growth, and brand interaction;
2. Go all out to implement the Otherside strategy, including games, entertainment experiences, interactive social connections and other unique initiatives;
3. Focus internal development efforts on a few core things and continue to build complementary, long-term partnerships.
It also gave future plans for its two major communities.
BAYC Community:The team will support the expansion of Made by Apes and other programs designed to empower members. The team themselves understand the importance of “early BAYC vibe” and are committed to maintaining this energy while continuing to foster the culture and creativity of the community.
In terms of concrete implementation, ApeFest Hong Kong will be held in the next few weeks. In addition, it will bring users an important, multi-functional and continuous gaming experience in 2024.
CryptoPunks Community:The team will devote resources to solidifying and celebrating the series’ crypto-art legacy through education, including an upcoming book. Improve and simplify the Punks app and continue to create engaging experiences.
Otherside will be the focus of development
The teams of Meebits and 10 KTF were merged into Otherside, and Otherside is also a key development direction in the future. Officially, the Otherside team will build new gaming experiences in 2024 through third-party partnerships.
Demonstration of the Otherside platform is expected in 2024. Previously, the development of Otherside has been less disclosed to the outside world. Officials say that to address this issue, regular development updates will begin in the coming weeks.
In addition, more partnerships will be developed. Recently Yuga Labs has just announced a stable of partnerships, including Hadean, Bad Rhino, OMA 3, Accelbyte, Faraway, and more. In the future, we will continue to establish brand partnerships, including with partners such as Gucci and A Bathing Ape, to expand new engagement opportunities within the communities we serve.
Is the road in the past narrow?
An interesting detail is that the official said, Partnerships are critical to our rapid and efficient growth, which allows us to focus on what we do best. Why did Yuga Labs say this?
According to the official’s own explanation, in the past development path, Yuga Labs’ work was too scattered, making it difficult to focus on important “core things.”
For six months, Yuga sought to develop a clear vision that focused the team on creative storytelling and community building, which it said is at the core of Yuga.
But Yuga Labs’ large and complex business and numerous projects have spread the team too thin and already require “execution expertise beyond our core competencies.” This also laid the foundation for Yuga Labs’ today’s reorganization. For example, the official generously admitted the shortcomings of the game project in the disclosure - Especially in the execution of the game, we should not do this.
After careful consideration, the core staff of Yuga Labs decided that the team had taken on too much work on its own, making it difficult to focus. Yuga Labs should benefit from more third-party power. In the future, the teams work will be more focused on a few key initiatives, on things that only Yuga can do.
NFTGO data shows that BAYC’s current floor price is 26.25 ETH, which has continued to fall in the past year. Compared with the ATH price (128 ETH), it has dropped by 80%. It has repeatedly released new gameplay but has been criticized by the community. APE The governance mechanism of Yuga has been publicly criticized several times by major investors, and other IP acquired by Yuga have not been operating well. Can this strategic adjustment put Yuga Labs huge NFT empire on the right track? The NFT market has been disappointed many times, but still full of expectations.
