Ainsworth, as a company, is an extremely sick patient who refuses treatment. Everyone in the industry knows the horror stories from the company, but even looking at it from the outside, it is clear that Ainsworth is in a state of utter disarray. The stock is trading at the same level it was trading at in mid-2011. The performance figures from recent domestic releases show numbers so bad that operators are losing all faith in the ability of Ainsworth games to perform.
There was a change in leadership in early 2017 where accountability and meeting our deadlines was promised; both of these were corporate cultural improvements that were badly needed. It was a short-lived promise. It didn't take long for the product plan that was driven by the leadership to be broken beyond repair. A press release was issued, publicly disclosing that all of the missed dates and poor product quality would significantly and negatively impact earnings. Mysteriously, all talk about accountability and meeting deadlines suddenly disappeared. The stock dropped 50% and tens of millions of dollars in market cap was lost. For the people responsible, it was business as usual. There was no accountability nor was there an acknowledgement of the enormous mistakes made. Rather than begin the healing process for the company, the CEO sent out an email saying that the market "over-reacted" and the stock analysts got it all wrong. In the ensuing weeks, the stock dropped another 33%. How embarrassing for him.
As the upper management is frozen under crippling indifference, with the CEO leaving in a few months and no one else seemingly interested in putting in an effort to right the ship, most of us are worried about inevitable payroll cuts. Bonuses and raises have been non-existent for years; surely, with our profits pummeling and debt starting to mount, the fear in the office is the company will begin to recoup their losses by redundancies or other payroll cuts.
The actual process of developing games at Ainsworth is terrible. We use antiquated, buggy tools that haven't been updated for over a decade. There is a focus on quantity of product over quality; games are not fully tested and are rushed out the door. There is an epidemic of games being revoked once they reach the field, a troubling and embarrassing situation that has shaken the confidence our customers have in the company. And when all is said and done, the games do not perform well. There is no pride or sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, as games churn through our banks monthly as we desperately try to hold on to our dwindling machines count. And, of course, accountability for those who make the decisions responsible for the performance of these games is completely non-existent.
The worst part is that no one in the company really thinks there's a light at the end of the tunnel, or any chance of Ainsworth becoming a successful company. It is a workplace of zombies, where passion, creativity, and ingenuity is non-existent, mostly thanks to the culture where this type of thing is usually punished rather than rewarded. I do not think it would be a beneficial career move for anyone to be employed at Ainsworth.
