"Word began spreading when George Broussard, best known as the co-creator of Duke Nukem Forever, tweeted earlier this evening that SOE was seeing layoffs and "studio closure is possible." Kotaku has confirmed through a source familiar with the matter that the closures affect SOE's studios in Seattle, Tucson, Ariz. and Denver. Half of the workforce at SOE offices in Austin, Texas were pink slipped along with a sizeable portion of San Diego. In sum, it accounts for nearly one-third of SOE's manpower before today."
The only response I can see on DCUO's board is a 'We can't comment' from RadarX.
33% layoff? Didn't think they were in THAT bad of shape.
Some of that is bound to be because DCUO is basically finished with the post release crunch mainly sorted out and now its just maintenance & maybe new content if the game makes money. Granted 33% layoff is a lot however we dont know how many people were brought on in the last few years specifically for DCUO.
Interesting that its across multiple studios but not entirely uncommon for multiple studios to be working on the same game, however its rarely efficient.
Smeldey was the one behind the CU and NGE and other huge decisions that changed SOE games that were once great. He is the only person at SOE that I know of who deserves the boot.
Dear old Smed is in fact the main source of Evil at SOE. ^^ The NGE is only one of the various crimes that could be laid at his doorstep. In any sane world, he would have been fired and heard the immortal phrase "You will never work in this industry again!"... Instead he was promoted. Closing three studios and firing that many talented people is not a good sign.
Anyone happen to remember Babylon 5? Remember the conversation between Vir and Mr Mordan? How about Smed in the role of Mordan?...(Wraith waves at Smed...) ^^
Either create high quality games that people will pay for, or go out of business and/or reduce your staff. I neither feel good nor bad for anyone, as this is simple economics. Blizzard isn't announcing major layoffs for a reason.....
Anyway, there are too many SOE games lately that have bombed. What do you expect? Make games that people want and buy, and you wouldn't have layoffs. Pretty simple. Keeping people employed for just the sake of keeping them employed is silly. I hope these people can go and find jobs making games that people (including me) enjoy playing in the future rather than wasting time working on games that suck.
We wanted to share this information with you here, rather than having you read about it on another site. The EQII community is a large part of the ongoing success of SOE, and the game is in a strong position to succeed. Development continues unabated on EverQuest II, and you can look forward to a Producer’s Letter next week with more information about what lies ahead for the game’s development in 2011.
For those who wish to comment, please use THIS thread. It will remain unlocked as long as conversation remains constructive and polite. Our CMs and Mods have been asked to redirect all other related posts to this one as well.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.
Linda "Brasse" Carlson
Director of Global Community Relations, SOE
---------~~========~~---------
I have a Qlu'Stiq and I'm not afraid to use it.
Taken from the EQ2 forums. I have highlighted the important part
Either create high quality games that people will pay for, or go out of business and/or reduce your staff. I neither feel good nor bad for anyone, as this is simple economics. Blizzard isn't announcing major layoffs for a reason.....
Anyway, there are too many SOE games lately that have bombed. What do you expect? Make games that people want and buy, and you wouldn't have layoffs. Pretty simple. Keeping people employed for just the sake of keeping them employed is silly. I hope these people can go and find jobs making games that people (including me) enjoy playing in the future rather than wasting time working on games that suck.
This is silly...most games bomb. Check the meta score of games that released this year alone. Even the ones that score A's and B's are a financial flop. You can never predict what people will and will not buy.
Blizzard hasn't had major layoffs b/c they release the same 3 games every 5 years. They don't try anything new or different.
DCUO sold well on the PC and PS3...PS3 is still going strong with all servers at medium population. DCUO is a console game so its not shocking it didn't do well on the PC.
Clone Wars has thousands of players.
Free Realms has thousands of players.
That's their most recent games. They are all successful. Their next most recent was 5 years ago and it still has people playing...so not sure what game has bombed. Do any of these games have 12 million subs? No. But a game doesn't need 12 Millions subs to have success.
Smeldey was the one behind the CU and NGE and other huge decisions that changed SOE games that were once great. He is the only person at SOE that I know of who deserves the boot.
NGE/CU never happens unless Lucas Arts gave the go ahead. They had a tight grip on that IP. Even devs came out and said they wouldn't let them do anything. I am fully convinced they initiated it. Which is why I do not have great feelings about TOR at the end of the day. Its really just a fully fleshed out CU/NGE system.
This is silly...most games bomb. Check the meta score of games that released this year alone. Even the ones that score A's and B's are a financial flop. You can never predict what people will and will not buy.
Blizzard hasn't had major layoffs b/c they release the same 3 games every 5 years. They don't try anything new or different.
DCUO sold well on the PC and PS3...PS3 is still going strong with all servers at medium population. DCUO is a console game so its not shocking it didn't do well on the PC.
Clone Wars has thousands of players.
Free Realms has thousands of players.
That's their most recent games. They are all successful. Their next most recent was 5 years ago and it still has people playing...so not sure what game has bombed. Do any of these games have 12 million subs? No. But a game doesn't need 12 Millions subs to have success.
How does other companies creating failures dimish what is happening at soe in the slightest? This isn't some commonplace practice that signals normal game operations for a studio like this.
As for Blizzard they might release the same few titles, but they do so to critical success, record breaking sales and rave reviews. They spend time listening to what players want and making sure their games are as complete as possible before they release them.
In stark contrast soe has a long ugly history of rushing games to market woefully incomplete and taking exceedingly long times to address those issues if they even get addressed. They also have a long history of not only ignoring their customers concerns, but actively lieing and concealing their actions and directions for their games. Soe spends so much time focusing on customers they do not have that they tend to alienate the customers they do have.
That doesn't make for a solid business model and it is no real surprise they have went from industry leader to slashing studios and staff at a drastic and alarming rate.
Free Realms and Clone Wars have each had millions of people sign up to play them, but the best you can say is that they have thousands of players. DCU has only seen 1 content update in almost 3 months. The PC side is dead and the PS3 side isn't much better. 9 servers at medium isn't enough to earn back $55 million dollar investment and split revenues with Warner Brothers, SOE and SCEA.
That isn't success. If those games were successes then soe would not be cutting 1/3 of the employees and closing 3 studios.
I believe in karma and I would never wish upon others what I do not want to happen to my own family. I will never rejoice in this as a company actively employing people has now laid them off. As for SOE lying to people well that is their karma come home to roost I guess.
Either way you look at it the remaining dev staff for DCUO will be moved 3 stats away, so there goes your monthly updates. At least until the dust settles down.
Hmmm... didn't think of that. Not that monthly updates were actually gonna happening...
I believe in karma and I would never wish upon others what I do not want to happen to my own family. I will never rejoice in this as a company actively employing people has now laid them off. As for SOE lying to people well that is their karma come home to roost I guess.
Let's all hope for another gaming company with good leadership to come and scoop some of the talent up...
I only waited for this day for many years...........
Now my biggest wish is that SWG is shut down for good
They brought this on themselves and I don't have to tell anyone here of all the evil they have done to gamers.
I've watched other game companies shut down promising games but yet somehow SOE always kept crap titles alive by mysterious reasons a.k.a Star Wars Galaxies with a player base of like 5 people.
That's your biggest wish? Time to scurry out from you parent's basement and see the world a bit there, chief.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
I am sure there are alot of factors that contributed to the current layoffs/downsizing but I am also reasonably sure that DCUO's so-so sales and steady decline in paying subs helped push SOE over the edge. They spent huge money developing this game and are nowhere close to breaking even.
I have the "legends" sub plan which I had to cancel because I am unable to play because of graphics lag/server response issue that is affecting a fair number of players. If they should happen to get that fixed sometime before my paid sub runs out in May I might re-up, but since they just laid off a substantial number of their staff the chances of them fixing anything just decreased dramatically.
Its too bad, I really enjoyed the game for the 3 weeks I was able to play it before the 2/22 patch broke it for me and many others.
Who knows, maybe they will turn things around, there is always hope, right????
I just can't feel bad for people getting laid off. That just comes off as a litle to harsh for me. So they may have made some bad decisions, but I have a feeling that the people that made the bad decisions weren't the ones getting the pink slip, it's the ones initiating the changes in the game. It's lame, straight up.
We wanted to share this information with you all directly, rather than sending you on to read about it on other sites. PoxNora has the benefit of a solid, supportive and engaged player base that many games would envy. We are listening, and we will continue to bring new runes to the battlefield. While there are many changes afoot, we also hope to bring you a Producer’s Letter next week to give you a glimpse at what lies ahead for Pox in 2011.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.
This is why the corporate structure does not work. John Smedley was allowed to sink this ship and for his failures other people paid the price. This is sad news today, I feel no great joy and I am one of the biggest SOE haters out there.
After the NGE debacle, John Smedley should have resigned. If that happened, then maybe today these poor peope would still have their jobs.
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii. --In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses. --The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence! --CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
This is why the corporate structure does not work. John Smedley was allowed to sink this ship and for his failures other people paid the price. This is sad news today, I feel no great joy and I am one of the biggest SOE haters out there.
After the NGE debacle, John Smedley should have resigned. If that happened, then maybe today these poor peope would still have their jobs.
Perhaps, but who is to say that someone just as bad or worse(say David Bowman) wouldn't have taken his place? Power systems(public/private) tend to self select for the type of person who will actively seek and abuse them. They also tend to be structured so that its those who make the decisions (at the top), who are the most protected.
Those who do the actual work, are considered to be interchangeable cogs, to be used up and discarded like batteries. SOE is no different than the vast majority of large corporations and other power systems in that regard. Remember the tempest in a tea pot over the way EA treats its people? Just another example of many.
Seriously, it is VERY difficult NOT to rejoice! You know, the issue with SOE is: ALL of their MMOs would have had the potential to be REALLY a great game. SWG, EQ2, DCU... all of them. But for whatever reasons SOE has EVERY SINGLE TIME found a way to bork it. Badly. And while sure Mr.Smartass Smed has a central responsibility and I will make a feast the day he goes where he belongs to - in the the line of unemployed! - I am sure all those smaller devs have their responsibility just as well.
SOE saw this coming miles away and they deserve every shit that hits them! Now they lowered their prices for monthly fees. Seems someone is getting desperate.
Here is the hint, SOE: MAKE THE FUCK QUALITY!
You know, in alteration of the quote of Vir Kotto I'd suggest to stick Mr. Smeds head on a pike in Mos Eisley "as a warning for the next TEN GENERATIONS of game developers that some things come at too high a price." Can we arrange that?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
SOE has been in business a long time, 12 years for EQ1.
So, it seems it has it's share of haters along the way, most of them the SWG fanbois who just won't let it go.
Yup, they screwed the pooch and incited riots with that game, 'nuff said, drop it or eternally nerd rage your choice.
Sucks 205 employees lost jobs, but I have worked in this industry and can tell you, there are tons of those folks who are paid for doing absolutely nothing. Maybe the same situation happened at SOE where someone looked around, and said..'I think we need some productivity incentive...like keeping your jobs.'
I currently play EQ2extended, have been for the last 3 months or so, and couldn't be happier with the content, and population of this MMO. SOE has a hit here, and to say they are hurting in any way is just mind blowing.
Their version of F2P is actually the best F2P version I have played to date. I have enjoyed Aika, PWI, FEZ, DDO, WARHammer and AoC trials, as other examples of F2P games, and EQ2ex is far ahead of them in terms of cash shop and subscription incentives. I also have been an avid subscriber to most MMOs since beta EQ1, too many to list.
Did I mention the population? insane amount, the server has crashed from it more times than I can count, but I can tell you a server crashing because of load is the greatest crash a gamer can want.
Am I an SOE fanboi? no. Far from it, Smed has angered me at times forcing me to leave and discover new games, and I would not assume he wouldn't do it again, or else he wouldn't be Smed.
But to say EQ is hurting financially? No. From where I am standing, EQ1 is still bringing in it's share, EQ2 as well, SWG/Vanguard is pure profit waiting for attention, EQ2ex is their latest cash cow with my guess making money over and beyond what DCOU has made with minimal investment, which could have made heads turn and cause the 'changes'.
Oh yeas, the classic excuse of soes only problem being SWG and anyone who complains must be angry as a result of that one lone single mistake soe made. Blah blah.
Then everytime soe has company wide layoffs there is the excuse that there are somehow all these employees sitting around doing nothing and can cut as if their loss will not have an affect.
Sorry, but SOE has cut almost half of its entire workforce in the last 2-3 years. There is no excuse or apology that can be made to downplay that. Furthermore SOE has alienated plenty of players from all of their games. That isn't some special feature that has been reserved for SWG players.
All rationalizations, excuses and apologies aside, SOE is a company that is falling apart. They have run most of their games into the ground. You say EQ isn't hurting, but they just went through a round of server mergers. Almost every game they have has had several rounds of server mergers. Those that have not are filled with players begging for mergers.
All the facts about the company are screaming that soe is in huge trouble. Enjoying 1 game isn't a good foundation for believing a company that just cut 3 studios, 1/3 of their employees and cancelled 1 massive project isn't in trouble.
Well a couple of years ago they cut back a bunch of folks something like 100. Now on 3/31 they cut 205 folks out. Close 3 studios and axe 1 project.
This is a company in trouble. The had the basse come out and post on each remaining game site that's up and going that this changes nothing for this game, trying to ease fears. I'm not buying it.
When you cut that much workforce, you asking the folks who are left to do more with less, and that worries me, because I play eq2, and hell they fired one of the better devs who created some really nice zones, and another dev who does artwork.
Facts are facts
SWG -- a few years back servers cut in half
vanguard - servers merged into one remaining server
eq - just had sever merges
eq2 - we just had sever merges cutting the servers by half
dcuo from what all I am reading all servers are showing low population, are they going to be merged.
Those are had fact, it says that your player base is going elsewhere, its a harsh cold reality, and if they don't do something soon, its going to be really bad. I just think what happened on the 31st was the first round in trying to fix the problem.
I think were in for a rough ride this year, for those of us left playing the flagship games that still exist.
Well a couple of years ago they cut back a bunch of folks something like 100. Now on 3/31 they cut 205 folks out. Close 3 studios and axe 1 project.
This is a company in trouble. The had the basse come out and post on each remaining game site that's up and going that this changes nothing for this game, trying to ease fears. I'm not buying it.
When you cut that much workforce, you asking the folks who are left to do more with less, and that worries me, because I play eq2, and hell they fired one of the better devs who created some really nice zones, and another dev who does artwork.
Facts are facts
SWG -- a few years back servers cut in half
vanguard - servers merged into one remaining server
eq - just had sever merges
eq2 - we just had sever merges cutting the servers by half
dcuo from what all I am reading all servers are showing low population, are they going to be merged.
Those are had fact, it says that your player base is going elsewhere, its a harsh cold reality, and if they don't do something soon, its going to be really bad. I just think what happened on the 31st was the first round in trying to fix the problem.
I think were in for a rough ride this year, for those of us left playing the flagship games that still exist.
that SOE is probably in financial trouble isnt really news.. but what people might have missed is that Sony isnt exactly doing well either, pretty sure i read something last year about them having to restructure their finances ... things could get worse at SOE very easily.
Well a couple of years ago they cut back a bunch of folks something like 100. Now on 3/31 they cut 205 folks out. Close 3 studios and axe 1 project. This is a company in trouble. The had the basse come out and post on each remaining game site that's up and going that this changes nothing for this game, trying to ease fears. I'm not buying it. When you cut that much workforce, you asking the folks who are left to do more with less, and that worries me, because I play eq2, and hell they fired one of the better devs who created some really nice zones, and another dev who does artwork. Facts are facts SWG -- a few years back servers cut in half vanguard - servers merged into one remaining server eq - just had sever merges eq2 - we just had sever merges cutting the servers by half dcuo from what all I am reading all servers are showing low population, are they going to be merged. Those are had fact, it says that your player base is going elsewhere, its a harsh cold reality, and if they don't do something soon, its going to be really bad. I just think what happened on the 31st was the first round in trying to fix the problem. I think were in for a rough ride this year, for those of us left playing the flagship games that still exist.
that SOE is probably in financial trouble isnt really news.. but what people might have missed is that Sony isnt exactly doing well either, pretty sure i read something last year about them having to restructure their finances ... things could get worse at SOE very easily.
It's their fault really. They've mishandled game after game with poor desicions and tactless PR. I feel horrible for the Vanguard folks. Great community that put up with so much and yet stuck it out for their love of the game. What this says of the future of SOE I don't know. I do think clearly they are probably downsizing to focus on the EQ line. It's their moneymaker. Who knows, with a smaller, more focused work force we may have a better EQ product in the future. That is if anyone is willing to spend money on SOE. After these recent years, I'm doubting it.
Comments
Some of that is bound to be because DCUO is basically finished with the post release crunch mainly sorted out and now its just maintenance & maybe new content if the game makes money. Granted 33% layoff is a lot however we dont know how many people were brought on in the last few years specifically for DCUO.
Interesting that its across multiple studios but not entirely uncommon for multiple studios to be working on the same game, however its rarely efficient.
Dear old Smed is in fact the main source of Evil at SOE. ^^ The NGE is only one of the various crimes that could be laid at his doorstep. In any sane world, he would have been fired and heard the immortal phrase "You will never work in this industry again!"... Instead he was promoted. Closing three studios and firing that many talented people is not a good sign.
Anyone happen to remember Babylon 5? Remember the conversation between Vir and Mr Mordan? How about Smed in the role of Mordan?...(Wraith waves at Smed...) ^^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0n2vurSBIQ
Either create high quality games that people will pay for, or go out of business and/or reduce your staff. I neither feel good nor bad for anyone, as this is simple economics. Blizzard isn't announcing major layoffs for a reason.....
Anyway, there are too many SOE games lately that have bombed. What do you expect? Make games that people want and buy, and you wouldn't have layoffs. Pretty simple. Keeping people employed for just the sake of keeping them employed is silly. I hope these people can go and find jobs making games that people (including me) enjoy playing in the future rather than wasting time working on games that suck.
Fellow Adventurers,
We wanted to share this information with you here, rather than having you read about it on another site. The EQII community is a large part of the ongoing success of SOE, and the game is in a strong position to succeed. Development continues unabated on EverQuest II, and you can look forward to a Producer’s Letter next week with more information about what lies ahead for the game’s development in 2011.
For those who wish to comment, please use THIS thread. It will remain unlocked as long as conversation remains constructive and polite. Our CMs and Mods have been asked to redirect all other related posts to this one as well.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.
Linda "Brasse" Carlson
Director of Global Community Relations, SOE
---------~~========~~---------
I have a Qlu'Stiq and I'm not afraid to use it.
Taken from the EQ2 forums. I have highlighted the important part
This is silly...most games bomb. Check the meta score of games that released this year alone. Even the ones that score A's and B's are a financial flop. You can never predict what people will and will not buy.
Blizzard hasn't had major layoffs b/c they release the same 3 games every 5 years. They don't try anything new or different.
DCUO sold well on the PC and PS3...PS3 is still going strong with all servers at medium population. DCUO is a console game so its not shocking it didn't do well on the PC.
Clone Wars has thousands of players.
Free Realms has thousands of players.
That's their most recent games. They are all successful. Their next most recent was 5 years ago and it still has people playing...so not sure what game has bombed. Do any of these games have 12 million subs? No. But a game doesn't need 12 Millions subs to have success.
NGE/CU never happens unless Lucas Arts gave the go ahead. They had a tight grip on that IP. Even devs came out and said they wouldn't let them do anything. I am fully convinced they initiated it. Which is why I do not have great feelings about TOR at the end of the day. Its really just a fully fleshed out CU/NGE system.
How does other companies creating failures dimish what is happening at soe in the slightest? This isn't some commonplace practice that signals normal game operations for a studio like this.
As for Blizzard they might release the same few titles, but they do so to critical success, record breaking sales and rave reviews. They spend time listening to what players want and making sure their games are as complete as possible before they release them.
In stark contrast soe has a long ugly history of rushing games to market woefully incomplete and taking exceedingly long times to address those issues if they even get addressed. They also have a long history of not only ignoring their customers concerns, but actively lieing and concealing their actions and directions for their games. Soe spends so much time focusing on customers they do not have that they tend to alienate the customers they do have.
That doesn't make for a solid business model and it is no real surprise they have went from industry leader to slashing studios and staff at a drastic and alarming rate.
Free Realms and Clone Wars have each had millions of people sign up to play them, but the best you can say is that they have thousands of players. DCU has only seen 1 content update in almost 3 months. The PC side is dead and the PS3 side isn't much better. 9 servers at medium isn't enough to earn back $55 million dollar investment and split revenues with Warner Brothers, SOE and SCEA.
That isn't success. If those games were successes then soe would not be cutting 1/3 of the employees and closing 3 studios.
I believe in karma and I would never wish upon others what I do not want to happen to my own family. I will never rejoice in this as a company actively employing people has now laid them off. As for SOE lying to people well that is their karma come home to roost I guess.
Hmmm... didn't think of that. Not that monthly updates were actually gonna happening...
Let's all hope for another gaming company with good leadership to come and scoop some of the talent up...
Think Trion might be hiring?
That's your biggest wish? Time to scurry out from you parent's basement and see the world a bit there, chief.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
I am sure there are alot of factors that contributed to the current layoffs/downsizing but I am also reasonably sure that DCUO's so-so sales and steady decline in paying subs helped push SOE over the edge. They spent huge money developing this game and are nowhere close to breaking even.
I have the "legends" sub plan which I had to cancel because I am unable to play because of graphics lag/server response issue that is affecting a fair number of players. If they should happen to get that fixed sometime before my paid sub runs out in May I might re-up, but since they just laid off a substantial number of their staff the chances of them fixing anything just decreased dramatically.
Its too bad, I really enjoyed the game for the 3 weeks I was able to play it before the 2/22 patch broke it for me and many others.
Who knows, maybe they will turn things around, there is always hope, right????
I just can't feel bad for people getting laid off. That just comes off as a litle to harsh for me. So they may have made some bad decisions, but I have a feeling that the people that made the bad decisions weren't the ones getting the pink slip, it's the ones initiating the changes in the game. It's lame, straight up.
PoxNora:
Friends of all Factions,
We wanted to share this information with you all directly, rather than sending you on to read about it on other sites. PoxNora has the benefit of a solid, supportive and engaged player base that many games would envy. We are listening, and we will continue to bring new runes to the battlefield. While there are many changes afoot, we also hope to bring you a Producer’s Letter next week to give you a glimpse at what lies ahead for Pox in 2011.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.
This is why the corporate structure does not work. John Smedley was allowed to sink this ship and for his failures other people paid the price. This is sad news today, I feel no great joy and I am one of the biggest SOE haters out there.
After the NGE debacle, John Smedley should have resigned. If that happened, then maybe today these poor peope would still have their jobs.
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii.
--In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses.
--The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence!
--CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
Perhaps, but who is to say that someone just as bad or worse(say David Bowman) wouldn't have taken his place? Power systems(public/private) tend to self select for the type of person who will actively seek and abuse them. They also tend to be structured so that its those who make the decisions (at the top), who are the most protected.
Those who do the actual work, are considered to be interchangeable cogs, to be used up and discarded like batteries. SOE is no different than the vast majority of large corporations and other power systems in that regard. Remember the tempest in a tea pot over the way EA treats its people? Just another example of many.
No suprises really, for a company that didn't care a jot about its customers. What goes around comes around TSR Andy D.
Smed to his employees: YOU ARE ALL FIRED!
*later the other day* Haha, Aprils Fools! >.<
Seriously, it is VERY difficult NOT to rejoice! You know, the issue with SOE is: ALL of their MMOs would have had the potential to be REALLY a great game. SWG, EQ2, DCU... all of them. But for whatever reasons SOE has EVERY SINGLE TIME found a way to bork it. Badly. And while sure Mr.Smartass Smed has a central responsibility and I will make a feast the day he goes where he belongs to - in the the line of unemployed! - I am sure all those smaller devs have their responsibility just as well.
SOE saw this coming miles away and they deserve every shit that hits them! Now they lowered their prices for monthly fees. Seems someone is getting desperate.
Here is the hint, SOE: MAKE THE FUCK QUALITY!
You know, in alteration of the quote of Vir Kotto I'd suggest to stick Mr. Smeds head on a pike in Mos Eisley "as a warning for the next TEN GENERATIONS of game developers that some things come at too high a price." Can we arrange that?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
John Smedley: the Al Davis of videogames.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
SOE has been in business a long time, 12 years for EQ1.
So, it seems it has it's share of haters along the way, most of them the SWG fanbois who just won't let it go.
Yup, they screwed the pooch and incited riots with that game, 'nuff said, drop it or eternally nerd rage your choice.
Sucks 205 employees lost jobs, but I have worked in this industry and can tell you, there are tons of those folks who are paid for doing absolutely nothing. Maybe the same situation happened at SOE where someone looked around, and said..'I think we need some productivity incentive...like keeping your jobs.'
I currently play EQ2extended, have been for the last 3 months or so, and couldn't be happier with the content, and population of this MMO. SOE has a hit here, and to say they are hurting in any way is just mind blowing.
Their version of F2P is actually the best F2P version I have played to date. I have enjoyed Aika, PWI, FEZ, DDO, WARHammer and AoC trials, as other examples of F2P games, and EQ2ex is far ahead of them in terms of cash shop and subscription incentives. I also have been an avid subscriber to most MMOs since beta EQ1, too many to list.
Did I mention the population? insane amount, the server has crashed from it more times than I can count, but I can tell you a server crashing because of load is the greatest crash a gamer can want.
Am I an SOE fanboi? no. Far from it, Smed has angered me at times forcing me to leave and discover new games, and I would not assume he wouldn't do it again, or else he wouldn't be Smed.
But to say EQ is hurting financially? No. From where I am standing, EQ1 is still bringing in it's share, EQ2 as well, SWG/Vanguard is pure profit waiting for attention, EQ2ex is their latest cash cow with my guess making money over and beyond what DCOU has made with minimal investment, which could have made heads turn and cause the 'changes'.
Oh yeas, the classic excuse of soes only problem being SWG and anyone who complains must be angry as a result of that one lone single mistake soe made. Blah blah.
Then everytime soe has company wide layoffs there is the excuse that there are somehow all these employees sitting around doing nothing and can cut as if their loss will not have an affect.
Sorry, but SOE has cut almost half of its entire workforce in the last 2-3 years. There is no excuse or apology that can be made to downplay that. Furthermore SOE has alienated plenty of players from all of their games. That isn't some special feature that has been reserved for SWG players.
All rationalizations, excuses and apologies aside, SOE is a company that is falling apart. They have run most of their games into the ground. You say EQ isn't hurting, but they just went through a round of server mergers. Almost every game they have has had several rounds of server mergers. Those that have not are filled with players begging for mergers.
All the facts about the company are screaming that soe is in huge trouble. Enjoying 1 game isn't a good foundation for believing a company that just cut 3 studios, 1/3 of their employees and cancelled 1 massive project isn't in trouble.
Im a pure SOE & EA hater, but depsite that its sad ppl losign their jobs,
It's also not a good sign for the already decling PC gaming industry,
What i cant understand is how SOE never went bust years ago, they have ruined every
mmo they had, most their titles start well, then they decide to ruin them for some bizzare reason.
It's not the employees that should lose their jobs it's the management, ppl like smed that
have put SOE in such a position that they have to make cutbacks.
Without any malice intended on the employees i hope that SOE wil just DIE!
RIP... SWG / EQ / VG
The Deathstar destroyed planets...Lucas Arts destroyed Galaxies
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Played:
SWG | EVE | WOW | VG | LOTRO | WAR | FML | STO | APB | AOC | MORTAL | WOT | BP | SW:TOR
Well a couple of years ago they cut back a bunch of folks something like 100. Now on 3/31 they cut 205 folks out. Close 3 studios and axe 1 project.
This is a company in trouble. The had the basse come out and post on each remaining game site that's up and going that this changes nothing for this game, trying to ease fears. I'm not buying it.
When you cut that much workforce, you asking the folks who are left to do more with less, and that worries me, because I play eq2, and hell they fired one of the better devs who created some really nice zones, and another dev who does artwork.
Facts are facts
SWG -- a few years back servers cut in half
vanguard - servers merged into one remaining server
eq - just had sever merges
eq2 - we just had sever merges cutting the servers by half
dcuo from what all I am reading all servers are showing low population, are they going to be merged.
Those are had fact, it says that your player base is going elsewhere, its a harsh cold reality, and if they don't do something soon, its going to be really bad. I just think what happened on the 31st was the first round in trying to fix the problem.
I think were in for a rough ride this year, for those of us left playing the flagship games that still exist.
that SOE is probably in financial trouble isnt really news.. but what people might have missed is that Sony isnt exactly doing well either, pretty sure i read something last year about them having to restructure their finances ... things could get worse at SOE very easily.
that SOE is probably in financial trouble isnt really news.. but what people might have missed is that Sony isnt exactly doing well either, pretty sure i read something last year about them having to restructure their finances ... things could get worse at SOE very easily.
It's their fault really. They've mishandled game after game with poor desicions and tactless PR. I feel horrible for the Vanguard folks. Great community that put up with so much and yet stuck it out for their love of the game. What this says of the future of SOE I don't know. I do think clearly they are probably downsizing to focus on the EQ line. It's their moneymaker. Who knows, with a smaller, more focused work force we may have a better EQ product in the future. That is if anyone is willing to spend money on SOE. After these recent years, I'm doubting it.