Firefall: Red 5 Layoffs CONFIRMED

SBFord

UPDATE: Red 5 has released a press announcement about "reorganization":

RED 5 REORGANIZES FOR FUTURE FIREFALL LAUNCH

Red 5 Studios Prepares Company for New Operational Structure

Laguna Hills, Calif. – September 16, 2013 – Red 5 Studios™ announced today that the studio is being reorganized prior to the launch of Firefall.

“As Firefall matures, we must transition our priorities and our development strategy to focus on streamlined operations and live product support,” said Mark Kern, CEO and founder of Red 5 Studios.

As part of the reorganization, Red 5 Studios confirms that it has released about 10 percent of its staff, the majority from Red 5’s video internet entertainment channel, Stage 5 TV. Development of Firefall is unaffected by the reorganization and Open Beta Stage 2 is well underway with a major patch scheduled for later this month.

According to a Tweet from industry-insider, David Bass, there has been a round of layoffs at Firefall developer, Red 5 Studios. At this time, we have no confirmation of the rumor but are digging for more information. We'll keep you posted as the story develops.

Really sorry to hear about the layoffs at Red 5. The individual people at that studio are brilliant and didn't deserve this.

— David Bass (@doctordake) September 16, 2013

HikaruShidou

It's sad to constantly see layoffs within game departments. I know many gamers aspire to animation or game design, but jobs are competitive enough without the fear of constant layoffs :-/

Roxtarr

Now confirmed via Massively http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/09/16/firefalls-red-5-studios-lays-off-staff-in-pre-launch-reorganiz/

"Red 5 Studios announced today that the studio is being reorganized prior to the launch of Firefall. "As Firefall matures, we must transition our priorities and our development strategy to focus on streamlined operations and live product support," said Mark Kern, CEO and founder of Red 5 Studios. As part of the reorganization, Red 5 Studios confirms that it has released about 10 percent of its staff, the majority from Red 5's video internet entertainment channel, Stage 5 TV. Development of Firefall is unaffected by the reorganization and Open Beta Stage 2 is well underway with a major patch scheduled for later this month."

 

SBFord

UPDATE: Red 5 has released a press announcement about "reorganization":

RED 5 REORGANIZES FOR FUTURE FIREFALL LAUNCH

Red 5 Studios Prepares Company for New Operational Structure

Laguna Hills, Calif. – September 16, 2013 – Red 5 Studios™ announced today that the studio is being reorganized prior to the launch of Firefall.

“As Firefall matures, we must transition our priorities and our development strategy to focus on streamlined operations and live product support,” said Mark Kern, CEO and founder of Red 5 Studios.

As part of the reorganization, Red 5 Studios confirms that it has released about 10 percent of its staff, the majority from Red 5’s video internet entertainment channel, Stage 5 TV. Development of Firefall is unaffected by the reorganization and Open Beta Stage 2 is well underway with a major patch scheduled for later this month.

SBFord

Our article is updated as well.

Rockniss

This seemed to happen quicker than most layoffs. The real issue though is the game wasnt ready for launch even though they had so much time to work on it. Now we have a teaser of a game called Firefall that may never bloom into what it could have been

Seelinnikoi

I predict a full game shutdown/vegetative state in around 12-14 months.

 

FlyByKnight

They had an internet entertainment staff for a grossly unfinished game that has been in development for how many years? I can think of a couple more people they need to reorganize.  Take me to your leader.

 

Countdown...

TheHavok

The stage 5 TV team didn't even amount to much. No offense to them, they were probably just following orders from management that didn't know what they were doing.

You gotta learn to walk before you try and run.

Gruug

Sounds as if the people laid off were not part of actual game development. And 10 people of a team of about 100 is not that many considering.

On another note, I am expecting more layoffs from other gaming companies as the market has been over saturated with f2p scams as it is.

 

Swedish_Chef

Not a surprise. They've been incredibly wasteful for the last couple of years due to their complete and utter lack of focus & seemingly random design process. I don't know what management over there has been doing, but it sure as heck wasn't supervising the game's development.

I'd hate to be anyone high up in their finance department about now. They've probably got investors screaming at them every day. I know I sure as hell would be calling them up constantly if I'd put any money into this cobbled-together monstrosity.

niceguy3978

This looks like they laid off people who were putting together livestreams.  Could this be from them shutting down the pvp, because as they were trying to make an esport type thing out of it, maybe they had planned on streaming matches and tournaments?  I'm of course guessing, but it seems to fit together with their cutting of the esport pvp, it seems too close together to be a coincidence.  Of course, I could very well be wrong.

Alka_Setzer

It's a shame. Real lucky that no one on the development of the game was laid off but I enjoyed a lot of their videos on Stage 5 TV too. Anytime anyone on game development companies gets laid off because of financial issues really sucks. They had a pretty high production quality to most of them too, real shame.

Thorkune

As I said in another post...The MMO genre is saturated with so many MMO's that it is spreading players too thin. A company is going to have to WOW (no pun intended) us to do any good in today's overflowing MMO market. I think you will see a lot more of this in the near future.

darkedone02

this game is already a failure, it will shutdown within the next year or two.

A.Blackloch

I bet it's the PvP department, now that they've made it redundant.

psiic

won't make it 6  months. 

 

Game was always just a cash grab to get as much cash as they could from as little game as possible. 

 

Would not be surprised to see this one pull the plug for a year wipe the books and try a re-release amid a ton of BS hype maybe even a new name. 

 

Fool me once share on you...

SaltyBogey

When will developers/investors learn... Make a good game first, not a cash grabbing game first... Goodbye Red 5

SpottyGekko

Sounds like business as usual over at Red5. Just one more refocus after all the previous refocuses...

if this game ever amounts to anything, it will be despite the development team, not because of it.

DAOWAce

Firefall has grown consistently more focused on microtransactions as time goes on.

I have been in beta for well over a year and stopped playing about 7 months ago because of the unfinished nature of the game and shift towards microtransactions.  The game's just been going for far to long without release and I don't even want to go back to it.

Not surprising to hear about layoffs, though it doesn't seem like it affected anyone important in regards to the development of the game.

Really hope to see Firefall actually improve, but with the focus on real money now, I don't think it's going to go anywhere.

orbitxo

guys.

seriously they said red5 tv.

 

i always wondered why such a huge TV production for red5 when their focus should be the mmo launch, unless they were getting dollars from their advertisers-even so. not even WoW have their own Blizzard channel with monthly shows.=silly.

that said- its sad to see layoffs.

Tekaelon

I hate that anyone lost their job, be it the development or video team. However I am glad game development continues. Firefall is a unique MMO experience. Their decision to focus on PvE for the moment is a good one. Esports is just a pipe dream for most games, isn't that right ArenaNet. BTW don't listen to the trolls in this thread. Firefall is a blast and for now its free so try it and form your own opinions

Psion33

Clearly they are realizing their cash shop won't bring in as much money as they intended.

 

--more fallout from F2Pers.

Karahandras

Whilst it's always sad to see jobs lost, I have to agree with others in that this isn't a suprise, especially for something that shouldn't have been there in the first place.  Also have to say I can only see this getting worse(despite what the fanboys and red5 say) over the next year with the release of games like eqn and especially wildstar.

ZeGerman

Originally posted by TheHavok

The stage 5 TV team didn't even amount to much. No offense to them, they were probably just following orders from management that didn't know what they were doing.

You gotta learn to walk before you try and run.

Agreed they got way ahead of themselves.  They expected to be the next big thing especialy in esports but they tried to do to many things and thus never really completed and pollished any of them.

Talonsin

Having been playing this game for 2 years, on and off, it is sad to see people posting so negatively about Red5.  I agree in the last 6 months as money became an isue for the studio they have delved into microtransactions a bit too much for my taste.  That said, I still wish more developers were like Red5.  These guys communicate and have a genuine passion for gaming that I dont see in actual money-grubbing studios like Cryptic.

 

I think these guys have tried to move slow and listen to as much feedback as possible and that has caused the game to move in some bad directions.  Sadly, the most vocal part of the communities are people with very unique tastes.  If you try and please them all, you miss out on the vast majority of other gamers.