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Zenimax just cut 300 customer service jobs for ESO in EU 4 months early
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"Two to Six week contracts." They weren't long term workers by any stretch according to that article.. They were temps and no doubt knew exactly what the deal was. Hire lots to deal with the massive surge wait till stuff calms down and then keep what you want. Release the rest.
Anyone saying this isn't ESO staff is in denial.
This is expected, and not a doom scenario. The original contract was likely for PC and console release. WIth the console release pushed back there's really no reason to keep that CS staff on for now. The writing was on the wall when the delay was announced. I would guess they'll re-hire a similar amount when the time comes, likely a little less due to the popularity probably not being as high as they expected.
Or perhaps I'm just being too logical?
- Nellus
Is it really surprising? They had short term contract workers to support three platforms starting up. They now only need to support one platform which has been running for 2 months now.
Sad the workers lost the work that was expected just like it is sad the game did not release on console as intended in June. If the workers want more short term contract work they can probably pick up the rest of their intended work for ZOS when the game releases on console late this year or early next year.
I feel for those people, but I'm not surprised after ESO took a faceplant at launch.
This could have been avoided if Zenimax had listened to their beta testers instead of their wallets.....
The sad thing is, people will return to the game when they've ironed out the bugs, but by then the damage will be done and financially they'll never recover...
FTP by 2015.
*row...as in a row in the garden you might need to hoe.
FTFY
It's better to lurk in forums and be thought a fool...than to endlessly "Quote" and remove all doubts.
I contacted them over 7 problems in total, never got anyone to respond to any of them...
Now i know why... Lacking support for ESO is on of the main reasons i play more wildstar then ESO at the moment..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I feel sorry for all people that were let go prematurely. Console release gets delayed, and lots of people lose their job because of it. I know all too well how it feels to have zero job security.
I live in Galway, know some of those affected.
I wont go into detail or repeat what people told me in confidence, but yes the Galway site only handles ESO support, no other games.
http://grammarist.com/usage/row-to-hoe/
Actually road to hoe has been used as said there in an accepted form by people from sports writing. It originated as misspelled version but has gained acceptance one could say from use.
People losing their jobs is absolutely terrible. I feel so bad for their families . This might be why Zenimax has been keeping mum about ESO sales .
True, they should have paid more attention to what went on in Beta, or perhaps they did but didn't expect the problems to be as exacerbated as they were once the game went live, it may well have been a gamble, or perhaps they had no choice as they had 'run out of time' and or money for development. Either way they still have a lot of work to do on the game. I think the problem has only really been made worse by another game releasing recently that didn't suffer all those issues that Zenimax had with their game, it just made them look worse by comparison. Now Zenimax have to work on not just fixing their game, but rebuilding the trust they lost, its going to be an uphill struggle, not sure about it going F2P though, they would have to change so much to include in-game monetisation that i'm not sure they can do it, even if they wanted to
Yes, because customers knows the best what is good for your business... /facepalm
Your right, aren't you a customer? It would stand to reason that they made a game for you and it cost 300 people their jobs. Maybe if they had listened to other people they would have made a good ES mmo and had enough customers to keep those people working.
And so it begins....3 months post launch.
But fanboys will come here stating the game is doing awesome and their guild has still 400 members online and there is nothing wrong with the game.
Reality checks in as people unsub to this failure of an mmo that added nothing to the Elders Scroll franchise.
A cheap attempt to cash in on the IP's name done by a studio that coulnt and havent even fixed their own classes.
The Death March named Veteran levels where tons of people lose the will to log in.
The Group crashes in Cyrodiil and the everlasting Infinite loading screens / disconnections / freezes / lag / clunky combat / passives not working and !!! last but not least !!! the fine exploits that keep going on for weeks on ends.
This is the 1st sign of how bad ESO is doing, next up might be Developers from the team as funds keep drying up in a downward spiral as everyone who has heared about this mmo is staying away from it due to the Studio named Zenimax who are to incompetend to fix their own game.
Not to mention how bad this mmo realy is in both pvp / pve.
Tons of better mmo's on the market that offer much more value and fun for free or half the price.
Another themepark biting the dust.
1. These were temp postions hired for the release rush.
2. These are customer service reps which there are still many remaining.
3. These were not developers.
4. With the EU megaserver still based in the US they had no need to keep them longer than needed. I wouldnt be surprised if some are rehired when the EU server is moved.
Still to some cutting loose temp workers somehow means something.
For some, the 'Writing on the Wall' might just as well have been written in invisible ink. After all, just because a game is struggling, and their laying off staff substantially earlier than initially projected, just as having to push back the console releases by 6 months or so, is just 'one of those things' and nothing to at all be concerned about. And not releasing sales figures is just because their a bit busy right now, but they'll get around to it right? all these things are just coincidences, they mean nothing at all
Yes they were temps, but the qty and that they were cut early points to something... What idk what does it matter it just sucks that many people are out of work so much sooner.
Ughhh, you mean having extreme pings for over 3 months now because the EU server is physically located in the US? Yeah, totally not a fair chance. Such bad EU people
P.S: It's funny because ANet haven't had any massive layoffs yet, and its 2 years in and if I ask some of you, you'd say its a dead game. Infact ANet is hiring, go figure.
The positions were temporary to cover the initial "rush" related - clearly - to TESO. The fact that they have been let go is probably due to a) TESO on PC not doing as well as anticipated; b) delay of the console release c) TESO launching without issues so it didn't need as much support - OK maybe not!
Now corporate structures 101.
Zenimax Media Inc. is head office. It will operate as a "profit/cost centre" and will hire and fires its own staff.
It operates a number of studios each of which will operate as an independent profit centres. Head office will OK all the work that the studios undertake and will set them (profit) targets. Studios will plan accordingly and report on how they are doing. Each "profit centre" will "hire/fire" their own staff - so the fact that e.g. Bethseda is hiring/firing has no direct bearing on what Zenimax Online Studio is doing. For the 101 version think of HQ and each studio (division) as being 100% independent.
Each individual studio operates from one or more locations; each location allocated one or more tasks. These locations will not be profit centres.
Zenimax Online Studios was established to develop TESO. Currently this is its only game. Its development centre is based in Hunt Valley (unincorporated! - think tax advantage); its customer support operation is in Galway (think tax advantage). Galway was set-up - according to ZoS's press releases to handle all TESO customer support (EU and US).
Any news about ZoS in Hunt Valley or Galway will relate to TESO. As Gravarg says above this is not uncommon but clearly wasn't planned - it costs money to hire staff (advertise, go through resumes, interview etc.) and then provide training, equipment etc.
Any graphical, audio, or gameplay restrictions not seen in other mmos but found in FFXIV can be blamed on one thing.
PS3
The Maryland-headquartered company is working with recruitment firm Kelly to hire the staff for its European headquarters in Galway
The company is to hire 70 French speakers, 30 German speakers, as well as 150 English speakers to support players of its popular online game.
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/item/36173-job-anc-14
Give it a rest bcbully, sheesh.
Just to clarify JoeyMMO's post: they were working with Kelly recruitment in March 2014 to add 250 jobs to support TESO. If, as reported, they have released 300 staff this suggests they have reduced permanent positions as well from 180 to 130. If the numbers are accurate of course.
by hiring temp workers then letting them go 4 weeks early? Oookay lol.
You were there, yes they fired the customer service first.
Any graphical, audio, or gameplay restrictions not seen in other mmos but found in FFXIV can be blamed on one thing.
PS3
I agree that part of the people indeed must have been temps, any MMO do need a lot more support at launch but 300 people?
Nah, it is pretty clear that Zenimax expected more players by now then they actually have, at least in EU.
It sucks for everyone losing their job and the final word about the game is not said yet but Zenimax needs to do something ASAP or things will go even worse.
Add some real MMO dungeons, minimize the phasing and make RvR better and the game might still turn around though. It looks good, the combat ain't bad so the game surely isn't lost yet but adding more VR stuff is not the way to go and neither is adding 3 Vs 3 arenas.