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Zenimax just cut 300 customer service jobs for ESO in EU 4 months early
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Worldwide support if they were operating as intended.
A broad brush assessment (see above) suggested that the total staffing was in the right order if Zenimax expected high sales. (A few million type number).
If reports are accurate then 250 staff added to the 180 staff pre-launch; 300 staff let go post launch - some earlier than expected. Note: 300 is more than 250.
Why? Either a) console delay b) customers needed less support than expected c) did not sell as well. Could be all three but given the bot issue; account security; bank problem; duplicate item issue ... it probably wasn't b).
From the article:
"One employee told this newspaper that he was hired in March with around 200 other workers on six month contracts, but has now been let go."
"It’s understood that there are now just over 100 employees at the European customer services centre in the Rahoon Business Park (near B&Q)."
So if the article is correct, these were not all 2-6 week contracts. AT LEAST 100 people with six month contracts were terminated early, probably more. Zenimax paid a lot of money to train all these workers, then let them go. It's reasonable to believe the company isn't making as much money as it had hoped. To those defending Zenimax, I don't know why you'd have a dog in this fight unless Zenimax paid you. This company is suing people/companies left and right, firing it's employees en masse, and to top it all off, the game they published is nowhere near the game they were hired to make, or the game they advertised. We wanted THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE, not DAoC2 Online, or Quest Treadmill 2014 Online... Why is that so hard for the devs, fanboys, and shills to understand?
money is more imporant then humans.
but yeah, TESO was mediocore mmorpg with lots proplems. Elder scroll games should stay as singleplayer games with modding.
I think they should do like Minecraft, and give players the options to host their own servers for multiplayer if they want. Then mods can be used to alter the gameplay. If you want a PVP server, I'm sure someone will make a mod for that. But the game will still be balanced like a TES game, you won't have to put up with being gimped as an archer for the sake of balance. This way you can adventure with a single friend, or maybe have 20-40 people on your server living in different locations. I feel Minecraft's greatest strength is being able to host your own servers, with the second being modding. If the next TES game will just add some way to turn your console or PC into a private server for multiplayer, and let us mod, it has the potential to be revolutionary. Thinking about it, I'm surprised there's not already some online multiplayer Skyrim server.......
There is:
http://skyrim.ophelia-core.com/index.php
but it seems it has died.
If Skyrim Online is dead, then ESO won't make it, even if pigs grow wings, and Hell gets frozen over.
Nah, Zenimax will make it, despite you not liking the game...no big deal, really.
You may be right, but I certainly hope not. We already had too many theme park MMO's before ESO came along. I just wish it'd die so that these big companies will motivated to try something different. Long as people keep paying for generic theme park MMO's, we're going to keep getting generic theme park MMO's. People are getting hyped up about games like EQ: Next, Archeage, etc. because of supposed sandbox features, but I hear they're already ripping a lot of those sandbox features out of Archeage for the Western release. If ESO continues to do well, I foresee the devs of these upcoming games just maintaining the status quo, and not trying anything different. It's not just about ESO, but the whole MMO market. ESO for me was a missed opportunity by Zenimax to do something fresh and revolutionary, to redefine the whole genre.
Where does it say they are hiring 100+ people on your link? Working for a software company we regularly post job categories whether we are hiring or not that way if someone exceptional comes along they will apply. You always have room for talent even if it means you have to fire someone else.
Also Zenimax Media owns alot of companies but the article specifically says Zenimax Online whose primary product is ESO, or at least I cannot find something else of AAA level that they have made, its possible that this is a misprint by the news article but the OP's statement is easily defensible, even if ESO fans get in a tizzy about it.
Don't Accuse others of being misleading then make a statement the article you linked doesn't back up.
Fans will grasp at any straw to defend this game...
The issue is that a good deal of these people were hired for 6 month contracts, and cut off 4 months earlier than they were supposed to. It's a big red flag that the game is not making the kind of money Zenimax anticipated. Not saying the game is doomed, and that this is a sure sign that it has failed, but it does mean they greatly overestimated how many CS staff they'd need. It also means they blew about 250k on training a bunch of people just to fire them a week later. It's not a good sign when a company is hemorrhaging money like that.
They hired 250 People and fired 300 early. That means 50 of the permanent staff was fired as well.
So the 180 perm staff has been reduced to 130 as well.
On top of that. Some of the 250 temp hires were on 6 month contracts and cut 3-4 months early.
So yes, this indicates in the demand being lower than expected.
IF it was just those 6 week temp workers being fired, then you could throw it on the launch rush band wagon!
But when the permanent staff possitions are cut by over 30%, then there is more going on.
Interpret for what you will. I could care less.
I'm sorry but I feel your assumption that the early termination of some temporary phone monkeys is a glaring sign that the game is any kind of trouble is patently ridiculous. If these were long term development or management staff at the company core then I would be inclined to agree with you. However as it stands, this is akin to saying a company is in serious trouble due to the fact they have just cut back on nonessential staff in the office snack bar. Let's not go making mountains out of mole hills.
Customer Support is not a core job position with a (Subscription based) Online MMO game?
These positions are no less important as any other staff position within the studio! Be it an artist, designer, Developer, IT systems guy, whatever.
Just because studios and other major Companies outsource Customer Support to external Companies these days, doesn't make these job positions any less important!
For example, SOE still has their own inhouse Customer Support staff.
So yes it is a tell tale sign in how well the game is doing!
If it were just the temporary 6 week contracts that were terminated (which were obviously and initially hired for the launch period), then it wouldn't immediately be such a big deal.
But when both 6 months contracts are cut 4 months early and 50 of the 180 permanent staff are cut as well.
Then that is a clear sign that the game isn't doing as well as was expected.
Again! Take it for what you will. I could care less.
This forum always going on about how SWToR is a failed game... So if the question is if ESO is not doing as well as expected here is ESO and SWToR Xfire stats. Where does ESO fall in terms of what we call a bad game?
http://social.xfire.com/games/swtor
http://social.xfire.com/games/eso
Im not saying this is the end of ESO but it does show that ESO has gone from 1600hrs played a day down to 400hrs a day. This is not the right direction. I hope for them the console game pulls them out of the mud, if they fix the game before then.
EDIT: Or Wildstar, http://social.xfire.com/games/wldstr
Wow... that sucks. I better hurry up and claim my game key already before it becomes f2p anyway. Massive layoffs like this, so close to release, are usually precursor to the great "f2p hybrid model" announcement.
This thing even playable yet?
No, customer support in any industry these days is not a core position. It has become the unwanted appendix of the business world. That's why these jobs have become almost exclusively minimum wage or worse, jobs that have been outsourced to third party companies or to tax havens such as Ireland, or near slave labor countries such as India.
So again sorry. Some temporary contract workers finding themselves to be a bit more temporary than expected is not evidence of financial failure. Again, mountains out of mole hills.
If you do not make a game I want, none shell have any, right...?
Probably that is a part of the reason why there are no games made for people like you....
Most mmorpg don't even have 300 staff for their whole studio. That is including game designer, artist. I even saw games bragging they have 300 staff.
and ESO have 300 staff just working for EU customer service? I don't even know why the need so many.
Because they thought theyd have a million sales
Any graphical, audio, or gameplay restrictions not seen in other mmos but found in FFXIV can be blamed on one thing.
PS3
Actually, they did need all those servers in the beginning, at least with the scalability of their systems back then. It was very, very difficult to login during the individual server region's prime time without getting placed in a queue, sometimes with a wait time of 30 min or more. They were opening those servers to accommodate the initial surge of 2+ million box sales within the first 2 weeks of launch. They've since gone to a more "mega-server-like" system, which I think is a very good idea in general.
And BTW, a 3rd party report on microtransaction revenue placed SWTOR's 2013 revenue at $139 mil, which if you convert to "sub equivalent $" is probably around 1 mil subs. From the article, it seems to say this is cash shop-only revenue, so you could probably add another 300-600K in real subs, or another $50-60 mil. However, there's not a precise enough definition of the figures to really confirm that. So from those numbers, perhaps contrary to popular belief, SWTOR seems to be quite stable financially. I'm sure they'd rather be doing $2 bil/yr rather than $200mil, but I'd have to guess it's not in danger of being shut down.
BTW, a month ago, TESO was beating SWTOR in weekly playtime on Raptr by about 15% (120k hrs vs. 140k). Now SWTOR is beating TESO by 50% (120k hrs vs. 80k, and it's still trending downwards by about 2-3% per day). The usual caveats apply: playtime cannot be correlated with subscriptions, though it might be considered a "leading indicator".
OMG OP is post old news lol
I don't see what problem is Blizzard did lay off 600 People worldwide in 2012 but did the go bankrupt or did WoW go F2P for that??
massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/29/blizzard-announces-layoffs-of-600-employees-worldwide/http://
I would not to put much in to this for in all honest to keep a server run you don't need 400+ people for that and but point is that many company do this so it is not big deal what come down to at the end of day is company want to earn a profit and having 300 that is not generate any profit and just cost money i think most company will fire them it is simple economy to be honest.
Interesting is that ZOS cut 300 jobs, when only 250 temps were hired. Oh. My. Did they just can 50 people trying to fix bugs? That would explain the state of things.
Also to those determined to keep saying temps are always temps, you are full of shit. Temp jobs generally get renewed, but that depends on the success of the company you are contracted to (and your performance, of course!). If the company is profitable, temps are renewed and offered more time, or a regular job. If the company tanks, the temp jobs evaporate.
I was a temp before, and I know the drill.
ZOS sales were below par. ZOS is a ship on course, yet they just sold all their sails.... Gonna be a long trip, with no known destination. Let the waves guide you, fans! You don't need no stinkin' wind.