Wildstar developer lays off 60, further cuts at NCSoft

eriktheviking

http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/23/7050545/wildstar-carbine-studios-layoffs

<p intro"="">Polygon has received word today that NCSoft-owned Carbine Studios has laid off "around 60" employees. This is in addition to further layoffs across NCSoft's western operations.

In a statement provided to Polygon by NCSoft, the layoffs were described as part of "a restructuring of key operations with [NCSoft] West." The publisher says it is devoted to its core massively multiplayer franchises — Aion, Wildstar, Lineage, and Guild Wars — but it also plans to expand into mobile and tablet products.

According to the statement, there were "staff reductions" across all of NCSoft's western branches except for Guild Wars developer ArenaNet.

A source speaking to Polygon who wished to remain unnamed said that Carbine was especially hard-hit by the layoffs. The studio reportedly lost over 60 members of its team of a few hundred. Our source says the layoffs included Carbine employees across all levels, not just entry level or less senior staff.

Carbine was founded in 2005 and released its first game, the sci-fi MMO Wildstar, earlier this year. You can read Polygon's review of Wildstar here.

The full statement provided by NCSoft is below:

Today we announced a restructuring of key operations within NC West. As a result of this restructuring, we are implementing staff reductions across our Western operations with the exclusion of ArenaNet. While decisions like this are always hard, they are necessary as we begin the implementation of a new strategy designed to strengthen our footing as a leader in global entertainment.

Moving forward, we will continue to focus on our core development capabilities and the intellectual properties (WildStar, Aion, Lineage, and Guild Wars franchises) that have made NCSOFT what it is today. However, we are looking to move into new business segments like mobile and tablet games as well as explore emerging technologies.

Again, the decision to reduce staff was not an easy one, and we sincerely wish everyone well in their next endeavors.

Seelinnikoi

Ah, the "restructuring" word!

It does not surprise us, we all knew this was coming up, give the poor game that Wildstar is.

Expect Free-To-Play transition in 2-4 months.

Lazzaro

More bad news, this sucks.

Mange1

This is just a repost of http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/422682

Across all NCSoft branches only excluding Arenanet.

TiamatRoar

Interesting.  The Wildstar stuff is pretty much expected at this point but I guess it's interesting to see that Arenanet was spared (indicating that GW2 is probably still doing okay-ish at the very least, maybe even better)

 

Also interesting to see them expanding to tablets and mobile.  I can't say that's good news (in fact, I find it kinda ugly) but interesting nonetheless.  As someone else once stated in another thread, many mobile games are "That game no one remembers in a few months, but probably made more profit than most MMOs during that time anyways."

flizzer

Originally posted by Seelinnikoi

Ah, the "restructuring" word!

It does not surprise us, we all knew this was coming up, give the poor game that Wildstar is.

Expect Free-To-Play transition in 2-4 months.

Careful MMORPG gave me a naughty naughty for saying "f2p within a year" after their incessant Wildstar hype.   

Kabulozo

I hope it becomes a lesson to Lineage Eternal developers not to copy any WoW features and make the game like the original Lineage 1 which still is their biggest money maker.

puma713

That was fast.  I know it sucks for the people who have worked on a game for 9 years to see their vision come to its full fruition in less than 6 months. 

Kaladin

NC Soft developed Wildstar?  That's news to me.  Could have replaced your subject title with Aion or Lineage just as easiliy, but that wouldn't get as much attention.

Unless it affects the actual game, I wont worry myself with it.  Sucks for those Carbine employees.

Kabulozo

Originally posted by Kaladin

NC Soft developed Wildstar?  That's news to me.  Could have replaced your subject title with Aion or Lineage just as easiliy, but that wouldn't get as much attention.

Unless it affects the actual game, I wont worry myself with it.  Sucks for those Carbine employees.

Since NC owns Carbine, it's Nc who will decide the future of Carbine.

puma713

Originally posted by Kaladin

NC Soft developed Wildstar?  That's news to me.  Could have replaced your subject title with Aion or Lineage just as easiliy, but that wouldn't get as much attention.

Unless it affects the actual game, I wont worry myself with it.  Sucks for those Carbine employees.

I would think losing a quarter of your staff would affect production when it comes to updates, bug fixes and content drops, all of which Wildstar is in desperate need of.

winter

Originally posted by Prenho3

Originally posted by Kaladin

NC Soft developed Wildstar?  That's news to me.  Could have replaced your subject title with Aion or Lineage just as easiliy, but that wouldn't get as much attention.

Unless it affects the actual game, I wont worry myself with it.  Sucks for those Carbine employees.

Since NC owns Carbine, it's Nc who will decide the future of Carbine.

 Humm I know maybe if they advertise it as the "BEST" "HARDCORE", raider only game they will rebound and gain a ton of subs?!

TiamatRoar

Originally posted by Kaladin

 

Unless it affects the actual game, I wont worry myself with it.  Sucks for those Carbine employees.

The chances of a restructure not affecting the actual game are kinda slim.  That's kinda what the word "RESTRUCTURE" means in most cases.  Unless it's just a financial restructuring, I suppose (which this clearly is not)

 

Of course, "restructure" is really just the polite way of putting it in most cases.  So whatever way this "restructure" affects the actual game (and it will), it will probably be negative.

Volgore

I'm afraid this is the end of Wildstar then. Imo Carbine had it coming and they reap what they sow, but the game deserved better.

Farewell quirky little gem, but with this company you never had a chance.

bcbully

I wonder who the senior people were.

 

Yeah it sucks, but when you do you job as poorly as they did (the senior management), you shouldn't be working in the industry. 100s of millions were invested in them over the course of nearly a decade and WS was all they could come up with. That kind of performance hurts the entire industry. 

grimal

Its not over folks.  Give it some time.

Kabulozo

It's about time to change to B2P + cash shop like GW2.

Doogiehowser

Just turn WS into F2P / P2P hybrid model already and save yourself and your players heartache Ncsoft.

gervaise1

Originally posted by Prenho3

Originally posted by Kaladin

NC Soft developed Wildstar?  That's news to me.  Could have replaced your subject title with Aion or Lineage just as easiliy, but that wouldn't get as much attention.

Unless it affects the actual game, I wont worry myself with it.  Sucks for those Carbine employees.

Since NC owns Carbine, it's Nc who will decide the future of Carbine.

Yep a bunch of ex-WoW etc. devs founded Carbine 9 years ago; came up with an idea and after 2 years got themselves purchased by NCSoft. So for the last 7 years NCSoft have owned, financed, monitored WS. Then they launched it. Now they are dictating the future.

And it is very difficult to see how this won't impact the game. Both directly and indirectly - I doubt those still at Carbine are in a happy place at the moment; happier than those laid off but these situations are not nice.

For Wildstar is no ES or FF.

Zenimax and SquareEnix have a lot of value tied up in their brands. They may restructure  (TESO was last month) but it is difficult to see those games being closed "early".

Wildstar though? Especially given NCSoft's record. Will Carbine be around this time next year will be a question staff are pondering - and if those left get a job offer from elsewhere .... so yes this will have an impact.

hikaru77

Originally posted by Doogiehowser
Just turn WS into F2P / P2P hybrid model already and save yourself and your players heartache Ncsoft.

I dont think they have the resources to make the game F2P.   

TiamatRoar

Originally posted by hikaru77

Originally posted by Doogiehowser
Just turn WS into F2P / P2P hybrid model already and save yourself and your players heartache Ncsoft.

I dont think they have the resources to make the game F2P.   

They might if they were planning for the whole "milk as much money from subscribers as possible before going F2P" strategy from the start.  I'd be kinda surprised at this point if they had the foresight for that, though.

ginsuchop

Restructuring most likely involves a modification to their business model. AKA F2P with cash shop, the goal being to milk more money out of subscribers while enticing free players to join in so that the game worlds feel more populated. 

This is how SWTOR got its legs back. The vast majority of money spent on their cash shop is by subscribers- players who pay $15/month on top of what they buy from the shop. And some of these people spend $1000s on the shop. Meanwhile, the influx of free players helps because some of them end up subscribing or at the least make a few $5-10 purchases on the shop. It's a good example of high rollers subsidizing the rest of the playerbase and it's making them bank.

Restructuring also likely means casualizing the entire game. 40 mans will either be removed or de-emphasized.

Unless they intend to function as a small population game with an uberniche appeal, I think all the above is guaranteed to occur in 6-8 months or less

deadmanbell

This is what you get when you make a Silly Game.

JackFrosty

Originally posted by Doogiehowser
Just turn WS into F2P / P2P hybrid model already and save yourself and your players heartache Ncsoft.

Its already been clearly stated that WS is not going fail2play so don't worry.

You can always go back to other fail2play games like AA lol

FleshMask

This game is fail 2 play...

You fail when you play it.

Failstar

flizzer

Originally posted by JackFrosty

Originally posted by Doogiehowser
Just turn WS into F2P / P2P hybrid model already and save yourself and your players heartache Ncsoft.

Its already been clearly stated that WS is not going fail2play so don't worry.

You can always go back to other fail2play games like AA lol

And neither were the many other games that claimed "never f2p".  Don't believe the PR spin from these MMO companies.