General: RUMOR: Lay Offs Hit Perfect World

SBFord

According to a Twitter post by Star Trek Online's Matt Miller, he has been laid off along with employees of Perfect World Entertainment. We do not know if this is internationally-based or US-based yet and we do not yet know which games and teams have been hit or how many employees have been laid off. We will keep you posted as the story develops.

So I got laid off yesterday, but on the bright side I have more time to practice for the $100k @HexTCG tournament: http://t.co/uvjE2lm1hg

— Matt Miller (@MMODesigner) March 17, 2015

Matt Miller worked with the Star Trek Online team and formerly with City of Heroes.

rojoArcueid

i guess more people are refusing to pay for advantages in their games . Quickly, someone purchase Cryptic and fix their game models.

Gruug

Wait. Once again? How? This is primarily a f2p game developer. Isn't f2p suppose to MAKE money and not lose it?  Sorry about people being laid off (been there) but if your games are not making money then something has to give. Perhaps try not calling something "free" since that entails not spending any money. Guess people are taking that free stuff too literally.

 

Uproar

Perfect World (neverwinter and star trek) are fairly ok free to play models, but If you want to buy anything you pay at a rate never before seen by man. Want to make a different race than allowed?  That'll be 59.00 please.  Want to make a dragonborn?  That'll be 79.00 please.   Want that cool mount?  That'll be 30-60 dollars please.

Had an event this weekend that allowed you to get some cool companions and a mount.  Cost?  180.00 for it all.  This did allow you to spend as little as 20.00 though for a single one of the companions (not the one you might want-- they were in an order of their chosing).  Did I just say, "as little as 20.00"?  Playing a perfect world game does that to you I guess.

Omnifish

Don't worry, Minsc and Boo will save the day!!!!

 

'You point, *pay $60.00*, then I punch!'

*sigh* I hate my life...

Chadiwicker

I'd subscribe to Neverwinter if it had a reasonable sub option. I quit playing because of the HORRIBLE cash shop.

 

rwhod

Are we talking a Allods level cash shop in NWN? I was thinking about giving it a try.

Ozmodan

Originally posted by rwhod
Are we talking a Allods level cash shop in NWN? I was thinking about giving it a try.

Almost all PW cash shops are that way, although the cryptic games are not quite as bad.  A lot of their stuff is P2W.

So much for the f2p making loads of cash, Richard.

I do have empathy for those losing their jobs though.

Pemmin

these types of cash shops don't make sense to me

if your charging the equivalent of a box price for a trivial piece of content like a mount....of course your not going to have a sustainable volume of  cash inflow.

Talonsin

PWI blamed North American operations for much of their loss at the last financial meeting so I am assuming this cut will effect Cryptic. 

burstdragon323

No one from Cryptic was affected, as this was purely a PWE based layoff.

I have seen on the STO reddit though, that one of the CMs for Star Trek Online, "CaptainSmirk" was laid off.

cronius77

honestly I hate to sound like the dick here but to me its laughable as this company is probably the worst for greed in their f2p games. Even neverwinter has made things behind paywalls for their end games with refinement for enchantments and artifacts. People here saying they had a good model obviously never played much of their games past early to mid game because they get expensive. Maybe those devs laid off and talent will land a job at a much better company and PW can continue to bleed money.

GoldenArrow

While it is no laughing matter that people are losing jobs, it is great news that a P2W publisher is going downhill 8)

Broken.Arrow

If this rumour is true, then it is fantastic news.

 

PW is the textbook example off a piece of shit P2W publisher. Harsh words, but these people have been at the forefront to spearhead the P2W nightmare that has plagued free to play games. To safeguard the future of the entire MMO genre, this company needs to go broke and fade into oblivion at the soonest possible second. 

Even then, this company is but one of the oozing tumours that are steadily sucking the life out of MMOs. But cutting this one off would surely be a start at setting right this ship.

 

Edit: That previous poster seems to have a similar name as mine. Good thing this isnt one of the forum space where the rabid fanboys patrol. Or I fear I would have been reported multiple times over in a span of two seconds for being a no-good-hater-sock-puppet-enemy-of-the-white-knights-and-the-precious.

goth1c

PW is one fo those companys to stay away from it, they  dont have quality standarts is just money income mesurement, but eh there is many like this even worse but still never gona play any of their games again.

Arglebargle

The last time I was considering a PWI game, I needed some help with an old account issue.   Trying to go to their support site gave me a consistent 404 error.  Seemed kinda appropriate.  Fortunately for me, my friends lost interest in the game before I could get through to any help.  

masonicone

this is great news to hear. the sooner more p2w games shut down the better off we will all be. sto and neverwinter could have been so good if not run by pwi. the only people worse then pwi are eaware.

Grakulen

Originally posted by burstdragon323

No one from Cryptic was affected, as this was purely a PWE based layoff.

I have seen on the STO reddit though, that one of the CMs for Star Trek Online, "CaptainSmirk" was laid off.

Developers that work for Cryptic were laid off. 

Po_gg

Originally posted by masonicone
this is great news to hear. the sooner more p2w games shut down the better off we will all be. sto and neverwinter could have been so good if not run by pwi. the only people worse then pwi are eaware.

STO and Neverwinter (and CO) are run by Cryptic and not PWE, even less pwi And while I don't like every change got into the games after they went under the PWE umbrella, they're still cool games.

 

Even if I only have a PWE acc because of Cryptic and I never liked the other games they're publishing (except RaiderZ, that was fun), a layoff is never a "great news to hear". And if it affects the folks at Cryptic too, as Grakulen mentioned above, it's even more unfortunate. At least imo.

rammur65

buncha free booting babies neverwinter literally has one of the less stress cash shop ever considering you can earn everything in the god damn game go do a few surveys earn some coins by just wayching a few lousy videos or convert gems and buy stuff ffs quit bandwagon bitching.

Lobotomist

Neverwinter is the only MMO that still manages to capture my attention.

It has better action based combat than any of so called action combat MMOs (yes including GW2). Character building is more complex. And the story is by far best (especially if you love D&D). And it has player created content.

You can trade regular curency for premium one

You only need premium currency if you want to get best equipment in the game, which is not mandatory and game can be played easily with regular equipment. No other content is barred.

Remember its f2p game and they have to make money somehow.

 

The game is packed with players and very active as well.

 

It would really suprise me if the layoffs are related to this game.

 

Sulaa

Originally posted by Po_gg

Originally posted by masonicone
this is great news to hear. the sooner more p2w games shut down the better off we will all be. sto and neverwinter could have been so good if not run by pwi. the only people worse then pwi are eaware.

STO and Neverwinter (and CO) are run by Cryptic and not PWE, even less pwi And while I don't like every change got into the games after they went under the PWE umbrella, they're still cool games.

 

Even if I only have a PWE acc because of Cryptic and I never liked the other games they're publishing (except RaiderZ, that was fun), a layoff is never a "great news to hear". And if it affects the folks at Cryptic too, as Grakulen mentioned above, it's even more unfortunate. At least imo.

Cryptic is a wholly owned subsidary of PWE.  It is a part of PWE, same as any other PWE developer studio.

It is correct to call STO and NWNO run by PWE.

Talonsin

Originally posted by Grakulen

Originally posted by burstdragon323

No one from Cryptic was affected, as this was purely a PWE based layoff.

I have seen on the STO reddit though, that one of the CMs for Star Trek Online, "CaptainSmirk" was laid off.

Developers that work for Cryptic were laid off. 

Doh!  You got Rekt!!!

 

giftedHorn

Originally posted by Uproar

Perfect World (neverwinter and star trek) are fairly ok free to play models, but If you want to buy anything you pay at a rate never before seen by man. Want to make a different race than allowed?  That'll be 59.00 please.  Want to make a dragonborn?  That'll be 79.00 please.   Want that cool mount?  That'll be 30-60 dollars please.

Had an event this weekend that allowed you to get some cool companions and a mount.  Cost?  180.00 for it all.  This did allow you to spend as little as 20.00 though for a single one of the companions (not the one you might want-- they were in an order of their chosing).  Did I just say, "as little as 20.00"?  Playing a perfect world game does that to you I guess.

 

Not disagreeing with your points, but, some clarifications:

 

To (permanently) unlock Dragonborn as a playable race costs $25, not $75. They do also sell a $75 dragonborn pack that has a lot of extras.

 

The other pay-to-play races are "Menzoberranzan renegade", which is just a drow with cool face tattoos, and "moon elf", which is basically a sun elf but with a Michael Jackson-like pallor. Sun elves and drow are free to play, and just as good as their pay-to-play relations.

 

As for the $180 deal, I see that as buying all your Zen for the year. You would spend $180 a year on a subscription MMO. For a strictly PvE player though, you don't really need to buy anything, although I would recommend one $30 mount, which is shared account-wide, and a $12 ioun stone for each character (unless you have the promo ioun stone unlock as I do). You may also want to respec occasionally, at $3 a pop, just to keep things fresh.

 

Now, pricing in the cash shop is a mess. There are terrible deals there for unwary buyers. I think they know it's a mess and they would like to fix it... but they don't have the resources. And now, even fewer resources apparently. Sad news.

rojoArcueid

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Neverwinter is the only MMO that still manages to capture my attention.

It has better action based combat than any of so called action combat MMOs (yes including GW2). Character building is more complex. And the story is by far best (especially if you love D&D). And it has player created content.

You can trade regular curency for premium one

You only need premium currency if you want to get best equipment in the game, which is not mandatory and game can be played easily with regular equipment. No other content is barred.

Remember its f2p game and they have to make money somehow.

 

The game is packed with players and very active as well.

 

It would really suprise me if the layoffs are related to this game.

 

I dont consider GW2 action combat, its a hybrid system and its not a good comparison with reticle based combat games.

I like Neverwinter but they killed the action when they decided to root range classes in place to appease the melee whiners that didnt want to be kited. Also having to maintain an enemy highlighted to cast a spell is bs, RaiderZ and ESO made the same mistake. That also takes away from the action when you suddenly cant use your abilities because you dont have a target. Its not a freakin tab target game, or i should say its not a real action combat game, just a tab target with reticle. But i still like the game, play on and off for the PvE and story since the pvp is p2w.

GeezerGamer

So the column is posted and clearly uses the word........and I quote........"RUMOR". So how is it that people can come in here claiming as fact it's Cryptic or it's PWE? I mean is this a rumor or not? If not, can someone please post their references?

That said, I would love nothing more than for the MT models to be suffering financially. I've seen nothing good come out of them for years.