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General: Report: Red 5 Studios Hit With Layoffs
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
Red 5 Studios, a developer founded by former Blizzard employees to develop a yet-to-be announced MMOG, has been hit by massive layoffs according to a report over at Kotaku. The anonymous source speaking to Kotaku has informed them that Red 5 is down to just 30 employees following the layoffs, down from 65. The developer is reported to have been near closure, but has been rescued by the purchase of an unnamed buyer.
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Not much has been revealed about Red 5's elusive title, but we do know that the game was to be an futuristic MMOFPS based on Offset Software's impressive game engine. That project is being reported as "on hold" in the wake of the layoffs and buyout. In the meantime, Red 5 Studios will be working on a project that is being aimed at the Chinese market, according to the Kotaku report.
Read the full report over at Kotaku.
Comments
Too bad was hoping Red 5 would unveil what they were working on this year.
Epic fail. Sac up and be like Google and stop dealing with a corrupt, vicious, repressive regime just for a few yuan.
It's a challenging task to make a MMO, you need to hire a lot of people for many years and manage the project before ever seeing one cent coming in, not to mention the uncertainty of a long-term development, you can't know when it will be ready until a lot further in development. There has to be solid previsions or at least a very flexible and comfortable budget to work with. When news of layoffs reach sunlight, it is already a failure.
Or they may release with far too little content, polish or similar issues, which is why we see MMOs reaching daylight in that state, it's either close doors and die financially or at least take a chance to profit or recover the money and perhaps grow again.
I really give up any of these unnanounced MMOs, they all seem to get cancelled. I can see Blizzards' making it through, but of course that will be out in 10 years if were lucky.
That's the danger in doing a MMORPG. You can't just have good game designers/artists/coders, you have to have *excellent* managers and business people who can track an incredibly complicated, multi-year project. All while not snuffing out the creative spark needed to make a decent game.
It's not an easy thing and I don't envy people who try it.
Sorry to read of the news.
Well I think that MMO project can be put on the canceled list.
The Chinese market is not really a golden egg... more like a plated gold egg being touted by a street vendor as, "Genuine Imitation Golden Egg!"
And that is why...
Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong they are happy to be so. Third, because pessimistic conservatives put not their faith in princes -- government -- they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity -- it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.
Are you aware its the country in the world with most internetusers..roughly 300 million
Ask Starcraft Ghost. But if Blizzard cancels it, we know it's not because of financial reasons, at least regarding funding.
--
While China has an incredible amount of internet users, it also has an incredible amount of MMOs, what reaches the West (years later after original release) is just a fraction of what is really available there. So it may not be so profitable as it used to be, though you can get away with a lower budget, smaller development team, less content and more RMT. And I don't hear much about West MMOs making success there, except for WoW, but it made so much success that the authorities there apparently got worried and then it found all the issues to be kept online and I don't even know the current status of the legal battle...
That's really sad news. I had high hopes for Red 5 Studios.
And we all know "ON HOLD" means "CANCELED".
Wow, I am sad to hear this as well. After hearing about Red 5's excellent hiring campaign I was really looking forward to see what they came up with.
Here's to hoping they get through this and release something amazing!
My software development blog:
http://www.raywenderlich.com
Hey all. My name is Matt and I'm the community manager at Red 5 Studios. I just wanted to clear a few things up for you all.
We sent out a press release yesterday that was supposed to address most of these rumors, but just in case you missed it... We are not canceling the game, it hasn't been put on hold and we are still planning a full AAA game for worldwide release. I can't talk details on the game design or genre at this point, but I just want you all to know that we're still here and making an awesome game.
Hope that clears things up a bit. Thanks for your support.
Sounds great, cant wait to hear what you guys come up with
China is where MMO's go to die, kind of like humans and florida.
In any case, I love the offset engine and I really liked old blizzard, heres to seeing you pull through.
Cheers Matt. Are you able to give us some tidbits mate?
Like:
- fantasy, sci-fi or other?
- rough release date or at least year
- PvE or PvP?
- Sub-based or f2p?
- 2D/3D, iso, 1st person, OTS...? Rpg, RTS, FPS or hybrid?
- do you need an experienced IT Manager to whip the troops into shape? <G>
For GOD'S sake, pls, pls, PLEASE allow us to invert the mouse & map the basic movement keys. Those are my only wish list items. Everything else should be easy! >8^D
They say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. That's true, even for a blind man. ^DareDevil^
Hopefully it's still a MMORPG? Otherwise you wouldn't be posting on this site....
Honestly, something did go down at Red 5, a lot of people no longer work there. The press release is about as expected, a lot of spin. Still, I hope your studio is able to release a good solid MMO.
Sorry Matt, but if you are having money problems already and still don't have an announced game, it is pretty easy to project the end scenario here for looking at a canceled game. The history of this genre is full of examples of this.
You can send out all the press releases you like, but that won't change the fact that the studio and the game are in serious trouble at this point.
The way the scenario usually works, if you actually do get to announce and produce the game, you will be under such severe pressure that a buggy or half finished game will be released and the people who actually buy it will be paying to beta or even alpha it. Most of us have had enough of those.
Of course there is always the possibility to break the mold. I wish you success in trying to do it.
I don't want to put any undo pressure on RED5
however ....
I was snooping around,found the OFFSET engine that the game will be using and found the PROJECT offset game.
Now i know this is a scripted video,but that sure is a cool video and if the engine can utilize PHYSx and destructive surfaces,you have the possibility of a real cool game,of course the effort has to go into it,just having the possibility means nothing.
Anyhoot...here is a cool video of a game using the same OFFSET engine,i believe it is the game engine owners who are making this game,so they of course know their game engine well.
Offset engine
click the GDC 09 METEOR video.Windowed video is fast load,the HD download takes quite a while to d/l.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I can't argue with your logic. It is often the case that when a company mentions anything to do with layoffs, they often are unable to actually complete the game. I don't think that is what is happening here, but the only way I can disprove this trend is to actually release the game. Hopefully we'll have something to show you very soon that might alleviate some fears, but I won't try to dissuade you from your concerns. They are all valid and as a gamer, I have seen them come to fruition all too often. I don't believe it will happen here though.
All I ask is that you give us the benefit of the doubt until you have a chance to play the game and then let us know what you think. Thanks again.
Nostromo. Sorry, I am not able to release details of the game right now. I am still pushing for an announcement as soon as possible so keep an eye out.
It's the curse of Blizzard - all employees who leave... ARE DOOMED TO FAIL!
Interesting update on the details...
www.joystiq.com/2010/02/06/the9-invests-nearly-15-million-into-red-5-studios-fire-rain/
www.massively.com/2010/02/04/the9-invests-in-red-5-studios-fire-rain/
first comment on the first linked article:
"mocax @ Feb 6th 2010 7:21AM
Hellgate : Beijing?"
I LOL'd!