World of Darkness team 'significantly reduced,' CCP to focus on EVE
EVE Online developer CCP has announced that it is laying off 20% of its staff and redoubling its focus on EVE development. World of Darkness will experience the brunt of most of the cuts.
It seems as though EVE Online developer CCP bit off a little more than it could chew when it decided to embark on simultaneous development of EVE expansions, the console-crossover EVE tie-in shooter Dust 514, and the new MMO World of Darkness. The company has stated that it has chosen to lay-off twenty-percent of its workforce, due to thinly-stretched resources and a desire to refocus more development attention on EVE.
"We have come to the conclusion that we are attempting too many things for a company our size," the developer admitted.
"Rather than allowing this to persist, we have made the decision to sharpen our focus. Sadly, this means reducing our staff," the company said in a press release. The company explains that the layoffs will predominantly affect the developer's Atlanta, Georgia offices, but that "select positions" in the Reykjavik, Iceland office will also be impacted.
Under the new initiative EVE Online--and the console shooter tie-in, Dust 514--will take priority. Development of World of Darkness will also continue, though its team will suffer the greatest reduction in resources. CCP notes that the decisions don't come lightly, and they'll be "making every effort within our means" to help those affected by the downsizing find new employment.
Despite the reduction in staff, CCP makes it clear that EVE Online fans need not be concerned. "Our subscriber numbers are higher today than they were a year ago. Unlike many other MMO's on the market, we have continued to grow year-on-year since launch in 2003," the developer states. "However, over the past two months, our subscribers have gone down from their peak this summer. We attribute this to our own mistakes and poor communications with our players. We are correcting that now."
CCP also explains that World of Darkness "lives on," but that its "revolutionary" concepts need some more development time "before dedicating the substantial resources required to bring this experience to market."
"While our decision to refocus is a solemn one, it will benefit our players through a renewed commitment to the EVE Universe and its fans," CCP concludes.
Player trials for the PSN-exclusive Dust 514 and a new as of yet unnamed EVE Online expansion "designed to return to the game's core values" are still planned to launch "in winter."
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replyJeff Mattas posted a new article, World of Darkness team 'significantly reduced,' CCP to focus on EVE.
EVE Online developer CCP has announced that it is laying off 20% of its staff and redoubling its focus on EVE development. World of Darkness will experience the brunt of most of the cuts.-
Yeesh. Bad timing, what with having hyped the bejezus out of the game at the Grand Masquerade a month ago.
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Damn. CCP is one of the few forward thinking houses that's willing to implement unorthodox gameplay. World of Darkness was likely to feature permanent character death which I think is a great idea. I thought CCP was doing fine financially so 20% cuts surprises me. Is EVE in bad shape and do our resident EVE players expect it to recover?
P.S. Dust 514 is going to crash and burn if it stays on the PS3.-
i don't see dust 514 working out. its a cool idea, but seems like they are investing too much into the EVE universe.
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that sucks, World of Darkness is one of the few MMOs im looking forward to
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The main issue facing CCP is, in my opinion, their wondrous MMO: EVE, is a very polarising game, the harshness of the player base turns of people very quickly, unless you an stomach losing ships that literally take a month to pay for, and 6 months to learn to fly.
They can't make the game 'nicer' as there is a massive hard-core set of players with years of experience that basically rule the various player corporations, who would leave in droves, and they can't continue as it is, as they can't increase their sub numbers with such a savage, anything-goes, no rules game universe.-
Well that and the game's fairly boring - even worse if you hate the PvP aspect. I can't imagine anyone wanting to just jump into that game at this point. Barrier to entry is way too high. Too bad they're not spending less resources on Eve (yawn) and more on World of Darkness; it sounded actually pretty cool.
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I for one, am happy with this development. EvE should be absolutely first, and in the state its in, as per what was promised to the playerbase, it needs a lot of love right now. They are on the verge of something grand with the Walking in Stations if they can do it right. So far it looks amazing, but it's one freakin room.
They got burned in the ass pretty bad with the release of Incarna, to the point the Pres had to suck it up and beg forgiveness from the player base several weeks later. This development may be a result of that bitterness toward the current/past EvE neglect.
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