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Cryptic Studios Layoffs?
riverocean
Posts: 1,690 Arc User
I stumbled across this today on Massively:
Does anyone know if this has been confirmed? Did we lose any of the devs working for CO at all? It's a pretty big shock to read this.
Cryptic layoffs alone totaled 18 people
http://massivelyop.net/2015/03/17/cryptic-layoffs-alone-totaled-18-people/
Massively OP has been contacted by a Cryptic employee who wishes to remain anonymous and whose identity we have confirmed about the Perfect World/Cryptic layoffs yesterday that one former PWE staffer called a slaughter.
Our source tells us that 18 people were let go from Cryptic itself, approximately 14% of the studio. Half of those were Neverwinter staff, evening out the Neverwinter and Star Trek Online teams (we do know some STO staff, including former City of Heroes lead designer Matt Miller and the games community manager, were among those let go)
Does anyone know if this has been confirmed? Did we lose any of the devs working for CO at all? It's a pretty big shock to read this.
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this likely happened a year or two ago.
No, it happened over in the STO dev team. A community manager who went by the name of "Smirk" got let go as did Matt "Positron" Miller.
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I'm not surprised we're being left to chug along. I've heard from several sources our servers basically pay for themselves, so there's not much point to shutting us down.
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Though is any power changes happening? I keep hoping for chains to get a power upgrade! ^_^ Can are few devs look into it?
Unlikely, as the only Cryptic games that appear to be affected are STO and Neverwinter. CO is still ignored for good or ill.
Cryptic North which does CO is in Seattle.
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Although, as Iconians points out in the STO forums, these layoffs fit into a larger pattern in the tech world; there appears to be a bubble in the process of collapsing, and of course the corporations involved, from humble PWE all the way up to mighty Microsoft, never try to cut costs by letting the expensive senior management go. No, it's always the folks at the bottom of the ladder, the ones who actually are crucial to the corporate success, who find out their positions have been made redundant.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Huh.
That's 1 more than I thought we had. Nice.
Thank goodness the rest of the business world doesn't operate this way ... oh wait, it does.
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"Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
:biggrin:
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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And playing by myself since Aug 2009
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For those that were unfortunate to be on the receiving end of the layoffs, if you're reading this, I wish you all the best.
And I will always be @DZPlayer122.
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I was absolutely overjoyed at the announcement of Champions-Online and was so looking forward to it growing into something special. How sad and what a shame it is now this game has stuttered, stumbled and now finally stagnated five years later.
Still, foolishly and constantly checking in, every week, scanning the press and these forums for anything, a hint that PWE/Cryptic may get serious about growing this title. I think re: the small flicker of a flame of hope I held for this game, that one-day Cryptic might recognise the game's potential and invest, this small but devastatingly disappointing insight of their attitude towards this title and behind the scenes of the studio pretty much snuffs said flame out completely.
This confirms what I have felt about Champions-Online for the longest time, "Left to chugg along" is an insult and unacceptable, and it's truely tragic Cryptic-Studios have never truely understood what the potential of this game could of been had they invested properly in the 30yr old IP they bought outright.
They had a massive year and a half's head-start on DCUO...at least, if memory serves and they still failed to capitalise.
Paragon Studios was shuttered and instead of a resurgent development process and master-plan to grow the team, game and to capitalise on all those who needed a new home.... nothing. Even when Cryptic-Studios had the great fortune to hire Matt Millar they still mess things up by assigning him to STO - I mean seriously!?.
My heart goes out to all those laid-off as a result of the incompetent business practices of Cryptic-Studios, whether as part of 2K Games/Take-Two Interactive, Atari and Perfect World Entertainment - the Champions-Online story has been the same; excuses, empty re-assurance, cryptic promises at forthcoming content and a subsequent but predictable failure to invest.
For the executive team there at Cryptic-Studios.... Jack Emmert and Co - I do not have the words at how disappointed I am in what has been a pathetic commitment to growing this title.
Your loss, and personally I will never give any of your titles any future consideration whatsoever as I have zero confidence in your ability as a games-development studio.
Bye.
Dropping my knitting to buff you whilst hitting - Proudly protecting Millennium City's little ones since 2009.
@Mothers_Love
TT is Assistant Product manager, not a Dev.
and for those who didn't read the article.^^
PWE is responsible and they are laying off some of their people too.
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^Pretty much this.
Periodic layoffs are nothing unheard of in the game industry. They're often follow after a development cycle and that many people are no longer needed.
Which is actually quite stupid in the long run (if something crucial breaks in your game you end no longer having people who had it built for you and can fix it, for an example), but for some reason that's pretty common way how games are made.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
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I'm serious. They stated that their PR was laid off too. Considering that they weren't doing their job its not surprising. Is that the reason you find it funny?
Hey, someone remembered my title. :biggrin:
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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That's pretty much working as designed, actually. Trendy and Sweet&Sour were always on the content generation side, not on the Face side of things. You'll notice I haven't written a lot of blogs lately, since they've handled that, but the forums were always out of their scope.
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TT, You mention these "Blogs" alot. Not to be rude(really, not trying to be rude) but am I missing something here? Do you mean these articles that pop up on the main page from time to time like the new Z-Store stuff? Could you, perhaps, elaborate please?
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
Yes, that's exactly what he means.
In my mind it is what it is.
Anyway... looks like CO really wasn't affected by this unfortunate turn of events...Lets keep on chugging on!
And that's why we'll live forever.
Unless Cryptic gets the dumb idea to invest a bunch of money into CO, at which point the demand for return will suddenly skyrocket and after a few months it'll get shut down.
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I'd trade in that shadenfreude for the joy of realizing that people in the business world actually learned to stop doing dumb stuff like that.
Of course, we live in a society where professional athletes and actors are payed millions of dollars and the farmers who keep our society from crumbling are treated like the dirt they grow our food on... so smartly allocating resources as a widespread behavior is likely a few centuries off.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Nobody knows what you actually do though... as far as I know you're more like our own personal news anchor o3o
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
it would involve making sure the products (games)get used, while staying within budget.
getting new items that people are likely to spend money on,
while not spending a load of money on things people will use"for a few weeks and then say "I'm bored , when are we going to get more X.
seeing what makes new people 1. stay or 2. leave. Then trying to increase 1 while reducing 2.
marketing/sales/stock controller combination job.
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More or less. In my particular case, it ends up being a more supportive/coordinating/reporting role, but it's a bit different for everyone. Below are some of the sample tasks I do.
-Talk through release timelines, and link them up with monthly goals. "Hey, we're going to want to do a couple promotions this month, like X on dates Y through Z." To take November/December as an example, I helped figure out when we wanted to do the bonus XP and Questionite days, what sales we'd do for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and when to time the key and LTS sales.
-Arrange for publicity, assigning blogs and emails to the CMs.
-Do monetization analysis, either data-driven or by looking at how we sell/advertise things. I and the STO APM worked together on what to include in the revised Subscription page, then Trendy took those guidelines and knocked it out of the park.
-Reporting. Everyone's favorite thing! I keep track of sales and population, and keep higher-ups informed.
-Anything that doesn't fit anyone else's responsibility. If someone doesn't know who to ask -- "Hey, do you remember how we did X last time?" or "Hey, this tool is broken" -- I'm often the one they go to. Definitely not always, but I often take the problems from other people and task them out to whoever will solve them.
Interesting, please elaborate more on the red bits though.
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
Nobody understands why you need to do double and triple posts to throw out blanket statements.
Not a good year to be a game dev, it seems.
RIP Caine
Sorry for the double post, but damn.
Never got to play with you. Bummer. If you change your mind, or ever wanna log in for the lulz? Hit me up. You were great for this game.
This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell
RIP Caine
Points made Mumsy but lets not forget how heavily CO came under attack from launch day until now. False advertising. Potential memorials to the nonexistent. Gibberish disguised as "fan art". Foxbat. Poor advertising. And Foxbat.
Early on there might have been the (albeit) smallest of chances in improving our lot, had we countered a significant COH campaign that frankly smeared CO. Nothing to be done now. Coh is gone, Titan is engaged in virtual torture vis a vi false hope, yet CO remains.
Ok the stories are lacking. The same cannot be said for the combat, build potential, or visual customization. The latter still destroys the competition (perhaps not money wise but to the more discerning eye).
Of course people remember you. Forgive me if this is incorrect, but this is how I remember you:
1. Defended Sapphire concert
2. See #1 . 85 times.
3. Foxbat enthusiasm.
4. Basically defending every boneheaded move cryptic made.
Then, when things didn't pan out, and CO didn't expand, your tune changed. You began asking questions along the lines of what you and some others really heavy handedly pilloried other customers for asking the same questions months earlier ;Namely asking for details about upcoming content and monetary questions regarding the future of the game.
Yet the same people still post here while at the same time bashing CO on other boards. Sometimes using numerous known handles (GG), other times so lazy as to not even bother. Nothing really changes. Well except that devs and community reps still play favorites, not realizing it's obvious and detrimental to the spirit of the larger community.
You could have done something. You could have helped. You Cained instead.
I don't buy your crocodile tears.
Not for one single second.
You told us to give the devs a break. It was "mean" of us to ask for content updated on a regular basis, you said. Enjoy what you asked for.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
^ blanket statement. There are actually plenty of people who understand why I double or triple post: because I was too lazy to copy/paste everything into a single post and/or forgot to hit multi-quote. The reason I double/triple/whatever post actually has nothing to do with blanket statements.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
This part caught my attention the most. So you're the guy who figures out which things are making the most money and should be focused on? o.o If so, that, as far as I'm concerned, makes you one of the most important people at Cryptic.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I wish they would put out mini-powersets (i.e. 4-5 closely integrated powers) that were purchasable account-wide unlocks.
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It's a forum post about a video game, not a college essay. If you don't care to value what I have to say, don't worry, I won't be losing any sleep over it
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Can you use any of that to get all of the Power Replace items added back in game? Perhaps as a Power Replace weapons bundle? With a minor tweak that allows the weapons to scale with level?
I'd pay a pretty Zen to have a flaming sword, or the Qularr weapons and their organic blasts, toxic dripping morning stars, etc. Just sayin'...it's already there. Just package and sell. You'll be everyone's hero and earn the brand a big influx of money. MONEY! Everyone loves that stuff! You can't go wrong...Please???
Or, more reasonably, two Elemental Weapon Costume Packs, one for melee and one for ranged.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
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