Trion Team Layoffs

[Puremallace]

So from my checking around the lay offs were mostly in San Diego. Rift is in Redwood. San Diego from my guess is where they make that Red Door project.

[Deleted]

We rarely see reports when a company hires dozens of artists, testers and system engineers while developing an expansion. From the looks of things it seems bringing in End of Nations in-house to Trion + the now finished expansion is/was to be expected.

Story sounds worse than it is but is likely just a smart ass move because why are you paying 4-5 QA people when you don't need their services anymore? I would fire those people too.

If you move a title in-house you should hire new people not fire them, no?
Even with launch of SL, downsizing in QA is to pe expected. But why in the art dep?

My bet is that their scyfi fps title died, this ofc is pure speculation.

Here is another closer to my field of work. This is the time projections and estimates are made for 2013, probably things didn't look so rosy so they decided to downsize and focus on the most profitable side of the business leaving risky ventures aside for now.

Also people thinking are fine in the mmo market are delusional, devs from all the major titles have complained about the costs of making and updating MMO, all of them emphasizing that it borders on the unsustainable for a AAA title, can't find the interview with scott Hartsman saying just that (add to that devs from SWTOR, Bioware studio bigwigs, Funcom devs), when costs get too high and there is no more room to expand you downsize, it's natural.

[Edge-]

My bet is that their scyfi fps title died, this ofc is pure speculation.

Erm, we'd hear about that. It's a big collaboration with SyFy channel, so if one part of it fails, the other part will likely fail as well. Not to mention all indications of the game have been good thus far and from what we know it's still on track for the April release date.

Any reasons why you speculate? >.>

And artists aren't needed near the end of projects either. It's pretty common to cut back on artists in addition to the QA guys (same thing happened at Blizz shortly before D3 launched I think. QA/art got hit hard since they weren't necessary anymore).

[Deleted]

Erm, we'd hear about that. It's a big collaboration with SyFy channel, so if one part of it fails, the other part will likely fail as well. Not to mention all indications of the game have been good thus far and from what we know it's still on track for the April release date.

Any reasons why you speculate? >.>

And artists aren't needed near the end of projects either. It's pretty common to cut back on artists in addition to the QA guys (same thing happened at Blizz shortly before D3 launched I think. QA/art got hit hard since they weren't necessary anymore).

Exactly how you put it Defiance seems to be on track from what i have seen, they are even hiring for a concept artist for defiance on the trion site.
Edge, could you possibly re-name the title of the thread as it is mis-leading and nonfactual, the layoffs where for trion as a whole not just rift.

[Deleted]

My bet is that their scyfi fps title died, this ofc is pure speculation.

End of Nations pretty much died, Defiance has quite a large following already and has not even been released, there is quite a lot of hype around it and from what I've seen it does look like it could even get me into FPS games!

[Deleted]

End of Nations pretty much died, Defiance has quite a large following already and has not even been released, there is quite a lot of hype around it and from what I've seen it does look like it could even get me into FPS games!

Same for me, i havn't played an FPS since halo, and i only did that with my little cousin in the pvp maps (so much fun but got bored quickly) i am actually really looking forward to playing Defiance, i have signed up for beta access, and i hope i get in, i got in with EoN alpha, (i actually really really enjoyed EoN and i only heard good things when playing alpha from other players) and SL friends and family, so i think i might get in to this one too. The Tv show look as cool as the game, i love American TV (currently hooked on American Horror Story: Asylum) and many other programs.

[Arkamenitas]

I want to step in here and shed some light on a few things regarding end of nations - First off, the game was being developed by petroglyph, trion was just the producer. While details arent really available yet, it appears that petro never held up on their end and they have apparently been removed from the project (presumably, this was then the layoffs petro just experienced), with end of nations moving production in-house at trion. Statements have been repeatedly made that it is still in development, though delayed for changes based on feedback. that could of course be PR bullshit, but other goings-on and various other sources whom i cannot name support the still in development train of thought. Eon has the makings of a great game, but like many others i do agree there was some work to be done yet and that it simply was not release ready when this statement came up. Calling EoN a flop or dead is still as yet a very premature statement, though obviously we wont be seeing it come out for a while yet.

[Puremallace]

End of Nations pretty much died, Defiance has quite a large following already and has not even been released, there is quite a lot of hype around it and from what I've seen it does look like it could even get me into FPS games!

Yeah Defiance is definitely a go considering on the 20th Anniversary thing SyFy did they did like 30minutes devoted to upcoming Defiance. It has got to be End of Nations.

[Arkamenitas]

Furthermore, it makes complete sense for there to be layoffs right after a major expansion launch - after all, they managed to keep the content rolling even during storm legion development, which suggests there had to be a surplus team of artists/designers/developers/etc etc on hand at the time. Also, the reduction in QA staff would be warranted too, though maybe not to the level of certain people filled with righteous vindictive pleasure may suggest.

[Arbs]

2 weeks before christmas, puts a tear in my eye But As much as one-third of development team let go thats big.

[SirRobin]

Always a shame when this happens. Wish them luck in finding new jobs.

[Ighox]

If you move a title in-house you should hire new people not fire them, no?
Even with launch of SL, downsizing in QA is to pe expected. But why in the art dep?

Same reason as QA probably, it's very common in the gaming industry to downsize after big releases.
And as far as I know the actual number is still just a rumour so I'm not really worried.