Titan Lead-Designer laid off?

[Deleted]

According to a news item on Kotaku, there is a rumour that the leader designer for the Titan MMO has been laid-off.

http://kotaku.com/5857311/senior-des...t-mmo-laid-off

MMO specialist website Massively claims that, according to a "tipster", Blizzard's John Staats has been laid off. Who is John Staats? Only the senior level designer of the company's next big MMO, the successor to World of Warcraft.

Staats (pictured), who has worked for Blizzard for a decade, been described as a "hero of the WoW dev team" and whose credits involve every single World of Warcraft raid dungeon, Blackrock Mountain and Booty Bay, was obviously a big part of the team working on Titan, the codename for Blizzard's next massively-multiplayer game.

Of course, he still may be a big part of the team; we've contacted Blizzard for confirmation, and will update if we hear back.

[Mozu]

Assuming everything is true (and there's a lot of assumptions in there), it's a sad day for Titan.

[Primernova]

Maybe we can get an astronomer for Titan, the marine biologist was just awesome for T10+

[Deleo]

Memorial in Titan inc

[TJ]

They should hire me to replace him, i wont listen to the community thats for dam sure :>

[Thorfisnson]

OK - but you have to ask why?

[jibbyjackjoe]

So, after Titan, this bloke isn't coming back to wow or any other blizzard project?

Sounds like bad news bears....

[Deleted]

There's a huge difference between a lead designer and a senior LEVEL designer.
Read what the article writes, not what you want to read.

[bcbully]

Wow. I would like to believe he was like "F that Bobby! Take that S and shove it up your Activision A! Aight, whos coming with me?"

repost from similar thread.

[stgeorge78]

Doesn't sound like being "laid off" and more like "fired". Maybe he was leaking Titan info out. Blizzard has over 100 job postings, no way they are having "single person lay offs".

[Anjerith]

Considering Blizzard hasn't officially commented on it, I wouldn't be going into conspiracy theory mode guys.

Even if he was laid off or had to quit or whatever - so what? We know nothing about Titan at all. It is just as likely that it is still in the early concept stages and he/they were unable to make steady progress on getting his portion of the project realized. There are thousands of things that can come into play on this.

I lol'd at the "WOW IS DYING AUUUUGHHH!" posts btw guys, nice attempt to derail the thread, which is not about WoW at all.


And yeah, he isn't a Senior Designer, he is a Senior Level Designer. Its like the difference between firing Stephen King or firing the guy that drew the cover of his last book.

[Venziir]

"next big MMO, the successor to World of Warcraft."....... Fun, especially because Blizzard have constantly said, that "Titan" would be something on the side, not the successor....

[Blackmist]

Maybe he wasn't towing the new company line of "profit first"... Maybe he was sending all his spare ideas to ArenaNet. Be interesting to see what he does next.

[Joshmaul]

I find it ironic that the first comment of that article is a diss from Jesus Christ.

[Voidgazer]

Oh well, Blizzard apparently just kicked out the last good member of the development team. Welcome linear dungeons, four zone "expansions", forgotten plot lines and "fun" mini-games!

p.s. I'm not sure this topic belongs in this sub-forum.

[bcbully]

And yeah, he isn't a Senior Designer, he is a Senior Level Designer. Its like the difference between firing Stephen King or firing the guy that drew the cover of his last book.

He made Blackrock Depths, and Ulduar...

[Venziir]

He made Blackrock Depths, and Ulduar...

Well in that case, he had it coming.

[Joshmaul]

He made Blackrock Depths, and Ulduar...

Ulduar is fine. Blackrock Depths...an unforgivable sin. (I HATE BRD.)

[Vehemence]

I don't trust Kotaku, so lets see where this takes us.

[Obsession]

Doubt it is true. Either way, if it is true we will probably find out for sure in a couple of hours, their third quarter results conference call is today: Nov 08, 2011 at 1:30 PM PT