SWTOR Team changes

[Cakka]

Bioware mainly laid off support. See what I did there.

No I don't see what you did there. BioWare CEO just said that they did indeed cut down their development team on SWTOR, when on the other hand Blizzard said the exact opposite about the their lay offs saying that the WoW development team wasn't affected.

[Arlee]

By the wording of the statement I'd expect to see some of the bigger names associated with the project to have been transfered or let go. Sometimes it takes some time for people to do the things that let us know who's been laid off and who's not i.e. change facebook/linkedin/twitter status ... or ... if they're still posting in an official capacity on the SWTOR forums.

Honestly my first thought was "oh god and I was just thinking that I hadn't seen any posts from Georg Zoller in the last few weeks"... but I am thinking that it was just panic on my part

Anywho, I'll keep looking to see if anything pops up. Like you say it might take some time, but I am thinking that if they had let go of anyone big/well known they would have mentioned that more specifically.

[Glorious Leader]

No I don't see what you did there. BioWare CEO just said that they did indeed cut down their development team on SWTOR, when on the other hand Blizzard said the exact opposite about the their lay offs saying that the WoW development team wasn't affected.

OH they did? Where did they do that? They didn't specify who they layed off in their post. Just talented people which could be support people as well. Your inferring alot based on nothing. Also can you tell me where Blizzard specifically said they laid off support people? I would be shocked if they gave such insight into their decisions.

[Slugfest]

One user on the TOR forums offered this information, uncertian to it's validity, but what he said bears examination:

Ossos - They fired class story developers. This includes writers, artists, and other programmers associated with class story development. This new should be taken as "It is very unlikely that character story will progress in the game in any fashion."

So, I hope you liked the class story, because it's over.

As to whom they didn't fire...CS types and Quality Assurance.

Please keep in mind that many of the complaints received by developers that related to bugs in live, came by word of mouth, from the forms and not from the CSs.

Best of luck.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jett-Rinn
Do you have a link from a Bioware rep that backs any of this up?

Ossos - Absolutely nothing that you would take as a solid source. I understand your concern, I have nothing to give you that would alleviate that.

Regardless of what reservations you have, that's who went. Give it a week, news will leak.

Original link to page - http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...462291&page=20

[Arlee]

Looks like at least some of the layoffs were QA testers.

http://torwars.com/2012/05/22/lay-of...rong-position/

[SirRobin]

Looking for more specific info atm.

Ouch, my sympathies to everyone who got canned.

If I recall correctly, they waited another six months before starting the purge at Mythic after WAR crashed.

[Cakka]

OH they did? Where did they do that? They didn't specify who they layed off in their post. Just talented people which could be support people as well. Your inferring alot based on nothing. Also can you tell me where Blizzard specifically said they laid off support people? I would be shocked if they gave such insight into their decisions.

Here is link for you. It doesn't directly say support, but it does say non-game development. Also if you still want to argue listen to the Instance(the most popular WoW podcast if you hadn't heard of it yet) of that week. The show is hosted by Scott Johnsson who is actually eg. WoW TCG artist himself (and is as reliable as Bibi here as a source) and couple other people with lot's friends in Blizzard flat out said that the layoffs were mainly support staff made redundant by the increased CS automization and dropping subscription numbers. Anyway I'm done talking about WoW in a thread that has nothing to do with WoW.

[Glorious Leader]

Here is link for you. It doesn't directly say support, but it does say non-game development. Also if you still want to argue listen to the Instance(the most popular WoW podcast if you hadn't heard of it yet) of that week. The show is hosted by Scott Johnsson who is actually eg. WoW TCG artist himself (and is as reliable as Bibi here as a source) and couple other people with lot's friends in Blizzard flat out said that the layoffs were mainly support staff made redundant by the increased CS automization and dropping subscription numbers. Anyway I'm done talking about WoW in a thread that has nothing to do with WoW.

Oh I don't really care to talk about about Warcraft. You still didn't tell me where Bioware said who they were firing? No company does this for obvious reasons. Even Blizzard doesn't do it, it's just been infered and pieced together from other sources. You don't even have the benefit of that when you made your statements about Bioware your just inferring alot where their is so evidence to lead you to that conclusion. I only use Warcraft as a corollary. So I'm asking you once again can you back up this statement with any proof:

BioWare CEO just said that they did indeed cut down their development team on SWTOR

If not I'll expect that you'll retract that statement? Didn't think so.

[Cakka]

If not I'll expect that you'll retract that statement? Didn't think so.

How about the first two sentences from their CEO's post:

Originally Posted by SWTOR

Hey folks, since you’re reading this you may likely have heard that we’ve done some restructuring here on the SWTOR team. Sadly, we are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality

If that doesn't say to you that they are laying off people from the SWTOR development team to you I'd suggest some reading comprehension lessons.

Later on in that same post

Originally Posted by SWTOR

We still have a very substantial development team working on supporting and growing the game

directly referring to the fact that people have been laid off from the SWTOR team and at the same time pointing out that the team is still very substantial, ie. not as big as before but still big enough in their view.

[Korgoth]

Title of the thread made me optimistic for some new management to fix the game, but apparently they just shit canned half their creative department.

Which is really quite depressing, as the odds of them finally making the game match the quality of the cinematics just went way down.

[Glorious Leader]

How about the first two sentences from their CEO's post:

Originally Posted by SWTOR

Hey folks, since you’re reading this you may likely have heard that we’ve done some restructuring here on the SWTOR team. Sadly, we are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality

If that doesn't say to you that they are laying off people from the SWTOR development team to you I'd suggest some reading comprehension lessons.

Later on in that same post

Originally Posted by SWTOR

We still have a very substantial development team working on supporting and growing the game

directly referring to the fact that people have been laid off from the SWTOR team and at the same time pointing out that the team is still very substantial, ie. not as big as before but still big enough in their view.

Which could also mean suppport staff. It depends who they consider to be part of the development team. The first part doesn't actually say anything about the development team it just says their laying off hardworking talented people from the swtor team which is such a broad term it could mean anything. The second part doesn't specifically mention where the lay offs came from it just says they still have a very substantial DEVELOPMENT TEAM WORKING ON AND SUPPORT AND GROWING THE GAME which suggests to me that they consider SUPPORT staff part of the swtor team. SUPPORT staff not actual development staff. Don't tell me I need reading comprehension. The statements were purposely vague for a reason and they don't add up to what your saying. You're inferring alot based on nothing in a paltry attempt to make a big deal out of this. Of course you didn't in Blizzards case...

The simple fact is you can't prove who was layed off and in what departments and until we have some evidence that development has suffered because of this you're just attempting to start a shit storm.

[Hellfury]

By that logic when Blizzard layed off employees a couple months back world of warcraft is entering it's death spiral as well. Nobody actually believes that of course and I'm not sure why we should believe the above..

Blizzard could had layed off the D3/Sc2 staff

This case was Bioware Austin and that studio was 100% on Swtor

[Glorious Leader]

Blizzard could had layed off the D3/Sc2 staff

This case was Bioware Austin and that studio was 100% on Swtor

True but nowhere does it say it was directly related to development staff. The person I'm discussing this with is inferring quite a bit.

[Arlee]

It could mean that some of the development staff is gone and it could just mean that people not directly related to development (but still part of the swtor team) were let go. It is not clear either way.

[Hellfury]

Either way its bad. Cutting down development and/or QA this are the lower ppl that just do the grunt work.

I would prefer to see a change in upper managment, fresh new ideas.

[SirRobin]

It could mean that some of the development staff is gone and it could just mean that people not directly related to development (but still part of the swtor team) were let go. It is not clear either way.

True and I'm sure details will follow over the next couple of days. I do find it rather surprising since, if I recall correctly, they waited almost a year before starting the layoffs at Mythic, after WAR launched. TOR isn't even six months old and they've already started pink sipping? I've said before that until EA starts targetting BioWare Austin for layoffs that TOR's future would be bright. Looks like that future just dimmed considerably. My main question now would be if any of the big dogs like Hickman or Vogel were told that they've decided to "pursue other interests."

[Arlee]

Hmm, Gamebreakers is reporting that there are some high level people who have been laid off, but that they still don't know who. I'm curious what they are basing that on, but here's the link to their videocast.

http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/swtor-layoffs/

[Cakka]

Which could also mean suppport staff. It depends who they consider to be part of the development team. The first part doesn't actually say anything about the development team it just says their laying off hardworking talented people from the swtor team which is such a broad term it could mean anything. The second part doesn't specifically mention where the lay offs came from it just says they still have a very substantial DEVELOPMENT TEAM WORKING ON AND SUPPORT AND GROWING THE GAME which suggests to me that they consider SUPPORT staff part of the swtor team. SUPPORT staff not actual development staff. Don't tell me I need reading comprehension. The statements were purposely vague for a reason and they don't add up to what your saying. You're inferring alot based on nothing in a paltry attempt to make a big deal out of this. Of course you didn't in Blizzards case...

The simple fact is you can't prove who was layed off and in what departments and until we have some evidence that development has suffered because of this you're just attempting to start a shit storm.

First of all I'm not trying to start a shitstorm because I've probably actually played SWTOR more than 90% of the people here (eg. I got 4 lvl 50s and various other alts and been subscribed since pre-release) and definitely don't want it to go down in flames. Simple fact is though that corporations like BioWare don't release statements like that about firing some CS, without actually clarifying it is just that. I'm not sure SWTOR CS is actually even part of BioWare Austin and I know for a fact they have done a LOT of outsourcing, eg. big part of graphical assets aren't actually done by BioWare Austin themselfs and well CS is one of the easiest things to outsource. Anyway I hope you guys are right and I guess we might know more in the coming days.

[SirRobin]

Yeah, "restructuring" definitely sounds like more than just laying off some "grunts." Anyone checked the big dogs' twitter feeds? That's how we found out who EA canned at Mythic when they started the purge there.

[SirRobin]

I wonder who will be next.

Hehe... Well no one forced BioWare to take EA's money.