Breaking: ArenaNet co-founder leaves NCsoft

by Shawn Schuster on Aug 11th 2009 5:00PM

Aion, Guild Wars, MMO industry, Guild Wars 2

MMORPG.com is reporting that both Jeff Strain and David Reid have recently departed NCsoft West. Strain, the President of Product Development for the newly-restructured NCsoft West and Reid, the President of Publishing are both said to have left for "unrelated" reasons.

Jeff Strain has always been much more than just a co-founder of ArenaNet, as his visions have driven the company to spectacular feats with their blockbuster title Guild Wars. David Reid was brought on last year with the newly-announced NC West, which aimed to re-structure the company on the tails of Tabula Rasa's closing. Does this spell even more bad news for NCsoft, only a month before they launch Aion? According to a press release from NCsoft West Public Relations Director Ryan James, "These changes do not influence any other teams, development schedules or other launches." That may be true, but it's the reputation that seems to be in the most trouble now. We wish Mr. Strain and Mr. Reid the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Source

Tags: arenanet, breaking, breakingnews, david-reid, guild-wars, guild-wars-2, jeff-strain, ncsoft, ncwest

Reader Comments (23)

"we continue to work hard on Guild Wars 2, preparing for the day when we can first reveal it to the world. That day is coming very soon now."

I like the sound of that.

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Thank you for this link, Goonja. It is somewhat reassuring. :-)

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Thanks to Goonja for posting that link ^^ I had already red Mike O'Brien's reply to this, and I I would like to point out this line in his response:
"We have an amazing team here at ArenaNet, and we continue to work hard on Guild Wars 2, preparing for the day when we can first reveal it to the world. That day is coming very soon now." PAX 09 anyone?

If its some words I see pop up more and more around GW2 its : vaporware, excuse, will newer be released... the list goes on. What has ever pointed to Guild Wars 2 being a bad game? I can understand that people are getting impatient due to the lack of information, but Guild Wars 2 had to be announced when it did, cause if it hadn't, we would expect a new campaign/expansion after the next 6 months. And EoTN was the bridge to GW2. In my opinion, Anet has made one hell of a game with Guild Wars 1, I've played it for a little over three years now, and I can still jump in and have a blast.
Now its like this with every MMO really, the voice we hear and see on the forums, is the voice of the negative and impatient players, complaining and whining about games that suck because of imbalance and nerfs. Of course, imbalance is an important issue, but there's no need to string up the developers for it, they don't just laugh at your concerns, they work hard to try and fix it.

Guess I threw in a bunch of stuff in this comment, but hey, keep going strong with Guild Wars and GW2 Anet :D

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