Rumor: 80 more layoffs hit Mythic

heard directly from one the artists laid off: the only people left on the art team are there to manage the outsourcing.

I've been wondering whether there'd ever be an announcement of major expansion content. I guess this is our answer.

Really sad to hear this. I wish those who lost their jobs every fortune in finding new employment.

This is sad. With Turbine showing how to save a somewhat dead MMO you would think EA would do the same with WAR. Instead they lay off even more people? I didn't think there were that many left after the layoffs back in in January/Feb. Corporate jerks, gotta love em.

The author, being Kyle, of this article needs to admit that WAR is near death. With the massive 40% cut at Mythic it is foolhardy to expect anything more from WAR outside a few already or near complete content patches.

If anything folks should learn from WAR, which had everything going for it except a solid management team at Mythic. The game failed from its own lack of playability, balance and structure.

Best wishes to those who were laid off, I'm sure many are great at what they do.

Shifting into "maintenance mode" with a trimmed-down staff doesn't mean the game(s) is(are) dead, dying, or even remotely close to cancellation.

Kyle,

So are making the assumption that Wrath of the Lich King had something to do with WAR's major sub loss and not the poor customer service, game play, false promises?

As with all the previous ones - any myself as an unemployed IT pro! - hope they land on their feet.

I hope for the love of goodness they DON'T announce a boxed set - the last thing WAR needs is the headache of producing and promoting a boxed expansion, and more importantly they absolutely cannot afford to hold any content back "to make an expansion worthwhile".

If they've anything left in the tank, the sooner the better for keeping their subscribers!

Since I cannot see a diminished team rolling out a MT-mall in short order - and what would little gear, less art and zero minis MT anyway? - I'll get in early with predicting the next step being expansion of The Endless Trial to tier 2.
Non-subscriber flooded keep battles (if the hardware can handle them) are pretty much the only card up their sleeve, and in perspective T1-3 are equally meaningless in WARs design.

That's what they get for not making DAoC 2 with Warhammer skins/lore. I guarantee wthey'd have a million subscribers right now if that's what Warhammer Online had turned out to be. But nooooooooooo they had to sell out and make World of Warhammercraft.

You reap what you sow.

It's sad to see more laid off anywhere.

But a little context, if 80 are gone which represents about 40% of their staff, then there's about 120 left. That's still a lot of people.

Just wish EA didn't do this every year at the holidays, it's just mean.

I'll point out, in passing, that City of Heroes not only managed to stay profitable and keep the server bills paid, but also crank out 2 to 3 free expansions per year, on a development staff of 15. This doesn't have to be the death of WAR ...

... except that WAR has an /awful lot/ of moving parts to debug and maintain, and unlike City of Heroes, WAR is a PvP-centric game, which means that players are trying harder to break it.

I agree with LaughingTiger, too. If I were tasked with saving WAR, I would simply temporarily disable the PvE component -- quests, dungeons, the whole lot. I would also temporarily disable the scenario queues, and temporarily close Land of the Dead. I'd even remove the crafting skills, at least temporarily. Turn all available remaining development resources towards debugging, and then steadily improving, the game's single best and most unique feature, the open RvR lakes, the feature that feels the most like Warhammer Fantasy Battles and the part that gives the game the most reason to exist in the first place. Why? To make that part /the best game it can possibly be made/ -- air tight, bullet proof, and consistently 100% fun. Then, and only then, as revenues come in, re-unlock the other features one by one.

Triage mode. Nobody likes it. But it's that or keep pretending nothing's wrong until the servers go dark. Please, please, make the tough decisions, EA/Mythic, and save this game. It is still worth saving.

EA is cutting staff all over the place. It's not just Mythic.

I see this more as an EA move to trim budgets more than anything else. Nothing to do with the state of the game - despite the usual non-player naysayers around here :)

This is what happens when you are part of a corporate borg entity.

Is Barnett one of them?
Haven't seen him mouthing off lies and exaggeration about WAR for some time..