Feldon From SmokeJumper:
I’m only going to speak about “EverQuest II” because that’s the project I’m authorized to speak about.
We were impacted also today. We lost two people from the team that we’ll miss. I’m not going to mention who they are because I think privacy is important.
However, we still have a large team on this project, in fact, one of the largest in the company. SOE fully supports not only EQII and EQ2X, but also EverQuest and EQ Next as well. The “EverQuest” franchise is the backbone of this company and we’ll do what it takes to ensure that the world of Norrath and the EverQuest games are as close to ForeverQuest(tm) as possible.
I’ll post a Producer’s Letter, probably next week, outlining where we’re going and what we’re doing in the coming year. I’m enthusiastic about it and I think you will be also. This year is going to be an extremely good year for EQII.
But today…well…today’s just sad. If you know anyone that was affected, please extend your sympathies. Losing a loved job is like losing a friend. There’s nothing good about it.
The names of the 2 designers who have been laid off from EQ2 have begun to circulate.
- Besides the Golden Path, Zaphax worked on the Butcherblock Mountains, Stonebrunt Highlands, and the Bristlebane Deity quests.
Smokejumper gets a fair amount of crap, but I think that what he knew and we could only guess is that this was the sword hanging over the game’s head. Whether it’s the free to play transition (which I maintain was botched), diverting efforts to low level content and streamlining in an attempt to appeal to new players, or the constant push to add new things to the store, behind the curtain was the threat that the game had to make more money or lose staff.
It is certainly possible that he has destroyed the village in an attempt to save it. Even so, it is my honest belief that the guy is trying to make the game a success. I hope that he will get the tools he needs to do so, but today’s news does not bode well.
I have no doubt too that Smokejumper is trying to make the game better for sure, but I don’t think he’s botched it hence we are losing staff.
I mean 2 devs lost from the team, I’m wondering if its more a case of everyone loses staff when the budget gets cut (maybe there is a microsoft style get rid of the perceived lowest performers? Dumb if it is).
Looking at what has happened though its clear that the senior management have screwed up badly. Both in letting the Agency drag on and on with no end in sight and clear problems with its gameplay viewable even from videos (I could see the shooter looked wafty), maybe it will release in some form? But releasing a bad game I guess can hurt the reputation more then its worth.
But in the meantime the same management have stripped investment in their current games to the bare minimum and asked miracles of the teams running them. Now we have several games with aging hardware that needs replacing just from reliability standpoints where the money has been plowed into FreeRealms, DCUO, Clonewars, The agency, Planetside next and EQNext.
CCP have a growing game in Eve that supplies a good steady income because they’ve always invested in it with a passion and not let it fall behind in technology, EQ2 is still looking good, but are they serious about it being good still in future? SOE could learn a lot from Eve!
Would love a revamp of the graphics engine on EQ2
As much as the team has failed to deliver quality content in a timely fashion, it still sucks to lose a job and begin the job hunting process. Especially in this job market! I feel for them in that department and hope they find even better projects to work on.
@murfalad You make some good points about Eve. The difference between CCP and SOE, is that CCP doesn’t have a dozen games out there. They have what 1 and 1 in development? ( I don’t play eve and am following WoD at a distance). So they can spend all their time on making EvE a great experience with updated hardware because they don’t have to share the wealth.
I think SOE spread their resources a bit thin, they had a dozen titles doing mediocre, and some on life support (Vanguard). Some titles didn’t make it to release due to money (The Agency) some got shut down (the Matrix online). All of the titles except maybe 2 or 3 are older titles, on aging hardware that can’t keep up.
I think if SOE was smart, they would assess their talent in house before canning them, and then tighten up ship. Sorry to say this to you vanguard lovers but they really need to close the doors on some titles that are barely hanging on like vanguard, and move those development teams to their big money games…which are EQ, EQ2, DCUO, etc. Put the money into upgrading hardware for EQ2 and work on making solid enjoyable content that you don’t have to pay extra for.
Stick with the ones that are new, get rid of the sick ones, and focus on a few titles. The more development you can put into a game, the more content you can release which means the more people will go wow, this game is thriving. Advertising helps too.