Layoffs at Bioware What does this mean for content

[voriand]

You don't have to disclose when you release contract labor. My company does it all the time with no press. However when we lay of non-contractors in terms of layoffs, those numbers are all over the place.

 

Usually when layoffs are happening, the contract buffer employees are already gone.

[Celwinn]

No, it's MarcelHatam.

 

 

Thanks for the response.

 

(Btw found him back on my twitter list. Guess Twitter took a while to load my entire list. )

[Hellrazer]

The only reason there was a sub lose is becasue they came to SWTOR expecting WoW when what they got is SWTOR. I for one couldn't be happier with this MMO, not just becasue it is Star Wars but I feel driven to repeat flashpoints becasue it makes me feel apart of the story of that flashpoint. I'm guess people aren't happy until they are just blazing through the quests with no real drive or reason to what you are doing.

 

Yes PVP has it's problems but PVP isn't the focus point to any MMO, if you think so then you are very mistaken.

 

People also came expecting SWG, if I'm not mistaken SWG before it's death, SOE developers failed a number of times to fix existing bugs and glitches pushing new contect without really testing it or seeing if players even liked the changes. SWG at release was called, "Star Wars flavored Everquest". And was considered by reveiwers pointless since the MMO could play it self, when in fact it could.

 

Warhammar was a let down to all of its followers, STO was broken at launch, LOTRO never really had a PVP system simply becasue there was no other faction. With countless other titles that seemed to make the list and failed becasue of a lack of passion for the title simply because the developers were in it for the money only. And for SWTOR to be developed, and developed as well as it was and with the smoothest launch to date, for people not to like it, these very people that came to SWTOR expecting their failed MMO are a walking contradiction.

[Nytak]

The hate machine has to rub their hands in glee....one day Bioware will get a clue and not allow former subscribers to still post.

 

Hate machine? Why would I give BioWare ~$300 to date for me and my wifes games/subs if I hated the game and wanted it to fail?

 

Your logic is rather flawed. There is a difference between being upset because of issues with the product you spent money on and purchased and hating a product and wanting it to fail, the difference is rather large.

 

Oh and FYI, on the non-swtor forums, the "bad community" that gets talked about.. Well they aren't talking about the paying customers complaining to BioWare, they are talking about the other customers, such as yourself, who treat those dissatisfied customers like garbage. People with attitudes like yours are just as responsible for the loss in subs as BioWare IMO. Thank YOU for helping ruin a game I looked forward to.

[JediZenn]

This seems like a bad sign.

[LovarBoy]

Thanks for the response.

 

(Btw found him back on my twitter list. Guess Twitter took a while to load my entire list. )

 

 

No problem.

 

As I said, maybe there are more CM's that have to leave. He's the only one I followed at Twitter.

 

 

And as I said he has been the most active German CM by far - don't know why he has to leave. That makes me suppose that he is not the only German CM that will leave...

[Temad]

There can be a difference between contractors and people under contract. You can hire an employee and put him on payroll for a contracted period of say 90 days or 6 months. Those people still count as employees and if after the contact is up they aren't kept on that's a layoff.

 

A hired employee is a hired employee regardless if the job is temp in nature or involves a contract. They get all the protections and benefits of an employee.

 

A contractor is a hired gun. They get no benefits (any benefits are factored into the pay rate) and can have their employment ended at anytime. They are tantamount to an office chair. Companies don't announce ending contracts because they are not lay offs.

 

Bioware clearly let go full employees. It is also clear this was not by choice or the convergence contracts ending in May.

[Jett-Rinn]

looks like Michelle Archer is still with the cm team as well

[Lord_Ravenhurst]

Hate machine? Why would I give BioWare ~$300 to date for me and my wifes games/subs if I hated the game and wanted it to fail?

 

Your logic is rather flawed. There is a difference between being upset because of issues with the product you spent money on and purchased and hating a product and wanting it to fail, the difference is rather large.

 

Oh and FYI, on the non-swtor forums, the "bad community" that gets talked about.. Well they aren't talking about the paying customers complaining to BioWare, they are talking about the other customers, such as yourself, who treat those dissatisfied customers like garbage. People with attitudes like yours are just as responsible for the loss in subs as BioWare IMO. Thank YOU for helping ruin a game I looked forward to.

 

Quite true. The so called "haters" are rather constructive about what went wrong with the game, it´s just hoping the game to become something better. People who are just defending the game because of fanboyism aren´t exactly helpful.

[Arkerus]

Just fyi, the haters have been gone for a long time, they left around the time their initial free month was up, because they only bought this game to bash it and never intended to stick with it anyhow.

 

The people that are still here, complaining, are the people that legitimately love the game but are upset and/or dissatisfied with what it has become.

 

Just wanted to enlighten you.

 

Hardly. I see posts EVERY DAY from people who say, and I paraphrase: My 6 month sub expires soon and I stopped playing months ago, but I still come to the forums to BLAH BLAH BLAH (validate my opinion because I have no life).

 

Its called TORchan for a reason.

[Temad]

The only reason there was a sub lose is becasue they came to SWTOR expecting WoW when what they got is SWTOR. I for one couldn't be happier with this MMO, not just becasue it is Star Wars but I feel driven to repeat flashpoints becasue it makes me feel apart of the story of that flashpoint. I'm guess people aren't happy until they are just blazing through the quests with no real drive or reason to what you are doing.

 

Yes PVP has it's problems but PVP isn't the focus point to any MMO, if you think so then you are very mistaken.

 

People also came expecting SWG, if I'm not mistaken SWG before it's death, SOE developers failed a number of times to fix existing bugs and glitches pushing new contect without really testing it or seeing if players even liked the changes. SWG at release was called, "Star Wars flavored Everquest". And was considered by reveiwers pointless since the MMO could play it self, when in fact it could.

 

Warhammar was a let down to all of its followers, STO was broken at launch, LOTRO never really had a PVP system simply becasue there was no other faction. With countless other titles that seemed to make the list and failed becasue of a lack of passion for the title simply because the developers were in it for the money only. And for SWTOR to be developed, and developed as well as it was and with the smoothest launch to date, for people not to like it, these very people that came to SWTOR expecting their failed MMO are a walking contradiction.

 

 

Yes, a game fails not because of its fundamental flaws, bugs, horrible client optimization and missing basic features at release, it fails because the paying customer is too dim to understand the nuance they, the game makers, are trying to convey.

 

Sorry, no.

[erictlewis]

The only reason there was a sub lose is becasue they came to SWTOR expecting WoW when what they got is SWTOR. I for one couldn't be happier with this MMO, not just becasue it is Star Wars but I feel driven to repeat flashpoints becasue it makes me feel apart of the story of that flashpoint. I'm guess people aren't happy until they are just blazing through the quests with no real drive or reason to what you are doing.

 

Yes PVP has it's problems but PVP isn't the focus point to any MMO, if you think so then you are very mistaken.

 

People also came expecting SWG, if I'm not mistaken SWG before it's death, SOE developers failed a number of times to fix existing bugs and glitches pushing new contect without really testing it or seeing if players even liked the changes. SWG at release was called, "Star Wars flavored Everquest". And was considered by reveiwers pointless since the MMO could play it self, when in fact it could.

 

Warhammar was a let down to all of its followers, STO was broken at launch, LOTRO never really had a PVP system simply becasue there was no other faction. With countless other titles that seemed to make the list and failed becasue of a lack of passion for the title simply because the developers were in it for the money only. And for SWTOR to be developed, and developed as well as it was and with the smoothest launch to date, for people not to like it, these very people that came to SWTOR expecting their failed MMO are a walking contradiction.

 

Maybe some folks. I not played wow in years, and I quit swg when the NGE rolloed out. I came to swtor hopeing it would be new and inovative. what I got was the NGE V2.0. Somehting I did not want, but that is what it is. The main problem is lack of content, where are the hundreds of planets and 10 years of content talked about durring beta, I don't see those.

[LordHazanko]

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/22/bioware-austin-lays-off-staff-on-star-wars-the-old-republic/

 

 

UPDATE: We added Electronic Arts' official response below.]

 

BioWare Austin, a division of Electronic Arts (EA), is cutting staff. This comes after less-than-stellar performance of Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). Despite a strong start, the game has seen a considerable drop in subscriptions.

 

During a quarterly earnings report in early May, publisher EA announced that the game had lost 400,000 subscribers since February, when they had 1.7 million online players.

 

We also learned in January that the game took a massive sales drop in the U.K. This didn’t bode well for the game.

 

Greg Zeschuk, co-founder of BioWare, released the following statement on the official SWTOR community forums:

 

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. Impacting people’s lives this way is always very hard, but we’re ensuring the affected people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.

 

Looking back at launch, we all came together and did something historic. We executed one of the largest, most successful and stable launches of any MMO yet in industry history. That is not an easy feat for any development team or company and we are humbled and honored by our fan community’s strong support both at launch and beyond.

 

Looking forward, the studio remains vibrant and passionate about our many upcoming initiatives for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We still have a very substantial development team working on supporting and growing the game, and we feel we are in a strong position, with your continued involvement and feedback, to continue to build Star Wars: The Old Republic as one of the most compelling and successful online experiences in the world today. There are many strong initiatives planned for cool new content and new features that we’re excited to tell you about in the upcoming weeks and months.

 

Rest assured that we remain dedicated to delivering a high quality service in SWTOR to you, our fans, and we will continue to support and grow Star Wars: The Old Republic over the weeks, months and years to come.

 

Thanks,

Greg and Ray

 

A representative from EA offered this comment as well:

 

BioWare has restructured its studio in Austin today. Of the employees impacted, some will be able to join other projects within EA, others will leave the company. These are very difficult decisions, but it allows us to focus our staff to maintain and grow Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

BioWare Austin remains a large and important part of BioWare and EA, working with other studios around the world to continue to deliver a high-quality service and exciting new content for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

 

 

A representative from EA offered this comment as well:

 

BioWare has restructured its studio in Austin today. Of the employees impacted, some will be able to join other projects within EA, others will leave the company. These are very difficult decisions, but it allows us to focus our staff to maintain and grow Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

BioWare Austin remains a large and important part of BioWare and EA, working with other studios around the world to continue to deliver a high-quality service and exciting new content for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Edited May 22, 2012 by LordHazanko

[Blistrich]

And for SWTOR to be developed, and developed as well as it was and with the smoothest launch to date, for people not to like it, these very people that came to SWTOR expecting their failed MMO are a walking contradiction

I expected it to be decent.

 

The game is garbage. The graphics are an eyesore, the environments are shoddy, the PvE and PvP are a joke, I have had 3 servers die on me in succession, and the overall design is remarkably lame.

 

Where do I fit into your equation?

Edited May 22, 2012 by Blistrich

[Muskaan]

Really sorry to hear that. Layoffs always impact a lot of people's lives rather negatively.

The Gaming industry is especially brutal with layoffs.

 

Good luck to people who were let go!

[Nyoro]

Oh god, it's WAR all over again.

 

 

 

Time to give up hope I guess. Maybe if we're lucky GW2 won't bomb as well.

[WrecklessMEDIC]

Hate machine? Why would I give BioWare ~$300 to date for me and my wifes games/subs if I hated the game and wanted it to fail?

 

Your logic is rather flawed. There is a difference between being upset because of issues with the product you spent money on and purchased and hating a product and wanting it to fail, the difference is rather large.

 

Oh and FYI, on the non-swtor forums, the "bad community" that gets talked about.. Well they aren't talking about the paying customers complaining to BioWare, they are talking about the other customers, such as yourself, who treat those dissatisfied customers like garbage. People with attitudes like yours are just as responsible for the loss in subs as BioWare IMO. Thank YOU for helping ruin a game I looked forward to.

 

And thank you for complaining too much.

[Megaloz]

Wow....just when you thought it coudnt get any worse, we wake up to this news. SWTOR is in trouble, you can fabricate what you want, this game is sinking....fast.

 

Im feeling like the days of Earth and Beyond......EA you are doing it again, omg, you are so horrible in mmos.

[JerokTalram]

A hired employee is a hired employee regardless if the job is temp in nature or involves a contract. They get all the protections and benefits of an employee.

 

A contractor is a hired gun. They get no benefits (any benefits are factored into the pay rate) and can have their employment ended at anytime. They are tantamount to an office chair. Companies don't announce ending contracts because they are not lay offs.

 

Bioware clearly let go full employees. It is also clear this was not by choice or the convergence contracts ending in May.

 

Temporary Employees are often referred to as Contractors though they are not.

[GrandAdmlStrife]

ok guys, we're only allowed to discuss what it means for content, not the 'business practices of the company'. That's from the note I got when they removed my post.

[Jett-Rinn]

Hardly. I see posts EVERY DAY from people who say, and I paraphrase: My 6 month sub expires soon and I stopped playing months ago, but I still come to the forums to BLAH BLAH BLAH (validate my opinion because I have no life).

 

Its called TORchan for a reason.

 

Pretty much I have talked to people who have purchased three and four accounts that they use just to troll the forums, they hate EA and blame them for SWG shutting down. If former subscribers and those who have cancled were not allowed to post these forums would be a hell of a lot more constructive.

 

No one is saying that there isn't problems, but unless you spew vitriol eight to sixteen hours a day you are considered a Biodrone here.

[Hellrazer]

I expected it to be decent.

 

The game is garbage. The graphics are an eyesore, the environments are shoddy, the PvE and PvP are a joke, I have had 3 servers die on me in succession, and the overall design is remarkably lame.

 

Where do I fit into your equation?

 

funny, I've never had that happen

[Holden_Dissent]

Yes, a game fails not because of its fundamental flaws, bugs, horrible client optimization and missing basic features at release, it fails because the paying customer is too dim to understand the nuance they, the game makers, are trying to convey.

 

Sorry, no.

 

I got stuck on a rock once and /stuck didn't work. Is that what you're talking about? The rest of the stuff you listed I didn't experience. Ever.

[Jett-Rinn]

Really sorry to hear that. Layoffs always impact a lot of people's lives rather negatively.

The Gaming industry is especially brutal with layoffs.

 

Good luck to people who were let go!

 

One compassionate poster in a sea of negativity and hate.

 

TORchan indeed.

[Alkiii]

One has to question what is really going when 1.3 million subscriptions isn't enough to avoid layoffs. It's very disheartening for me in that I know that EA is pushing the buttons and making the calls. Which is only going to make things worse from an active subscriptions standpoint.

 

Yes, I understand that layoffs are the "norm" after a major game launch, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out why they're doing it with such a good number of subscriptions.

 

Unless ...

 

1.) They aimed too high and were hoping to get 5 million subs by this time?

 

2.) Things aren't really as good as they make them out to be. That 1.3 million number may be way off and took many "free" month subscriptions into account when coming up with that number.

 

 

 

I'm going with the latter. Why? Because EA has already stated that SWTOR wasn't in their top 5 games in the priority list. This layoff is just solidifying the fact that things aren't as good as they're trying to make things out to be.