Layoffs at Bioware What does this mean for content

[samht]

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s development team is shrunk down and add the fact that BioWare’s lost 400,000 subscribers (about 19/. million dollars a month.

 

During EA’s fiscal results conference presentation EA Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello tried to put the best spin possible on the declining subscription numbers. Riccitiello stated that the loss was due to EA counting players who had not yet used their 30-day free trial, which comes with the purchase of the game. He framed the drop as an opportunity to build subscriptions in the future. From the transcript of Riccitiello’s conference address:

 

Looking at the statement above was the 400K lost during January and since January majority of servers are dead so does that mean BW last fiscal call misleadingding and that they have lost way more number than tpreviouslyusly lead us believelive? With the news of the layoffs and server status I will assume that they probably don't even have 500K players.

 

What do you guys think?

[Megaloz]

EA also killed E&B? So let me get this straight, EA killed E&B and they killed WAR and now they are killing SWTOR? Any other MMO's EA has its hand in killing? I never played E&B but the other two have been two of my favorites MMO's (albeit without some issues). If EA was a person they and MMO's were peeps, I think we would have a serial killer on our hands.

 

They have also killed Motor City Online...another mmo. And killed its own Sims Online.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Megaloz

[Cordelia]

EA also killed E&B? So let me get this straight, EA killed E&B and they killed WAR and now they are killing SWTOR? Any other MMO's EA has its hand in killing? I never played E&B but the other two have been two of my favorites MMO's (albeit without some issues). If EA was a person they and MMO's were peeps, I think we would have a serial killer on our hands.

 

They probably secretly manipulated SWG's demise Just don't let them near Hello Kitty Online.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Cordelia

[Celebrus]

Looking at the statement above was the 400K lost during January and since January majority of servers are dead so does that mean BW last fiscal call misleadingding and that they have lost way more number than tpreviouslyusly lead us believelive? With the news of the layoffs and server status I will assume that they probably don't even have 500K players.

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

I would not be surprised at all.

 

Around 5-700k and everyday without transfers sees more subs lost.

[Mallorik]

EA also killed E&B? So let me get this straight, EA killed E&B and they killed WAR and now they are killing SWTOR? Any other MMO's EA has its hand in killing? I never played E&B but the other two have been two of my favorites MMO's (albeit without some issues). If EA was a person they and MMO's were peeps, I think we would have a serial killer on our hands.

 

Ea did not kill swtor, devs that wanted to release vanilla wow with lightsabers killed swtor. Warhammer also had alot of things going agaisnt it before ea got involved, mythic had been destroying DAOC for years before and the people who actualy made daoc had already left mythic.

 

Im no ea fan but these people whos bad ideas are sinking this game need to be called on it.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Mallorik

[RedWolfs]

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s development team is shrunk down and add the fact that BioWare’s lost 400,000 subscribers (about 19/. million dollars a month.

 

During EA’s fiscal results conference presentation EA Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello tried to put the best spin possible on the declining subscription numbers. Riccitiello stated that the loss was due to EA counting players who had not yet used their 30-day free trial, which comes with the purchase of the game. He framed the drop as an opportunity to build subscriptions in the future. From the transcript of Riccitiello’s conference address:

 

Looking at the statement above was the 400K lost during January and since January majority of servers are dead so does that mean BW last fiscal call misleadingding and that they have lost way more number than tpreviouslyusly lead us believelive? With the news of the layoffs and server status I will assume that they probably don't even have 500K players.

 

What do you guys think?

 

Look at the Forbes and other projections for Bioware and SWTOR, no credible analyst expects more than 500k swtor subs by years end, many expect much less. Which is one of the reasons EA's stock got downgraded. Corporate bosses don't survive their boards or investors under these circumstances. Didn't they need 500k to stay afloat? They did say they did.

[NasherUK]

They have also killed Motor City Online...another mmo. And killed its own Sims Online.

 

Hmm seing a patten here. Maybe people should stop going to EA to make MMOs....or anything in fact

 

Though I am still enjoying TOR (mainly due to my guild), I can't think of ANY good EA games released in the last few years, pretty much none of them have any replay value. I suspect most of the bad decisions come from EA tbh :/

Edited May 23, 2012 by NasherUK

[AkulaX]

Ea did not kill swtor, devs that wanted to release vanilla wow with lightsabers killed swtor. Warhammer also had alot of things going agaisnt it before ea got involved, mythic had been destroying DAOC for years before and the people who actualy made daoc had already left mythic.

 

Im no ea fan but these people whos bad ideas are sinking this game need to be called on it.

 

Actually no. When EA pulls the plug on a game for financial reasons, they are the ones killing it. Bad decisions are always part of the MMO process. It is how you turn it around that matters. But once the money is pulled, there is no more hope and the people left are left inside a slowly dieing game that is getting no more life life delivered.

 

Both WaR and SWTOR had/have tons of potential. Problems, bad design decisions etc....yes, but tons of potential. Their is no hope for that potential to emerge, when they pull the life support away. Its just left to rot.

[-Kraxis-]

Hmm seing a patten here. Maybe people should stop going to EA to make MMOs

 

Amen.

 

YOU WOULD THINK STUDIOS WOULD LEARN THIS AFTER Origin and UO in the 90's...

 

but no..

 

STUDY HISTORY kids, PLEASE. It's an important subject.

 

...and don't be an idiot like me and give them a second chance. EA is like an abusive spouse. They are basically socipathic, in my opinion, like most large, greedy corporations. Profits at all costs, screw the employees and their families, screw the studios and screw the gamers!

Edited May 23, 2012 by -Kraxis-

[Celebrus]

Good game.

[Deewe]

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

Dear Doctor(s),

 

as a dedicated fan of both MMO and SW, I'm marking this day with a black stone. While I have hope it will be better for everyone in the long term (fired people included), I'm sad to see it finally came to this.

 

Many of us saw this coming long time ago and kept trying to explain how some major decisions were wrong.

I'm angry because of a few key people, all hard work done by most since December, 2005 is seen as: TORTanic.

 

While anybody with some MMO experience can point you at the top 3 major flaws of the game being:

1. Lack of PvE end content/incentives
   
2. Non existent world PvP
   
3. Non optimized engine
   

 

I'd like you to mark my words:

--------TOR still has a huge potential provided you totally shift your communication and do listen to community feedback(1)

 

As example I do invite you to think about the following quotes:

There needs to be an earnest effort in keeping players informed about what's coming up, so they can have feedback, instead of keeping tight lipped about everything and then drop it out at the last minute and then looking surprised when a lot of the player base are disappointed because it wasn't anything they wanted.

 

BioWare Austin needs to start being honest, humble, engage the community, and most importantly they need to actually start doing what they claim to be doing: "Listening to the community and giving them what they want". Being tight lipped and avoiding community participation in shaping upcoming features is neither listening to the community, nor giving them what they want.

 

 

If you don't mind I'll take your post here as example:

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.

Thing is vague mentions of upcoming content doesn't work anymore. Your customer base is actually fed up of these because, so far, they know you'll either under deliver (compared to others AAA MMO) or will add features not needed at this time or even butcher the lore.

I'd suggest you to either be precise or just keep tight.

 

 

Now speaking of the future you do have quite a few quick wins at your disposal. I mean budget and time frame considered. By actually sorting the most viewed/answered threads on the boards and chatting with player,

 

In no specific order, to name a few:

• Dual Specs
  
• Pazaak
  
• Separate last names from legacy names
  
• Edit legacy name
  
• Character specie change after character creation
  
• Appearance tabs for players and companions
  
• Head slot toggle for companions
  
• Unify color for companions
  
• Reduce money sinks on Legacy perks
  
• Shared storage between alts
  
• Recall to space ship && remove the orbital stations
  
• Choosing the warzone queue
  
• Credits rewards in PvP
  
• Tweaking on the less iconic gear pieces (meshes and textures included)
  
• More quickslots bars
  
• Separate buff bars from vitals
  
• Hide UI portraits
  
• Hot key templates
  
• Chat channel server wide
  

 

Before leaving, regarding the status of the game this is where the devs should be spending some of their time communicating with players and confronting their ideas.

• Suggestion
  
• Flashpoints, Operations, and Heroic Missions
  
• PvP
  
• Crew Skills
  

 

 

You can win back SWTOR players but you'll have to earn it.

A deceived person is more difficult to convince, they judge you on hard evidence and sustained realizations.

 

 

Best luck to all who were let down, (been there for a long time).

Try not to take it personal and move on to a better tomorrow.

 

Regards,

D

 

(1) Special note about Stephen Reid we all know he was just the messenger.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Deewe

[oredith]

Here is my dream scenerio:

 

New top leaders walk-in the office Monday morning....

 

New Leaders: W T F have you guys been doing for 6 months?!?!

Staff: Uh, well this rocket boo....(abrubtly cutoff)

New Leaders: Get the hell out of this office! The hell is the matter with you people!?!? Is this your first taste of what an MMO is?!?

Staff: We have voices that really immerse our players into a re....(cutoff again)

New Leaders: One more word out of you and youll be finding yourself a new job! ...How are the mergers coming along?!

Staff: Mergers? We dont believe that is the right course at this time, but in the future, we intend too...(not only cutoff, but grabbed from his shirt and dragged to a PC screen...opens up the server select page, and points his finger)

New Leaders: Look at that you moron.....what do you see?!?

Staff: I see....i see.....one heavy server, 5 standard, and like 150+ light servers?

New Leaders: Yes you are correct! Your fired! Do we have any other idiots in here?! Do you people have any clue what MMO gamers expect today?

Staff: We have never done an MMO...

New Leader: Exactly! I want all of you to stop what you are doing right now.....yes you too...stop it! Stop wasting your time with this crap! Your only goal right now is to get Server Mergers going, with Transfer Servers. Your going to get Warzone rankings up and running, your going to get cross server LFG tool out, your going to add Chat Bubbles, your going to add an optional server wide chat channel so people can continue talking to others anywhere, your going to stop wasting your time on Legacy because you people could not of made it any more boring, and your going to add more things for our dedicated level 50 players to do, and stop forcing them to keep making alts because your too damn lazy to make anything endgame worthwhile. Oh and dont be scared to start adding some sandbox elements into the game.

Staff: Uh....sandbox? What will they do with sand..?....

New Leaders: And your going to get this all done on the next update! And we better not see it drag on for months!

Staff: Sigh...

New Leaders: Also.....start talking to your playerbase on forums ALOT more! What are you vampires!?! Talk people! You have a brain and a mouth....T A L K!!!! Oh and if im still flying Starfox by the end of this year, and still be forced to stay in the Fleet.....you will not want to anticipate what will come upon you.

this guy for president of something..

 

but yeah, won't happen. too high and mighty to admit they have made any mistakes.

[Pcolapat]

They should have got rid of James Ohlen just because he looks sort of like Richard Burgi (Desperate Housewives, 24 season one). I just don't trust that guy.

[maxetius]

lol, seriously guys? Bioware does this ALL THE TIME. I personally know someone who has worked for them 3 times and has been let go at the end [or halfway thru] every project.

 

They don't need the manpower, they cut it. In this case, they needed people who know how to MAKE MMO's, not RUN MMO's. so the fat gets cut.

 

It sucks but it's common to the industry. And it's sad to see people simply have no idea how it works so bad that they're actually freaking out about this.

[robertszak]

I guess this also explains why there was no maintenance patch this week...

[Kovaos]

The saddest part is those who have been let go were more than likely in no part of the game's failure. The corporate world is cruel. People do what they are told and they are only an asset. Business failures start at the top. This game will not be successful without hierarchical changes.

[KellyX]

EA also killed E&B? So let me get this straight, EA killed E&B and they killed WAR and now they are killing SWTOR? Any other MMO's EA has its hand in killing? I never played E&B but the other two have been two of my favorites MMO's (albeit without some issues). If EA was a person they and MMO's were peeps, I think we would have a serial killer on our hands.

 

Hate to tell you, but EA didn't kill Earth and Beyond, the game was horrible. It was dead on arrival, Westwood should of cancelled it and focused on RTS. Their attempts to explore beyond their niche is what got them closed down.

[Kelenan]

True that, the people being laid off probably are the ones needed to make the game great and they kept most of the over paid *******es that screwed this game up to begin with.

[dprijadi]

this doesnt sounds as bad as Daikatana ionstorm drama where entire dev team walk out in middle of project..

 

btw any info on which dev thats in the guild summit got fired?

[Spuck]

Yet another game that I was high on and stood by... spiraling down the tunnel. I am beginning to think that I have some subconscious thing that drives me to these games. SWG, Dark n Light, Vanguard, SWTOR... when will I ever learn!?

[williambr]

Hate to tell you, but EA didn't kill Earth and Beyond, the game was horrible. It was dead on arrival, Westwood should of cancelled it and focused on RTS. Their attempts to explore beyond their niche is what got them closed down.

 

No point in arguing this, people think that when EA buys a company going bankrupt or failing on their own, that the developer going to crap was just about to make (insert random title here) sequel, that was going to be the best game ever.

[Obie_Wan]

Ea did not kill swtor, devs that wanted to release vanilla wow with lightsabers killed swtor. Warhammer also had alot of things going agaisnt it before ea got involved, mythic had been destroying DAOC for years before and the people who actualy made daoc had already left mythic.

 

Im no ea fan but these people whos bad ideas are sinking this game need to be called on it.

 

I don't know about DAOC's final days, but I'm in agreement with your views on SWTOR. BioWare Austin has only themselves to blame this time around, there's a lot of blind hate going on. I don't have love for EA either, but at least I'm not blind to the mistakes BioWare Austin themselves made that got them to the situation they're in now.

[Enforcious]

I thought everyone found out because Stephen Reid changed his tenure with Bioware (on linked in) to ending in May 2012? It seems to me no one on this thread has read the article.....

[JediMasterBurst]

Personally I think most of you guys are reading too much into the announced layoffs as a bad sign. But probably most layoffs were temporary employees that were hired to help with the launch of the game. Extra customer service, forum moderators, and other support staff. Most of the main developers and community people were probably untouched by the layoffs.

[Dezzi]

Personally I think most of you guys are reading too much into the announced layoffs as a bad sign. But probably most layoffs were temporary employees that were hired to help with the launch of the game. Extra customer service, forum moderators, and other support staff. Most of the main developers and community people were probably untouched by the layoffs.

 

Why call it layoffs then? Temp agents are temporary; they leave when their time is up.