According to a report over at Gamasutra, Mythic Entertainment, the developers of Warhammer Online have taken a major hit in EA's latest round of layoffs. A number of presumably now former Mythic employees' tweets are cited in the report, with one Katherine Pitta stating that as many as 80 employees or 40% of the Mythic Entertainment workforce was hit in today's layoffs.

This story is still classified as rumor, but we have contacted Mythic for confirmation. We should have some more information when EA's quarterly earnings report is released later today.

UPDATE: Lending some more credence to the report, Mythic's Josh Drescher tweets, "Since folks have asked, I am fine. Official stuff will follow, I'm sure. A tough day, nonetheless."

UPDATE #2: We have contacted Mythic, but they cannot make any comment at this time.

UPDATE #3: We can now confirm that the layoffs today have indeed occurred, as it has been revealed in EA's just released quarterly earnings report that 1500 jobs are to be cut by March 2010, with today's cuts included in that total.

While we have confirmation that layoffs have occurred, the extent to which Mythic Entertainment has been affected cannot, and that aspect of the story will have to remain as rumor until/if we can get confirmation on the exact figures.

Via Gamasutra.

the sea of mmos is a cruel mistres indeed :P

Death by EA is also a cruel way to go. Hopefully, with the major improvements that have been made in WAR and the new trial system, more people will be brought in and Mythic can bounce back.

Sucks when people lose jobs... there are mouths people have to feed, bills to pay, etc.

Let's be straight though... release an inferior product and you get poor results. Let this be a lesson to other game developers... we're tired of your half-arsed products, so either get it together or start updating your resumes. I realize other EA studios had layoffs too, but if WAR was living up to the insurmountable amount of hype that they fabricated, then Mythic wouldn't have been touched. You don't see EA laying off any BioWare employees (yet).

There's a Blizzard ad "Now Hiring" on the Gamasutra page with the story. LOL

Originally posted by phluux

Sucks when people lose jobs... there are mouths people have to feed, bills to pay, etc.

Let's be straight though... release an inferior product and you get poor results. Let this be a lesson to other game developers... we're tired of your half-arsed products, so either get it together or start updating your resumes. I realize other EA studios had layoffs too, but if WAR was living up to the insurmountable amount of hype that they fabricated, then Mythic wouldn't have been touched. You don't see EA laying off any BioWare employees (yet).

There's a Blizzard ad "Now Hiring" on the Gamasutra page with the story. LOL

Tell that to the little ppl who have probably lost their jobs, you know the sort of ppl the ones who get given a task to do from their superiors and carry it out, the ones that do as they are told.

I'l wager that the real decision makers are still holding onto thier jobs.

Originally posted by quitmoaning

Tell that to the little ppl who have probably lost their jobs, you know the sort of ppl the ones who get given a task to do from their superiors and carry it out, the ones that do as they are told.

I'l wager that the real decision makers are still holding onto thier jobs.

It's a dog eat dog world and business can be cutthroat, especially in the game industry. However, they were all a part of a team that failed to reach their goals. That's business.

I doubt that all of the decision makers will be safe, since after all, they were driving the vision and have the higher salaries.

 It happened.  I've seen a bunch of posts on it  from my facebook friends in the industry :(

~Ripper

Originally posted by phluux

Sucks when people lose jobs... there are mouths people have to feed, bills to pay, etc.

Let's be straight though... release an inferior product and you get poor results. Let this be a lesson to other game developers... we're tired of your half-arsed products, so either get it together or start updating your resumes. I realize other EA studios had layoffs too, but if WAR was living up to the insurmountable amount of hype that they fabricated, then Mythic wouldn't have been touched. You don't see EA laying off any BioWare employees (yet).

There's a Blizzard ad "Now Hiring" on the Gamasutra page with the story. LOL

While it's true that WAR didn't live up to the hype, calling it inferior or half-arsed is a bit extreme.

Since WoW, no MMO has been able to live up to the hype fanboys place on them.

However, several games that did not live up to their own hype are very well-done. AoC, WAR and Fallen Earth being a few of them.

While they did fall short, pre-WoW 300,000 subs would have been considered a wild success.

Measuring up to WoW's sub numbers, ALL other MMOs are considered failures.

This does not mean they are bad games, and many of us see them as quite good.

EDIT: Fallen Earth doesn't really fall into that category I guess since it was virtually hype-less and kind of flew in under the radar. If games like WAR or AoC had this benefit, they simply would not be seen as failures.

I'll keep saying it again and again: WAR is a bad game. period. It didn't fail cuz of overhype or whatever, just plain bad.

It's not nice to hear people lose jobs but  I think that if your schedule/budget to create an mmo is what WAR had you're wrong from the get go and that is what you get.. so you can't blame mythic I guess.

Haters give no explaination. They just hate.

Sad to hear about the job losses but just like Funcom with AOC before them Mythic failed big time with Warhammer and has to pay the price for that failure.

Mythic will be merged with Bioware, which will take over the EA MMOs as well (it will be a bit more like Blizzard)
Watch this space

Tier I is free now, what should make some ppl to subscribe but I think that they will get more money if they make all game free with some item shop (DDO hybrid model is imo best)

EA's latest round of layoffs

Nuff said.  It isn't just WAR, EA is laying people off in general I assume.

I wish Mythic would have remained independant, at least their ideas wouldn't have gotten wattered down by the hurricane that is EA.

A merger with Mythic and Bioware could prove fruitful though if that did happen.  Let us just hope Bioware doesn't start having its name tarnished as well.

Did EA not have a round of layoff last year of their employees?

Originally posted by Dragim

EA's latest round of layoffs

Nuff said.  It isn't just WAR, EA is laying people off in general I assume.

I wish Mythic would have remained independant, at least their ideas wouldn't have gotten wattered down by the hurricane that is EA.

A merger with Mythic and Bioware could prove fruitful though if that did happen.  Let us just hope Bioware doesn't start having its name tarnished as well.

Well they sold their company to EA wtf they did expect, cookies and free stripers, they diserve their end for the stupid mistake the did. EA bought and bankrupt almost all of the good companies in the last 10 years. And Bioware went to EA, to make BG with shiny graphics, and terrible world designs for the mainstream masses. YAY!

Bioware will meet the same end, if at some point they dont keep the profit up as now, so they will make shiny games disguised as rpgs, mmorpgs, but mainstreamed to death, so they can be sold. Look at the latest Dragon Age, that every editor wants to kiss their asses, free or payed, but is just a inferior NWN, with terrible limited world, good graphics and bling, bling...Of course most of them are weak souls that never played a decent rpg in their life.

YAY for us...

If WAR was doing well then EA would not be laying of ppl in that compnay.  The fact is that WAR is NOT doing well - it is in a mess regarding alot of features - and huge portion of changes and fixes in the past year have been just bad.  Showing how totally out of sync Mythic is with the game.

I think alot more than just 80 ppl are leaving from Mythic.  Many of the senior producers are going over to BIoware and they will take the best talent with them. 

Mythic... well.. failed with WAR and its showing.  Its that simple.

Free to play withing 6 months.  Or just shut down all together.  Thats how simple it is.

 It's sad to see people lose their jobs, but the game just didn't deliver. 

Originally posted by quitmoaning

Originally posted by phluux

Sucks when people lose jobs... there are mouths people have to feed, bills to pay, etc.

Let's be straight though... release an inferior product and you get poor results. Let this be a lesson to other game developers... we're tired of your half-arsed products, so either get it together or start updating your resumes. I realize other EA studios had layoffs too, but if WAR was living up to the insurmountable amount of hype that they fabricated, then Mythic wouldn't have been touched. You don't see EA laying off any BioWare employees (yet).

There's a Blizzard ad "Now Hiring" on the Gamasutra page with the story. LOL

 

Tell that to the little ppl who have probably lost their jobs, you know the sort of ppl the ones who get given a task to do from their superiors and carry it out, the ones that do as they are told.

I'l wager that the real decision makers are still holding onto thier jobs.

 

Thus has it always been, thus it will likely always be. Those with power do much better than those without.  To corps like EA/SOE and more and more Blizzard, the people down in the trenches actually doing the daily work, are just interchangeable cogs in the corporate machinery.  "Plenty more where that came from" is their perspective.  Which of course does wonders for morale... But political machines(systems) are the same way(or worse). Its just the nature of power.

Thus has it always been, thus it will likely always be. Those with power do much better than those without.  To corps like EA/SOA and more and more Blizzard, the people down in the trenches actually doing the daily work, are just interchangeable cogs in the corporate machinery.  "Plenty more where that came from" is their perspective.  Which of course does wonders for morale... But political machines(systems) are the same way(or worse). Its just the nature of power.

Well said.

Originally posted by Frobner

If WAR was doing well then EA would not be laying of ppl in that compnay.  The fact is that WAR is NOT doing well - it is in a mess regarding alot of features - and huge portion of changes and fixes in the past year have been just bad.  Showing how totally out of sync Mythic is with the game.

I think alot more than just 80 ppl are leaving from Mythic.  Many of the senior producers are going over to BIoware and they will take the best talent with them. 

Mythic... well.. failed with WAR and its showing.  Its that simple.

Free to play withing 6 months.  Or just shut down all together.  Thats how simple it is.

well its been stated that EA is cutting 1500 jobs all around i don't think the mythic guys had a chance even if war was doing better than it is. its happening everywhere companies are down sizing all over, hell the little factory i worked at for the last 5 years just shut down and they moved the work to another plant they own. i saw it coming tho, new company came in bought us a few years ago, slowly cut back our medcial and moved our biggest money maker to the Corp main facility to make.

p.s FUCK YOU Polyvision "Day took er JABS"

Originally posted by phluux

Originally posted by quitmoaning

Tell that to the little ppl who have probably lost their jobs, you know the sort of ppl the ones who get given a task to do from their superiors and carry it out, the ones that do as they are told.

I'l wager that the real decision makers are still holding onto thier jobs.

 

It's a dog eat dog world and business can be cutthroat, especially in the game industry. However, they were all a part of a team that failed to reach their goals. That's business.

I doubt that all of the decision makers will be safe, since after all, they were driving the vision and have the higher salaries.

Haha the CEO fired 40% because they need there million dollar bonus...(Figure of Speech)..

Mod edit

"EA is performing well, with quality, sales and segment share up so far this year," said CEO John Riccitiello. "We are making tough calls to cut cost in targeted areas and investing more in our biggest games and digital businesses."

Mythic and WAR isn't one of these games.  Thats just a fact with probably more than 50% of the staff leaving their headquarters today.

Is Dark Age of Camelot now property of EA I would assume?  It is too bad I don't have the money to buy that IP, I would remodle that and rerelease it in a heartbeat.

What I find amusing, is that back few years ago when EA bought mythic, and a few hundred of us cried doom and gloom, saying EA had never made a good mmo, and every company purchased by EA ends in the same way... mass firings... people laughed at me.

Now here we are, mythics been canned, the game they produced is crap, and now EA's moving on to Bioware.

Im rather interested to see how that will pan out. Will Bioware make the FIRST EA mmorpg that doesnt suck? We shall see.