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.

Heres how I see it with the merger of EA and Mythic.

Say I had a pretty successful MMO company which took me years and years of money and development to create maybe 2-3 really good MMOs. I would be ecstatic! But looking at all that cash coming in and having my greed factor into play that I need 3 summer vacation homes, a circular driveway and a couple of Mercedes as driveway ornaments, what can I do?

Dilema, do I get the 3 summer vacation homes in Bermuda and the driveway ornaments for my new 100 acre circular driveway or sink even more money in topping my last MMO for sake of keeping my good name and long lasting career as a MMO developer?

"OR" do I sell out to a company like EA and have them foot the bill, still get paid, and own those 3 summer vacation homes in Bermuda with a 100 acre circular driveway at the expense of EA while cranking out mediocre MMOs that I dont have to worry bout whether they succeed or fail cause Im not worried bout losing my job, just those under me?

Welcome to EA-Mythic!!!!

I could be wrong but this tells me its possible in this day and age. Hell, look at AIG, and all the other big corps who`ve not only been bailed out but the "executives" got to keep their jobs along with those nice fat bonus incentives!

Speak of the devil.....Below me is a ad for Battle Forge, I guess i dont need to say whose name is tied to that do I? lol.

Originally posted by AmbushMartyr

Heres how I see it with the merger of EA and Mythic.

Say I had a pretty successful MMO company which took me years and years of money and development to create maybe 2-3 really good MMOs. I would be ecstatic! But looking at all that cash coming in and having my greed factor into play that I need 3 summer vacation homes, a circular driveway and a couple of Mercedes as driveway ornaments, what can I do?

Dilema, do I get the 3 summer vacation homes in Bermuda and the driveway ornaments for my new 100 acre circular driveway or sink even more money in topping my last MMO for sake of keeping my good name and long lasting career as a MMO developer?

"OR" do I sell out to a company like EA and have them foot the bill, still get paid, and own those 3 summer vacation homes in Bermuda with a 100 acre circular driveway at the expense of EA while cranking out mediocre MMOs that I dont have to worry bout whether they succeed or fail cause Im not worried bout losing my job, just those under me?

Welcome to EA-Mythic!!!!

 

I could be wrong but this tells me its possible in this day and age. Hell, look at AIG, and all the other big corps who`ve not only been bailed out but the "executives" got to keep their jobs along with those nice fat bonus incentives!

 

Speak of the devil.....Below me is a ad for Battle Forge, I guess i dont need to say whose name is tied to that do I? lol.

You forgot to mention the $500,000+ vacation and extravagant parties those executives have had after receiving our bailout money, but that's a story for another thread.

 

You forgot to mention the $500,000+ vacation and extravagant parties those executives have had after receiving our bailout money, but that's a story for another thread.

 

Your a gentleman and a scholar!  And No, I didnt forget, nor did the millions of other Americans who paid for it! Our day is coming where our constitution and American way of life will be restored as our forefathers intended it to be! Prepare for civil war my friend its on the way, but thats another thread entirely!

Anywho, hope you caught my drift on how I think possibly MMO comps are "teaming" up with big corps to split the bill sorta speak. I still could be wrong on my theory as I dont have solid and complete insight on this part of the industry at hand. Still, a pretty good theory considering!

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

True, but Dragonage seems to be selling fine while WAR is losing more and more subs.
 

EA really have 2 choices with Mythic: Either plow down some cash so they can make a new game, DAOC 2 preferable, or fire all they can, use a skeleton crew to milk out what they can and the close it down. It seems like they are going for the second option, sadly.

The really best thing would be to put some money and people into revamping WAR instead, the world is really good and the game engine in itself works well. Force the people to play the Warhammer tabletop and RPG game a while so they actually could make it close to the original. It would cost a lot of money but nothing compared to start from scratch.

The whole problem here is that Mythic have all their cards on a single game. Mythic was in a position where they would fail or succed based on just WAR. Bioware have several games on the way, even if TOR becomes a big failure will they have other games that sells well. And the fact that Mythic was sure of at least a millon subs doesn't help either.

It is sad both for gamers and people working for Mythic if EA closes them down because of a single game.

Originally posted by Pyrostasis

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.

Bioware is doing a lot more than a MMO so it is a lot harder to trash them than Mythic. TOR might fail but EA can always forceBioware to make sequels of their huge games, like Baldurs gate 3. Because EA is usually trying for safe cards and Bioware could probably live for a long while just with sequels, like Maxis does.
 

Mythic used up a lot of money and gave little back, the blame is not only on EA. They took an IP with millions of fans and made a MMO which have rather few players after a year.

I don't think EA micro-managed Mythic into turning WAR into what it is, Mythic did that themselves. What EA is doing is that they seems to be giving up on Mythic and slowly closing the company down instead of fixing WAR or making another game.

But if you were Mythic, who would you give the cash too? Mythic or Bioware? Bioware have made a lot of singleplayer games and even some non massive multiplayer games and they have sold well, every single game. Mythic have made DAOC and WAR, not bad games in themselves but far from bestsellers. Even if TOR fails will Bioware pull in cash for EA.

Mythic could still turn WAR or make a great other game but it is risky, EA goes for the safe card (that is why they are making a new FIFA game every year, it is a safe card, and The Sims stuff).

Originally posted by AmbushMartyr

You forgot to mention the $500,000+ vacation and extravagant parties those executives have had after receiving our bailout money, but that's a story for another thread.

 

 

Your a gentleman and a scholar!  And No, I didnt forget, nor did the millions of other Americans who paid for it! Our day is coming where our constitution and American way of life will be restored as our forefathers intended it to be! Prepare for civil war my friend its on the way, but thats another thread entirely!

Anywho, hope you caught my drift on how I think possibly MMO comps are "teaming" up with big corps to split the bill sorta speak. I still could be wrong on my theory as I dont have solid and complete insight on this part of the industry at hand. Still, a pretty good theory considering!

Civil War? Hahahahahahhahahahahhahahaha............hahahhahahahahah. Not gonna happen, keep believing in delusional fantasies my friend! No one has the balls to start a civil war. And if they did, they will be defeated quickly! And then they would be tried for treason/sedition as the Constitution dictates!

I feel bad for the Mythic employees who got laid off, but WAR was a huge flop. The game is on life support and I don't see it ever coming out of the ICU.

@ smut

Perhaps you should do a study on gang populations and militia populations that threaten national security. There are healthy doses of demographics within the US who are actively trying to secede. A civil war of national size might be laughable, but internal unrest is very much alive and growing.

OP: Best of luck for all former Mythic employees hit by these layoffs. Your most recent patch brought me back to the title and have been enjoying it casually each weekend with coworkers. I do hope you find employment during these tough times.

WAR for me was actually the only major improvement i saw in the last 5 years in the mmorpg industry, but they failed the high end content unfortunately, because they tried to make it mainstream with no decent rewards, or imerssion. See Aion lol. Keep sieges were also too easy, fast, not very big rewards, but still fun when no lag. 

Public quests were great, Tome of Knowledge another great thing, pvp from lvl 1, knock backs, colision on objects, models, ability to hide from attacks etc, it actually moved on from the mainstream WOW crap, and they tried something new. I dont know if they comeplelty failed by theirself, or they got pressure from EA to have 1 gazzilions copies sold, so mucho money, mainstream gameplay,  EA Happy, gamers fucked.

A mmorpg in these days doesnt have to have milions subscribers, smart companies have 100-300k subscribers, and they are doing very well, unless they are sold to EA , Ubisoft or other major crap company that only cares about sales, thus mainstream, no inovation, risks, etc. 

So now we have indie, or small companies that try or even succed with decent games like EVE Online, Fallen Earth,Rzyom,  Guild Wars(tho they have a huge publisher), all interesting games, but not all polished, which can hurt sometimes.

On the other hand huge corps like EA, UBi, Sony have the manpower and money to make the greatest games ever imagined by us or devs, but they dont do that, why? Is not a hobby, is not a game anymore, it a bussines, and only that for them.

A good example is the latest game from Bioware, they sold to EA, have huge manpower and money now, and they use the same recipe for their games, but even more broken and limited, with flashy graphics and boobies...

As for WAR Layoffs, it can only be good for the devs that left, they have experience they can go to or form other companies. As long as they dont want to create the next Crapmainstream, they will do just fine.

my 2 RONs lol

Originally posted by Dragim

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.

It is a shame indeed. DAoC was my first love. And to be honest still is.

I do hope they see the potential in DAoC and do something with it.

Originally posted by pojung

@ smut

Perhaps you should do a study on gang populations and militia populations that threaten national security. There are healthy doses of demographics within the US who are actively trying to secede. A civil war of national size might be laughable, but internal unrest is very much alive and growing.

OP: Best of luck for all former Mythic employees hit by these layoffs. Your most recent patch brought me back to the title and have been enjoying it casually each weekend with coworkers. I do hope you find employment during these tough times.

Whatever...I find it hilarious people bring up civil war because they do not like the democratically elected POTUS. We live in a democracy, things are changed within the system, not by going outside of it and threatening or talking about civil wars. Regardless, this is a gaming forum. So not sure why anyone brought up politics to begin with so I will drop it.

Again, my sympathies to the Mythic employees, especially in this tough world we are living in.

I was shocked back when EA and Mythic merged.. EA's track record for eating up and closing studios was extensive.

I knew Mythics other MMO wasnt looking good at that time, but i never expected them to sign the deal with the devil  EA.

1500 employees is a really large amount.

They will gut the studio and refill it with a new dev team under the Mythic IP if they ever want to make a sequel to Daoc or something.

Most wont even know the difference...

The report i read the other day stated massive layoffs from all EA games that were not making a decent profit.Ea said they are going to instead focus on their games that are making money.

This is a VERY gray area,because single player games require no staff or updates,so they are clear of over head.This tells me that Warhammer is as good as shut down in the VERY near future,because they will not devote any money or staff to the game now.It also tells me that because MMO's require an ongoing staff and cost,you may see EA cut the whole MMO equation out unless the game is making a lot of money.

What i don't understand is that Warhammer although not busting at the seams,must have a decent player base or no?100k at 15 bucks a month is some pretty good coin[1.5 million a month minus costs] in my books.I think this is why the layoffs,they will keep the game going as long as players are willing to accept no more expansions or updates,because they will have no more staff devoted to that area.

Even though games can easily overcome costs with the 15 bucks a month,the problem is that the 15 bucks a month has to fund the entire EA operation.The staff that remains needs to be paid,they need to continue funding further products and single player games do not do that as they are divvy up at the time of sales,where as the MMO's keep the money coming.

This whole ordeal smells really,they are going to use a game like War and the massive layoffs to fund a totally ridiculous purchase for 400 million of PLAYFISH.Then you add in the fact that most CEO's get bonuses based on profits and the profits were down 17% so a few bigshots are looking to line their own pockets here.IMO profits dropping by 17 % does not mean your company is struggling or failing,it just means you didn't make as high a profit margin as last year.

ONE word sums up this fiascal>>>Politics at the high end of EA.

Originally posted by Wizardry

The report i read the other day stated massive layoffs from all EA games that were not making a decent profit.Ea said they are going to instead focus on their games that are making money.

This is a VERY gray area,because single player games require no staff or updates,so they are clear of over head.This tells me that Warhammer is as good as shut down in the VERY near future,because they will not devote any money or staff to the game now.It also tells me that because MMO's require an ongoing staff and cost,you may see EA cut the whole MMO equation out unless the game is making a lot of money.

What i don't understand is that Warhammer although not busting at the seams,must have a decent player base or no?100k at 15 bucks a month is some pretty good coin[1.5 million a month minus costs] in my books.I think this is why the layoffs,they will keep the game going as long as players are willing to accept no more expansions or updates,because they will have no more staff devoted to that area.

Even though games can easily overcome costs with the 15 bucks a month,the problem is that the 15 bucks a month has to fund the entire EA operation.The staff that remains needs to be paid,they need to continue funding further products and single player games do not do that as they are divvy up at the time of sales,where as the MMO's keep the money coming.

This whole ordeal smells really,they are going to use a game like War and the massive layoffs to fund a totally ridiculous purchase for 400 million of PLAYFISH.Then you add in the fact that most CEO's get bonuses based on profits and the profits were down 17% so a few bigshots are looking to line their own pockets here.IMO profits dropping by 17 % does not mean your company is struggling or failing,it just means you didn't make as high a profit margin as last year.

ONE word sums up this fiascal>>>Politics at the high end of EA.

 

Warhammer Online and 100k subs? Looking at the few servers that are left. It won't take a rocket scientist to see they even went below the subscriber mark of AoC.

Why would EA devote more money into WAR if they know they can't fix it, but to have it completely redesigned from scratch, wich will cost millions. Ain't gonna happen!

WAR has so many issues and flaws, that they appearently aren't able to fix. Otherwise they would have end last year / early this year, when they still had enough of a staff.

It has become more and more appearent that Mythic's game engine can't cope with largescale RvR and sustain many players in one spot. Hence, the reason they gave up on Fortresses and now just removed them.

So instead of fixing stuff, they now entered a process of removing more and more features from the game, make Tier1 free and so try to milk out the remaining subscribers till it gets shutdown.

Cheers

It was stupid and pompous for EA to try it.  Another (very similar) fantasy mmo when wow was still new?  At first I liked the grittier art and pvp promise but that was as far as it went for me.  Why are we feeling sorry for employees?  People have lost their businesses from town to town in this recession.  At least these guys have had a decent paying job. 

On the horizon: get ready for the blizzard/activision empire.

Originally posted by greymann

It was stupid and pompous for EA to try it.  Another (very similar) fantasy mmo when wow was still new?  At first I liked the grittier art and pvp promise but that was as far as it went for me.  Why are we feeling sorry for employees?  People have lost their businesses from town to town in this recession.  At least these guys have had a decent paying job. 

On the horizon: get ready for the blizzard/activision empire.

You answer your own question in your following sentence. And because people are losing jobs and businesses from "town to town" we are supposed to not care or feel empathy? Ah, internet anonymity is a great thing, let's twatters really show their true colors.