Notice that companies always do this just before Christmas at one of the most difficult times of the year to get a job?

Next time an employer tells you that you are the most valueable asset to the organisation and that they really value their employees don't believe a word of it.

They really don't give a toss.

The lesson here is DO NOT price expansions to struggling MMOs at $50.

Originally posted by DMKano

It seems mostly QA Rift testers that got hit hard, reading the twitter feeds.... Not sure I'd say that the actual rift dev team got hit hard, as I haven't found any info that the senior devs, server engineers, got impacted at all.

Its crappy that any folks were let go, but it seems that it is the less essential staff that is not critical now that Storm Legion is launched.

The timing is still very shitty, during holidays, but most accounting books close dec 31 so the business side of companies tends to suck at times like these.

and that's how the layoffs at bioware ausin and EME started out. look where they ended up though.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

The lesson here is DO NOT price expansions to struggling MMOs at $50.

Trion says sales of it were phenominal though.  They even managed to get 13% of the current subscriber base to drop $100 on the 1-year subscription bundle during pre-orders. Impressive for a "struggling" MMO.

http://www.thealistdaily.com/news/exclusive-trions-quest-never-ends/

Originally posted by Dr_Negative

Originally posted by Xiaoki

The lesson here is DO NOT price expansions to struggling MMOs at $50.

Trion says sales of it were phenominal though.  They even managed to get 13% of the current subscriber base to drop $100 on the 1-year subscription bundle during pre-orders. Impressive for a "struggling" MMO.

 

http://www.thealistdaily.com/news/exclusive-trions-quest-never-ends/

 

getting your lifers to subscribe for a 1 year deal doesnt mean phenomonal sales.

Originally posted by OnisDE
Pile on gloom and doom threads filled with specualtion and contumacious narcissists, like blood poured into shark infested water. Watch them all swarm to only swim away with empty bellies. Rubber necking passers by delaying the rush hour commute hoping to a glimpse of the carnage to satisfy some flagitious curiousty. Enjoy the show! It's a real freak!

I'm glad you found Thesaurus.com. This isn't necessarily a pure "doom and gloom" thread. If Trion has laid off a part of the Rift time, it will be reflected in how the game is managed. If they're willing to cut even with the success of the expansion, then what will stop them from cutting later in the future. Speculation can be fruitful.

I do hope that these cuts were a one-time deal and the Rift team can bounce back. I do plan on resubbing so I hope there's still a game to resub too when that time comes.

Originally posted by Bakkoda24

 I do plan on resubbing so I hope there's still a game to resub too when that time comes.

They only way there wont be a Rift is if all of Trion's other projects flop and they cant repay their investors.  Rift is going to be around.  Tough to imagine 1/3 of the team being laid off wont effect the release schedule though.

Originally posted by strangiato2112

Originally posted by Dr_Negative

Originally posted by Xiaoki

The lesson here is DO NOT price expansions to struggling MMOs at $50.

Trion says sales of it were phenominal though.  They even managed to get 13% of the current subscriber base to drop $100 on the 1-year subscription bundle during pre-orders. Impressive for a "struggling" MMO.

 

http://www.thealistdaily.com/news/exclusive-trions-quest-never-ends/

 

getting your lifers to subscribe for a 1 year deal doesnt mean phenomonal sales.

Trion said it, not me. Besides it's relative...if 13% of DAoC's subs drop $100 on it no big deal, but 13% of Rift's player base? Lifers or not that's alot of cash up front and we haven't even discussed retail boxes, nor preorders of the stand-alone expansion...just preorders with a 1 year commit.

Originally posted by ereyethirn

Originally posted by Celcius

I hope this does not mean the calibur of updates will go down. They have done really awesome so far and other then possibly GW2, no one else has come close to the rate of content updates Rift has had. 

When it comes to content updates I don't think anyone comes out with them faster than the secret world. Ever sinse launch there has been a major update with lots in it every month with no exceptions thus far.

Lol really? TSW updates are a joke. A handful of new missions? 

Issue 1: July 31st

Delayed marketplace (supposed to be in at launch), 2 new versions of old dungeons (lol), New missions that take a few hours to complete

Issue 2: Delayed for weeks, September 18th (almost 2 months later)

More new versions of old dungeons, LFG tool, new missions,barber shop, new weapon (decent patch, but not nearly the calibur of a Rift/GW2 patch and took longer)

Issue 3:  Sept 26th (turned around delay, but patch content suffers)

New missions and new event missions 

Issue 4: November 15th (so much for monthly patches huh)

A useless theatre zone for social events that no one uses, raid delayed even with the huge gap between issues, new weapon, new decks (continued imbalances in pvp included), terrible reticule target mode that no one uses, new version of old dungeon, new missions

So yeah as you can see TSW is not doing as well as you make it out to be with content patches. They may patch fairly often, but that is quickly changing and the lack of content they are offering within each patch is pretty insignificant. The latest patch has alot of stuff in it that is worthless or doesnt do much to improve the game, but the 2nd issue they did well with. It seems to me like they are still using content that was developed by the staff before they laid people off post launch. 

Originally posted by feena750
They have a lot of good stuff, but they need a new and exciting system to diffirentiate themselves from other MMOs.

What....like 'rifts' or something.....

Originally posted by Zorgo

Originally posted by feena750
They have a lot of good stuff, but they need a new and exciting system to diffirentiate themselves from other MMOs.

What....like 'rifts' or something.....

 

 

Honestly if someone claims something like that at this point it is because they have not played the game recently (or probably since launch). Sure, the game was pretty much a WoW clone at launch, but Trion has added new systems and content that has changed the direction of the game completely and how it looks today. It really is not nearly as much like WoW now. Stuff like Onslaughts, in game weddings, world events, hard raids without hard modes, constantly evolving rift system, chronicles,conquest,escalation alternative warfronts, housing,the quest structure in SL, ect really have gone a long way to make it different. 

Originally posted by wowclones
Next weeks headline, "Rift to go free to play."

it's already gone F2P overseas. the US and EU is the last bastion.

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Originally posted by Dr_Negative

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Originally posted by Xiaoki The lesson here is DO NOT price expansions to struggling MMOs at $50.

---

Trion says sales of it were phenominal though.  They even managed to get 13% of the current subscriber base to drop $100 on the 1-year subscription bundle during pre-orders. Impressive for a "struggling" MMO.
 

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No wonder they are struggling.

Originally posted by Celcius

Originally posted by ereyethirn

Originally posted by Celcius

I hope this does not mean the calibur of updates will go down. They have done really awesome so far and other then possibly GW2, no one else has come close to the rate of content updates Rift has had. 

When it comes to content updates I don't think anyone comes out with them faster than the secret world. Ever sinse launch there has been a major update with lots in it every month with no exceptions thus far.

Lol really? TSW updates are a joke. A handful of new missions? 

Issue 1: July 31st

Delayed marketplace (supposed to be in at launch), 2 new versions of old dungeons (lol), New missions that take a few hours to complete

Issue 2: Delayed for weeks, September 18th (almost 2 months later)

More new versions of old dungeons, LFG tool, new missions,barber shop, new weapon (decent patch, but not nearly the calibur of a Rift/GW2 patch and took longer)

Issue 3:  Sept 26th (turned around delay, but patch content suffers)

New missions and new event missions 

Issue 4: November 15th (so much for monthly patches huh)

A useless theatre zone for social events that no one uses, raid delayed even with the huge gap between issues, new weapon, new decks (continued imbalances in pvp included), terrible reticule target mode that no one uses, new version of old dungeon, new missions

So yeah as you can see TSW is not doing as well as you make it out to be with content patches. They may patch fairly often, but that is quickly changing and the lack of content they are offering within each patch is pretty insignificant. The latest patch has alot of stuff in it that is worthless or doesnt do much to improve the game, but the 2nd issue they did well with. It seems to me like they are still using content that was developed by the staff before they laid people off post launch. 

yea, the only thing worse than the secret world is the ~50k people still clinging to it and pretending to be 40 year olds with distinguished tastes. it's hilarious how people are just living their lives to make noise about it to no avail. it's a bland thempark with laughable updates and still has half the content of other mmo's.

i mean come on....the "mission" in these damn updates are just quests. seriously, there have been more DE's phased into GW2 in any 30 day block since september, lol.

I don't think the layoff has to do anything with Rift MMO.

Trion has just take over End of Nations development project and they already need to layoff so many people.

It seems like, they are taking a risk with this game.

I should think that if the End of Nations bomb so will Trion.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/12/06/trion-worlds-taking-over-end-of-nations-development/

Originally posted by DMKano

It seems mostly QA Rift testers that got hit hard, reading the twitter feeds.... Not sure I'd say that the actual rift dev team got hit hard, as I haven't found any info that the senior devs, server engineers, got impacted at all.

Its crappy that any folks were let go, but it seems that it is the less essential staff that is not critical now that Storm Legion is launched.

The timing is still very shitty, during holidays, but most accounting books close dec 31 so the business side of companies tends to suck at times like these.

If that's true I can't really blame them.  I love Rift and Trion as a dev company, but their QA testing has seemed pretty weak.

To those saying Rift isn't anything special, that's okay to have an opinion like that, but I have to disagree completely.  To all those that dismiss Rift as just a WoW Clone you are missing out on an amazing MMORPG.  

The expansion has added so much that it blows everything else away.  To those saying they need to add things to set themselves apart - they've been doing that successfully for two years.  =)

Call me a fanboy, or whatever, but those dismissing the game as a clone and not trying it out for what it is - you are missing out.  Just sayin'.

Carry on.

EDIT to add:  This did surprise me.  Trion was the last company I expected to have layoffs.  But, after thinking about it, it's logical to trim the fat now that the expansion is released and in full swing.  News like this may seem like doom and gloom, but it actually makes sense. *shrug*

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

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Originally posted by Dr_Negative

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Originally posted by Xiaoki The lesson here is DO NOT price expansions to struggling MMOs at $50.

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Trion says sales of it were phenominal though.  They even managed to get 13% of the current subscriber base to drop $100 on the 1-year subscription bundle during pre-orders. Impressive for a "struggling" MMO.
 

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So, you're saying that Trion gave away the expansion for free to 13% of the population is impressive?

 

No wonder they are struggling.

For a upfront non-refundable $100 1-year commitment? Nice straw-man you built there. Once again, I didn't say it, they did. But I do agree.

Sucks that they couldn't move them to their other MMOs or the RTS game they took control of.

Many companies lay off non performers yearly in the guise of cost cutting, but laying off 40 means it goes deeper than just that.