Gamigo has clarified its stance regarding the MMO RIFT after a week of speculation about the MMORPG's future.
In a statement sent to MMORPG.com in response to our query earlier this week after reports came out of layoffs affecting the staff making RIFT, a representative for Gamigo states that the publisher will "continue working on the title."
"RIFT is contributing a great deal to our roster and we will continue working on the title," the statement reads.
The future of RIFT felt up in the air following reports that the studio had been hit with an unspecified number of layoffs with the plans on moving the development of the MMO from the US to Europe. Gamigo refuted these reports, stating that there were no plans to move development, as well as denied "widespread layoffs," though they did not deny layoffs occured.
However, crucially, the statement about the RIFT report never actually mentioned RIFT by name, instead the company responded more directly to our questions about how the layoffs would impact TROVE or ArcheAge. This left a lot of speculation that while the MMO itself didn't receive the number of layoffs feared, it might not necessarily be headed in the direction players were hoping. The speculation wasn't helped by recent events, with Gamigo shuttering multiple MMOs last month.
Gamigo also stressed that the team is planning on celebrating the 10th Anniversary of RIFT this week, stating players can "look forward to various celebratory events." On the future of RIFT itself, Gamigo's spokesperson said in the statement that there will be "relevant updates in the future, we will announce them in due time."
The statement ended with Gamigo assuring us (and fans by extension) that there are no plans of stopping development on any of the MMORPGs we mentioned (RIFT, TROVE, ArcheAge namely).
Here is the statement in full:
"RIFT is contributing a great deal to our roster and we will continue working on the title. We're celebrating the game's 10th Anniversary this week, so players can look forward to various celebratory events. If there will be relevant updates in the future, we will announce them in due time. I can, once again, assure you that, at this point in time, we have no intention of stopping development on any of our MMORPGs that you have mentioned."
Gamigo also reached out to Massively, who originally reported on the layoffs, with a similar statement, though theirs went a bit deeper into the "structural changes" mentioned in the forum post on the RIFT forums, and hinted at with Gamigo's original statement this week. When pressed about how many developers were still working on RIFT, and where they were located, Gamigo stated the following to the outlet:
"We have multiple teams working on our games at different locations. We’ve realized that location is not as crucial as it’s been perceived during the Covid pandemic. Due to competitive reasons cannot give you any more insights about the location or size of our operational teams."
