Perfect World Closing Down Motiga Soon According to Employees

In a semi-confirmed rumor, it appears that Perfect World Entertainment is closing down Motiga, the company behind Gigantic. The news came via Twitter users "Thor" and "Dan, the Funemployed", both confirming that they are unemployed. As yet no official word has come from PWE but we do have a statement from CEO Chris Chung.

This statement was given to Destructoid, though Chung later came back saying, "I made the statement at a vulnerable moment. I may not have had all the facts surrounding what happened and I apologize for any error." While the closure / layoffs seem to be confirmed, the reasons behind them is not entirely clear until we receive further clarification from PWE.

All of Motiga was acquired by Perfect World last year. Perfect World decided to announce the arrangement as partnership by the directions from corporate for the reason we were not privy to.

Yes, [the closure] was the corporate decision. It was a budgetary decision at the highest level. Perfect World as a public company has a profitability goal and they decided to cut parts of the company that were not profitable. In short, Gigantic was not making enough revenue. Unfortunately, Motiga is not the only Perfect World studio being impacted by the decision.

Gigantic will be left at the hands of a maintenance team composed of few dedicated folks at Motiga. They are [an] awesome group of people that will be working on the game until some time in the future when it doesn't make sense anymore.

Thank you for the kind words. As someone that created Motiga from scratch, it's a sad day for me but I am proud of the team we built and the culture we established at Motiga. I was hugged by everyone today and you don't see that kind of reaction in most companies through an ordeal like this.

Today marks the end of Motiga and my time with an absolutely amazing team. If anyone is hiring, we're all looking! <3 to everyone.

— Dan, the Funemployed (@MO_Soundz) November 2, 2017

All things must end, some great people are now looking for some jobs, godspeed friends <3 #motiga pic.twitter.com/ZClxeS9Mtd — Thor (@ThorDG) November 2, 2017

This is not the first time Motiga has laid off employees with Gigantic struggling to launch. Microsoft, the original publisher of the game, cut ties with the company in 2016 before PWE taking over and pushing the game out earlier this year.

We'll keep you posted as the story develops.