Turbine, Inc. - Layoffs Hit Studio

Couchpotato

Part-Time News-bot
Joined
October 1, 2010
Messages
36,178
Location
Spudlandia
Joystiq has information that Turbine has laid off some staff this week.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment confirmed today that a round of layoffs will soon affect The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine, Inc.

"As part of our normal business process, we're routinely looking at the strategic alignment of our company," a Warner Bros. representative told Joystiq.

"Unfortunately, in order for us to invest in growth areas at Turbine, we have to eliminate some positions. These are always tough decisions, which we don't approach lightly, but it's crucial that Turbine is structured in a way that reflects the current and coming marketplace."
More information.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,178
Location
Spudlandia
While I sympathize with the people losing their jobs, this game has become an unabashed perversion of the world Tolkien created. Its obnoxious, in-your-face "F2P" store is comparable to that of phone games - with all the shallow content that such a comparison brings.

And I'm a Founder :raincloud:
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,978
Location
Florida, USA
Yeah. I translate the corporate-speak thusly:

"Our game is aging and that wouldn't be so bad but the whole F2P mechanic is NOT working out like we'd hoped, since our content got really flat and uninspired the second we went F2P. We have to think about some other way to salvage this rapidly disintegrating raft since we couldn't rewrite the game back the old way now even if we wanted to."
 
Joined
Dec 16, 2013
Messages
2,789
Location
1920
Yeah. I translate the corporate-speak thusly:

"Our game is aging and that wouldn't be so bad but the whole F2P mechanic is NOT working out like we'd hoped, since our content got really flat and uninspired the second we went F2P. We have to think about some other way to salvage this rapidly disintegrating raft since we couldn't rewrite the game back the old way now even if we wanted to."

Exactly what I read :)

My sympathy for the people loosing their jobs, that's not easy (I know from experience).
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
440
Location
The Netherlands
I don't think that F2P is the root cause of LOTRO problems. I think that with the latest expansions the game lost mystery and magic. I didn't look into latest expansion to be honest, but the previous one was about war between people and some regular monsters like orcs. I would expect from any RPG a bit of mystery like finding a castle with unexpected monsters, a bit of puzzles, story twists, mighty dragons, challenge, etc. I missed that...
 
Joined
Apr 26, 2008
Messages
228
I also think that MMOs are on a perpetual decline since people are tired of the time sink it represents and the repetitive and trite nature of the quest system for most all of them. You can only kill 10 orcs and collect 5 pelts and go through a theme park so many times.

It takes a huge team to make one so through a slump it's normal for this to happen.
 
Joined
Nov 16, 2011
Messages
2,006
Location
Trois-Rivières, Québec
It's hard to know the reasons behind this decision, but it's for sure that LOTRO has been declining for a long time.

Personally, I despise what F2P does to developers and priorities - and it would be very easy for me to believe that such short-term greed would produce long-term problems.

But that might just be wishful thinking.

In any case, ESO is the last of the post-WoW high profile MMOs struggling to prove the validity of the subscription model - and the amount of work they put into each and every patch serves to demonstrate why it's not a bad thing to incentivize significant content through a monthly payment.

Unfortunately, most people seem to actually prefer the kind of meaningless and superficial grind that other MMOs put in place of real content.
 
The normal reason for layoffs of this sort is exec foobar and layoff non-exec. I personally never been laid off but i've seen enough for this lifetime. I really wish exec were require to lay themselves off anytime they do corporate layoffs.
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
7,758
Location
usa - no longer boston
Perfect MMO must be well balanced. If I have 10-15 minutes - there should be something in MMO to fit it. Like get a level in craft. If I have 2 hours and I want to relax without thinking too much, there should be a sort of grind that helps me to build my character or help me to get access to something. If I have a couple of hours that I want to spend it at max, there should be a dungeon full of dangers. Perfect MMO in my opinion should have dozens of areas where I can make my character better in very different ways.
 
Joined
Apr 26, 2008
Messages
228
Never heard about Turbine before so don't kill me when I couldn't care less for their layoffs.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Perfect MMO must be well balanced. If I have 10-15 minutes - there should be something in MMO to fit it. Like get a level in craft. If I have 2 hours and I want to relax without thinking too much, there should be a sort of grind that helps me to build my character or help me to get access to something. If I have a couple of hours that I want to spend it at max, there should be a dungeon full of dangers. Perfect MMO in my opinion should have dozens of areas where I can make my character better in very different ways.

Then try DDO, Turbine's other MMO which has an RPGWatch Guild!! :)
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,806
Location
Australia
Back
Top Bottom