Trion was NOT planning on letting their staff go

[Saluki]

I read another thread that referenced a blog post from April and I just decided to go through them all as I hadn't read many of them. One particular tidbit caught my attention. The following is from a Q&A with Nathan Richardson (executive producer) posted on 10.15.12

"Elizabeth: We’re closing in on the release of Defiance. What are some of the things you’re focusing on right now?

Nathan: Defiance is so massive that we still have quite a few things to take care of. It’s easy to get derailed. The most important part right now is keeping our content and feature pipeline flowing so we can ramp up alpha and start beta on all three platforms. Then we can get solid feedback and go through our polish phase.

We are also planning all the features and content to be deployed in the years after we go live. It’s a pretty ambitious schedule, but since we have the entire team working on Defiance after we launch as well, I think we can deliver some amazing experiences."

When the firings happened a lot of people optimistically (and condescendingly) proclaimed that firing happens at all game studios after release and that this was not unexpected. I believe that this statement backs up what I thought then and what I still believe now: Trion fired all those people because the game didnt sell as well as expected and they can't afford the expense of all those people working on it. The game came out, the bulk of the money has come in, it wasn't even enough to cover the amount of money put into the game, and now they have to cut expenses.

With all those people gone many fewer are left to both fix the game and come up with new content, and I think the past month is evidence of that. Myll_Erik even had to admit that they had a fix in place (which didnt wind up working) for the social issues during last weekends bonus XP stunt, but couldn't do it because there were not enough people around. Now the DLC is "announced" as coming in late July, and I, along with most of the community, feel that will easily be pushed into August.

I fear for the future of this game. I dont think Trion is going to keep going into the red to keep this game afloat, much like the game itself, I ask, what is the real endgame for Trion?

[StarBat]

It's pretty obvious that this launch didn't go as planned. New content has been pushed back, and completely forgotten. Only half the episodes even got episode "Content". I'm guessing largely because the devs were too busy fixing game breaking bugs.

Once you get "endgame" you quickly realize that the bugs, and hax are out of control. I PVPed just enough to finish my pursuits.

The only reason I mention the flaws is because THAT'S why the game didn't sell more copies. For everyone that bought the game through word of mouth from a friend, 10 more passed because of the same reason.

I'm 4400 and some change. I got my $60 out of this game. I'm curious to see where things go, but once something more interesting comes out, it's doubtful I'll come back and spend more money.

I got my season pass, so as soon as I hit 5k here in a week or so, I'm only logging in for new story missions, and episodes.

Hell, I may not even watch the show. The tie-ins have been lackluster and tacked on, and honestly that was the only reason I ever watched it in the first place.

[Dist0rt3d Hum0r]

I was under the impression that they were not fired, but laid off instead.

[StarBat]

I was under the impression that they were not fired, but laid off instead.

In this situation, laid off is the term you use when you want to fire people, but want to save face for the IPs sake.

ie. To the outside observer, they weren't fired because the launch did poorly, they were laid off because that's what game companies do, right guys? right...?

[Shismar]

Of course the layoffs were not planned. MMOs live from being constantly in development and the business model of Defiance is very much dependent on a permanent flow of paid content because there is no subscription. Now, maybe they thought the shop would be more profitable as it is. Not going to hunt the info down, but there was even some information before launch that all of the team was working on the release, no one on any of the DLC yet because that would be done after launch.

Whichever it is, you do not fire experienced game developers if there is any chance you could possibly need them. As Defiance is really light on content and has several DLCs announced, I am sure there is much work to do.

My crystal ball says Trion did not meet the necessary sales and persistent player numbers and someone pulled the ripcord. Was that sufficient to keep the game afloat? Sorry, even my magic Eight-ball refuses to answer that question.

[baelrusk]

I was under the impression that they were not fired, but laid off instead.

Fired is when you have a reason to get rid of them.
Laid off is when you can't afford to keep someone.

Officially they were laid off.

[Dist0rt3d Hum0r]

In this situation, laid off is the term you use when you want to fire people, but want to save face for the IPs sake.

ie. To the outside observer, they weren't fired because the launch did poorly, they were laid off because that's what game companies do, right guys? right...?

I do realize that most people that are laid off are never rehired, but that may not be the case here. On top of that who's to say that those that were "laid off" of the Defiance project weren't simply reassigned to Rift or another project? Trion works on more than just Defiance after all.

[Pyth]

I was under the impression that they were not fired, but laid off instead.

It's the same difference apart from that a layoff generally refers to a mass firing. Yada, yada, corporate jargon.

And to the OP, not to be a **** or anything, but this kind of falls under the lines of "no duh". Anyone with a pair of eyes has as much foresight as any marketing analyst at this point. The game will fail, though it won't be overnight. Those who have paid into the season pass and enjoy the game will still get their content. And as with any MMO, it will have people playing until server shutdown. It just won't be a lot of people.

And as far as I'm concerned, it's gonna be kind of satisfying watching the Defiance Trion Team burn. Though I will admit that I did get my money's worth in terms of hours played.

[StarBat]

Of course the layoffs were not planned. MMOs live from being constantly in development and the business model of Defiance is very much dependent on a permanent flow of paid content because there is no subscription. Now, maybe they thought the shop would be more profitable as it is. Not going to hunt the info down, but there was even some information before launch that all of the team was working on the release, no one on any of the DLC yet because that would be done after launch.

Whichever it is, you do not fire experienced game developers if there is any chance you could possibly need them. As Defiance is really light on content and has several DLCs announced, I am sure there is much work to do.

My crystal ball says Trion did not meet the necessary sales and persistent player numbers and someone pulled the ripcord. Was that sufficient to keep the game afloat? Sorry, even my magic Eight-ball refuses to answer that question.

Oh, they're most likely under contract to keep the game running for a while, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit for some of the DLCs to be less than we've come to expect from other games.

Quick for instance. DLC that does nothing but give you some features that should have existed at launch. Oh wait...

On a side note, this thread is getting REALLY close to locked territory, and Sonic's locking threads like crazy today.

[Ichidakiller]

How does this prove anything.....

No company in their right mind is going to say during an interview "Yeah we are gonna launch and about a month later lay off half the dev staff, but please buy our game anyways."

This proves nothing but another smoke screen by Trion.