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[Faraelle Brightman]

Dust is the biggest problem, imo. I just can't see how a PS3-exclusive shooter will work for CCP. If it was on the PC, it'd probably have worked. Most Eve players would probably have checked it out. Lots of former Eve players would too. Sure, plenty of people play games on multiple platforms, but equally, plenty don't. A PS3 exclusive automatically alienates a large percentage of your existing consumer base. Dumb. A WoD MMO seems like a surer thing in the long term. I guess Dust is just too far down the road to drop now, though.

I really want Dust to succeed if only for the ballsiness of the game design. I don't play console shooters because I suck at them but would have at least tried it on the PC.

I've no love for Sony.  But if you look at the PS3 exclusive decision in terms of business realities, I find it more understandable than I did when it was announced.  The big thing of course is that the consoles are where the money is for shooters these days.  But why not Xbox? Because when it comes to making a game that can talk with outside platforms (see: Steam), Microsoft restricts it to be near-impossible, so to differentiate, Sony has adopted a more relaxed stance.  I don't know if that would also affect Dust, but it seems a reasonable guess.

Also, most of Dust's development is the Shanghai team, which for all appearances has been spared in full.  Dust actually has, if not a release date, at least an announced target year.

[Yoshito Sanders]

I can confirm that Gnauton is gone, which is amazing to me, given how long he's been with the company.

This is a sad, sad day.

[Kenpachi]

Dropbear is confirmed as safe, so that's good news at least.

Good to know, sad to hear about everyone else though.

[Yoshito Sanders]

I've also heard CCP Moloch is gone. He was the content manager. He was offered the chance to move to Iceland, but was unwilling to make the move for personal reasons. BigDumbObject, another content guy, is supposed to be moving to Iceland and is staying.

[Faraelle Brightman]

If they're asking people to move (beats me why) it could explain at least a few of the unexpected names on the chopping block.

That said, I'm a little worried about misinformation coming out amid the uncertainty of who's staying and who's not, and the official forums + failheap are little help, so would appreciate people posting how/where they found out if they can.  (If it's a person you can't freely identify, that's fine).

@Kyoko: Guilty.  I withdraw the comment - I'm not aligned with your opinion but it's not relevant to the thread.

[Kyoko Sakoda]

@Kyoko: I swear I'll drop the subject after this (else flame war is likely) but didn't want the political note to pass unchallenged.  Should a government be in the business of taking a game company to task for the consequences of what amount to poor project management?

No, and that's not at all what I'm talking about. I'm talking about social services, progressive taxes, and employee co-ownership. That actually amounts to social democracy, but if you tell anyone (especially Americans) that you're a "social democrat" they'll give you blank stares.

[orange]

@Kyoko: I swear I'll drop the subject after this (else flame war is likely) but didn't want the political note to pass unchallenged.  Should a government be in the business of taking a game company to task for the consequences of what amount to poor project management?

No, and that's not at all what I'm talking about. I'm talking about social services, progressive taxes, and employee co-ownership. That actually amounts to social democracy, but if you tell anyone (especially Americans) that you're a "social democrat" they'll give you blank stares.

I've also heard CCP Moloch is gone. He was the content manager. He was offered the chance to move to Iceland, but was unwilling to make the move for personal reasons. BigDumbObject, another content guy, is supposed to be moving to Iceland and is staying.

It sounds like CCP may be trying to reduce its American footprint by moving personnel to Iceland in order to take advantage of Iceland's social services and reduce American overhead like employee medical & dental.  It makes sense for an Icelandic company that largely exports 1s & 0s to others to utilize the benefits its native social services in order to reduce cost and increase its overall profits (a portion of which is taxed in order to pay for those services).

[Julianus Soter]

A corporation isn't a retirement home, sad to say. People come, people go.

Zymurgist is a surprise since I actually met with him (he was our 'team lead' on the brainstorming session at Nashville summercamp), but good to see Headfirst and Dropbear will be sticking around.

I think CCP got a bit bloated and full of itself. Needs to deflate the hot air and refine the end product. This is a step towards that goal.

[Verone]

I think CCP got a bit bloated and full of itself. Needs to deflate the hot air and refine the end product. This is a step towards that goal.

Shame they're firing all the wrong people.

 

[Bacchanalian]

I think CCP got a bit bloated and full of itself. Needs to deflate the hot air and refine the end product. This is a step towards that goal.

Shame they're firing all the wrong people.

 

Emptyquotin'

[Julianus Soter]

Would you fire the people who create content? Or the ones that handle public relations? When considering the end product isn't on how many soothing devblogs you write or forum posts you make, but eve online's features, bug-hunting, and expansion into an awesome sci fi mmorpg, then the question becomes easy.

Once you start firing the people at the top, then you can't stop. You can chastise the people at the top, they can be made to make the walk of shame, as Hilmar has. . . but it's impossible to unwind the entire system at the top and hope to have anything working when you're done. Indirect admonishments need to be, and have been, made.

It's not pretty but that's business. In the end, corporations are vastly more vulnerable on a day to day basis for their survival, and must operate as such. When nation-states have issues, they just ask some consortium of banks and wealthy countries to bail them out, over and over and over again. Corporations don't have that benefit.

[Bacchanalian]

bug-hunting

I nearly choked on my drink.  Bug hunting?  They do that by releasing shit patches and waiting for the forum posts bitching about it.  For instance, the current "feature" where all of your windows resize/minimize on undock or dock.  Did not a single dev undock from station before releasing this patch?  Really? 

[Faraelle Brightman]

Perspective: of those getting the axe, we only know of maybe a dozen who are public-facing, out of 100+.  And we don't know if there are other reasons besides what we've been given (and I really don't feel comfortable putting the guy I know on the spot right now.  Maybe if we see each other next GDC and maybe if there's drinks involved).  The ones Eve players are upset about are a very small sample size.  It's very likely the majority were indeed WoD people, even if we can only confirm one of them.

I know firing Community team people looks bad but I'd rather hold back the torch and pitchfork in the absence of better info.

[Arkady Sadik]

Tell me TonyG is out, please?

[lallara zhuul]

If he is not... sheesh.