Joystiq article...

Could we please get a little 411/rumor control/verification, etc...?

Dungeon Runners isn't closing that I know of. No more info to share at this time.

steve

Thanks Steve - I debated posting this vs. sending you a PM, but I figured the general population would benefit from hearing something straight from the staff. I also saw that the rumor was debunked by a red name on a TR forum.

.

"rumor" "a trustworthy source" "a third party"

What is this, "The Enquirer?"

Of course, you never know; things can change really quickly, but that article shouldn't even have been written.

I also heard that Whitney Houston is laying off cocaine but that only shows that most rumors is just that: Rumors. Can't be trusted.

It really seems someone has it out for NCsoft. I've seen a few random articles over years that have made claims such as but not limited to.

-ncsoft will stop making dungeon runners
-ncsoft will stop making mmo's
-ncsoft will stop making videogames
-ncsoft will stop making software
-ncsoft will stop making anything
-ncsoft is filing for bankrupcy
-ncsoft is run by mind controlling aliens

I've had little data past tabloid like news site to confirm any of this, but I have confirmed that some psuedo-journalist out there really hates ncsoft on a personal level.

FAKE!

PS: dungeonrunners isnt gonna shut down on me

Well if its not true,then im glad.Ive already watched as Mythos closed down,so Id hate to see us lose DR as well.

I thought that was EA?

It is. Sims actually exist for real and have taking over the whole place. They live purely 'cause people still plays the game, giving them energy from the "Eat"-command.

Never ever ever trust rumors all of em are lies and stupid.

A harsh, but quite true description of rumors TK

WHile I had not heard DR was closing it has been reported today that both Cuppa and Crickette have been let go. Is this true? Is NCAustin really being closed and sent to the West Coast.

Yeah, we've lost some folks. Some official news will be coming shortly. It could be worse... I could have been lost.

steve

Since Crickette was the coordinator of the public beta test of the new forum software, what does her sudden exit from the company do to the future of this project?

I am sorry to hear this, both of them were good people to have here. Crickette will be missed as she was the most fun community person I have dealt with in my gaming history.

Umm.. Gosh, may I have a miracle right now.. Like.. now.. please?

Damn this sucks, and I want official stuff, this thread already got me 2 near-hartattacks, dont let me get a third one please.

Better grab the ntroglycerine LR....

8th post down from the top & most of page 4

*Cries out loud* Let me get this .... ffs, why now, why them, why anybody, why NCSoft?!?!

Got to be kidding me..

80% of the dev team let go? That sounds like too much.

Well, while this hits all of us close to home on a personal level, we need to take a deep breath and take a look at the bigger picture....

If the underlying runors aretrue that NCsoft took a hit of a 60% loss of Profit in one quarter that is not chump change or small potatoes..

The suits that only care about p/l and look at spreadsheets dont care to see the human side of this, they are just reacting as any other business would when faced with a loss of that magnitude. Looking for ways to cut costs will be SOP until the profit ship stops sinking....

If it's true that 80% of the DR Dev Team got the Axe, Stephen said it right "It could be worse... I could have been lost"

Pretty soon we'll see Karl holding a sign that reads "Spare change for some instagank?"

NOTHING BUT IDLE SPECULATION BEFORE STEPHEN GAVE US OFFICIAL WORD

Post deleted by Cthulhu

NcSoft should have just cut the Albatross that is TR and moved forward. The claim is they cut people from DR that were working on the porting of DR to other platforms, well thats pretty much a lie since both Crickette and Cuppa were cut and neither of them were devs working on porting were they?

http://www.planettr.com/forums/showp...;postcount=106

THis links to what I guess is the official word.

Wow...

Can anyone (devs please) explain me why exactly Crickette and Cuppajo are affected by this not porting to platform thing..?

major bummer

Alrighty...

80% is a bit high. We lost 13 of the 18 people working on the game. By my calculations, that is 72.22%. So, it's not as bad as it seems.

The five remaining folks are:

Stephen Nichols- Producer / Lead Programmer
Scott Stevens - Senior Programmer
Mark Tucker - Lead Designer
Brandon Cotton - Senior Designer
James Cleaveland - Technical Artist

As you might imagine, we're reeling from this right now. It's gonna take us a while to get our stuff together and regroup for future efforts.

Thankfully, our new build is in QA and is progressing nicely. So, that's a good thing.

steve

Okay.. Final hartattack right now. Id like to wish the devs that got the axe good luck in life, I hope they find a good job very soon. *Silence*

To me the not porting sounds like an NCsoft excuse and not the real reason. Sorry but I fail to see why the Community relations person would get let go because of not porting. Sounds like they did not port because of money issues and when things get tight the community relations are usually the first to get cut.

Does this mean we will be seeing a lot less additions to the game in the future? I know the next build/update is well along but what about after that?

I can't tell you future plans yet as we're still in shock on this. It's gonna take some time to work out future plans.

However, it stands to reason that losing 72% of the team will impact how much we can deliver.

steve

Hey Steve, what are the forum names of the remaining people? We know them by those more then their "real Life" names...besides yours that is...

I'm only aware of two of us that are on the forums. Me and MarkT.

steve

On a positive note that means 40% of the dev team are on the forums

Yes I know that losing 72% will mean it is harder to produce future content. I guess what I was really asking is, will we ever see content or is the game now down to the Maintenance group? I know it is too early for an answer.

You'd be surprised what five folks can do. We will defintely keep adding to the game.

steve

Damn...

Best of luck to the people that got fired, and a big thanks for contributing to this game we all love.

Here's hoping that DR succeeds in bringing in more members, and more money for the greedy NCsuits, so that all those guys and gals can be rehired again soon.

Damn...

Wow... losing 72% of the team is quite a blow. Best wishes and hopes to the 72%, and especially good luck in your search for a new job!

It can always be worse, but this sounds bad enough from where I'm standing. Aside from now having a team of five, there's always a significant amount of stress around work-force reductions (fancy word for "layoffs"), regardless of whether you're the one being reduced, or your co-worker of several years is.

Regroup away. It could have been worse.

I'm definitely going to miss some folks, especially Crickette, Anson and Zliten, all of whom I've chatted with or corresponded with fairly regularly I didn't see any QA in your list, but I don't know if Dooms was exclusive to DR - I'll miss him, too, if he's gone

Best wishes to those affected by the RIF and I hope you land on you feet soon.

The good news, for those remaining on the team and for the players, is that DR wasn't canceled. I've seen what you can do with a pretty small team, and it's pretty cool, so hopefully you can make this work and turn it into something even better!

I hope they can continue to provide us a fun game in the future, but I have to wonder if part of the reason they cut to 5 and did not cancel the game is the box giving 6 months game time. My gut tells me cancelling now would have led to a lawsuit.

NOOO No one leave the staff again.

It's gonna go down to one person then DR is gonna die.

Best of wishes to everyone remaining and to everyone no longer with the team. I'm sad to hear it, but I'll keep looking forward and hope for better news in the future.

I'll be honest here... I can't post what I want to post right now, as I'd get banned from the forums for the language.

But to say that I'm really, REALLY angry with NCSoft right now would be an understatement.

The odd part for me is I do or have played just about every game NCsoft is involved with and of the ones in Austin I would have expected TR to take the big hit today. Since the box came out for DR I thought, from what I had seen in game that this game was growing a bit and TR was the sinking ship.

Not that TR is doing well. From their current Quarterly report TR looks to be in the 35k active subs area, and that is not exactly healthy in the MMO world.

I guess this answers my question: Board Migration Coming Tomorrow

I'm lost for words........

Wow... I am going to have to copy Liquid for the most part. Just...

Best of luck to the great people that were foolishly let go and to those who remain to stay the fort.

Now, to all players, members and non: Be patient! The development team just took a big hit, but they are still pushing forward. The last thing they need right now are complaints for new content or gripes of current issues. Hysteria helps no one.

I realize that no one is doing this yet, but I have seen it happen in other places. Especially in a few weeks or so after this news has settled down.