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Redundancies at PerfectWorld affects Star Trek Online and Neverwinter

A series of layoffs have occurred at PerfectWorld Entertainment, bringing concern amongst STO players.

By LynxMukka Tue 17 Mar, 2015 10:18 PM - Last Updated: Sun 03 Apr, 2016 11:23 PM
It has been revealed today via MassivelyOP, that a total of 18 people have been let go from Cryptic Studios (around 14% of the total employees).


An anonymous source at Cryptic Studios has stated that half of the layoffs were employees working on Neverwinter, and the other half were from other areas, including Star Trek Online. Matt Miller, former City of Heroes lead designer, took to Twitter earlier today to announce his layoff from the studio. It is also suspected that Star Trek Online's current community manager 'TheCaptainSmirk' is among those who have been let go.

The anonymous source revealed that "[Cryptic's] secret projects are unaffected, they're a big focus for the company moving forward." This has lead many to speculate that future focus is being shifted away from Star Trek Online towards other announced projects. It is suspected that the layoff decision largely came from Cryptic Studio's owner, Perfect World Entertainment.

Several of our members have stated their concern that the recent announcement on the Iconians becoming the new prominent nemesis in the game is a signal that things aren't going so well. What's your opinion on the current state of affairs? Post in the comments section below.

UFPlanets.com has reached out to Cryptic Studios for more information and is awaiting a response.

WRITTEN BY LYNXMUKKA - STEFANO.ELIA@UFPLANETS.COM
EDITED BY SHARPKILLER - CAM.TURKOWSKI@UFPLANETS.COM

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10 Comments
Wed 18 Mar, 2015 12:47 AM
Again, it's sad to say Cryptic losing employees, but I can't say I'm surprised
Wed 18 Mar, 2015 1:03 AM
MMORPG fans will recall that Cryptic has pulled at least one developer from live projects to work on unannounced games. Those projects will continue: “The secret projects are unaffected,” says our source. “They’re a big focus for the company moving forward.”

Champions Online “is being left to chug along,” our source says. “It doesn’t take much to keep it afloat.”

-massivelyop

The Delta XP super boost, the Iconians....the lack of the cardassian race that was in motion...it sounds like PWE is gonna just let STO stew in current content. Looking from what one site said, champions is pretty much dead, STO and Neverwinter lost 9 people each, and they had already pulled people into the new project.

Matt Miller was a huge loss, although I think he was in community relations and not development which is a shame, and I know he had previously tweeted that he was trying to get involved in another company re-opening city of heroes servers. I hope he can achieve that because that was a great MMO. I'm not sure what the life timers will deal with, because PWE obviously isn't too concerned about STO. I wish they'd just sell the license and the game rights to a company like Mystic that has a better track record (Warhammer, DAoC) but Cryptic keeps being handed around and I think a lot of it was that they tried to do champions and sto at the same time and tried to balance both at the same time, and neither turned out like city of heroes. In all honesty if they had dropped champions which was a disaster from day 1 and focused more on STO, more episodes, more balancing, more focus on endgame and pvp apart from stfs, they might keep the 2 week in 2 month out crowd that they have attracted.

I think they are simply looking at the bottom line and not the potential. They haven't exactly made giant leaps to get people to come back that have left.

When Atari sold Cryptic in (2011?) it was losing somewhere in the realm of 7 million a year between champions and sto.

PWE's revenue has been minimal since they got involved.
Fri 20 Mar, 2015 5:45 PM
We already knew that PWE was not doing too well, and let's be fair if STO is their best running game than they got a major hit since Delta Rising.

I think they start to feel the loss of so many players now, and I can only hope the will address what the players want sooner than later.
Fri 20 Mar, 2015 5:58 PM
The last dev blog with Matt Miller's name on it has him credited as a content designer.

I'm kind of surprised STO is their lead, is that just for North America? PWI had a lot of people back when I played, and they have a ton of these F2P MMOs.
Fri 20 Mar, 2015 6:07 PM
Both they have problems in the western an asian region.
Fri 20 Mar, 2015 6:13 PM
Originally Posted by Bridger
I think they start to feel the loss of so many players now, and I can only hope the will address what the players want sooner than later.
I don't think they'll do that. My opinion on the future of STO is that they will finish the Iconian storyline and then the game will go on maintenance mode, just like Champions Online is right now. Cryptic will then be able to concentrate on Neverwinter and whatever new project they have.

I don't have anything to support this apart from a gut feeling and Cryptic squeezing every penny from every player.
Fri 20 Mar, 2015 8:43 PM
Originally Posted by Sysil
I don't think they'll do that. My opinion on the future of STO is that they will finish the Iconian storyline and then the game will go on maintenance mode, just like Champions Online is right now. Cryptic will then be able to concentrate on Neverwinter and whatever new project they have.

I don't have anything to support this apart from a gut feeling and Cryptic squeezing every penny from every player.
That's what I believe too.

As for your statement about STO, I think you are confusing cryptic and pwe, which bought cryptic after atari was posting a 7.5 million dollar a year loss on STO and Champions. Cryptics best game is probably STO, but Neverwinter has been around forever. I think they are just hitting a brick wall and hoping that PWE is looking at it's finance books (which I did as well) and I wouldn't be shocked if PWE sold cryptic off or closed it down altogether. Other than their new project they have been cutting staff for a while, this last jump was just a huge one. But let's be totally honest here. Apart from adding a few new episodes, in 5 years the amount of content that has been added is about 1/20th of what a game like warcraft does in an expansion. While they have the financial power behind them, and I'm not comparing the games, there is more content in the original Warcraft without expansions than in almost any other MMO in existence, and you can spend hundreds of hours on quests and I played for years and never met anyone that actually played them all.

F2P since it's beginning has been built on the fastest way to make a buck every few months, not content. STO in the beginning was an unfinished mess, but at least it's main focus was content since they already had a revenue stream.
Fri 20 Mar, 2015 8:48 PM
Originally Posted by Dark
The last dev blog with Matt Miller's name on it has him credited as a content designer.
I saw that but they had him listed as Community Lead on the MOP site, which could be taken as a lead content designer, or they could have moved him because they knew they'd be dropping him, he was probably high on the payroll because of his background, and I do hope he finds some place. Anyone who played City of Heroes knows he really kept that game running for as long as it did, to the point that there's a grassroots movement to reopen the servers from hardcore fans.
Tue 24 Mar, 2015 10:01 PM
Well - it may be hot air and all but on this side of the planet PWE can be compared to a cable tv channel.

Lets say HBO

There are many shows on HBO.... and if ONE SHOW has falling numbers it does not mean the entire HBO station will go kaput Cool

Under the PWE banner there are a score of games that I never heard of as a gamer in California, USA... but when I went to Asia (as they are an asian company - or so Asian locals are led to believe)... WOW... there are sometimes multiple internet cafes on each city block... and they exist 100% due to "tv channels" / companies such as PWE...

If PWE ever tanks... you can put money on it that asian governments will actually bail them out .... or entire Asian countries will lose countless jobs due to internet cafe closures.

EXAMPLE: I live 1 mile from a shopping mall in Asia. If I walk to the mall from my subdivision I will literally pass at least 15 internet cafes...

yes.. 15 internet gaming cafes in 1 MILE STRETCH OF ROAD !!!
Most are the size of the garage of your average American house. Some smaller...

but MOST CONSTANTLY REMAIN AT MAX CAPACITY.

SO dont worry... PWE is not going anywhere.... lets just hope THEY dont cancel OUR FAVORITE TV SHOW/STO... Thumbs up

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Thu 26 Mar, 2015 9:51 PM
People around the net are over reacting to the PWE layoffs. The sky is not falling. Devs get brought in for projects and moved around, eventually getting laid off. Happens all the time. I like smirk but it was only a matter of time for them to replace him. Anyone who has ever watched him on a twitch event knows the guy just doesn't know much about how to play the game. STO is a bread winner for PWE the only way there going to pull the plug on STO any time soon would be CBS's doing. 1794674 329059927274116 798199366755751735 n zpshwcihbde