[LynxMukka]

You can view the article at https://ufplanets.com/content.php?61...t-PerfectWorld

[Noram]

Again, it's sad to say Cryptic losing employees, but I can't say I'm surprised

[Cranker]

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.

[Bridger]

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.

[Dark]

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.

[Bridger]

Both they have problems in the western an asian region.

[Sysil]

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.

[Cranker]

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.

[Cranker]

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.

[Savadious]

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

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...

[wolffin]

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.