[Jestersmith]

Seen lurking with snippets in various places here and there, u/Fillychceeze has revealed himself with a brief update, hinting at potentially promising developments. Time will tell for certain.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comment...ome_say_hello/

[Stormy]

If he is true to his word, this is promising. That's all I'll say for now.

[darthnovawave]

To add some context here for those who haven't followed along with an earlier Reddit post or the Discord chat, Phil Frazier is the CEO of Cryptic Studios. Hopefully with the top boss directly addressing the community instead of content creators and other people reading the tea leaves of LinkedIn statuses and whatnot, they'll ease some of the community unrest.

[ForTheGamer]

It is at least reassuring that STO is going to continue running and we don't have to worry about it shutting its doors after the move. At least, not right away anyways. Considering how much STO has managed to survive to this point, it'll probably manage to continue on even at DECA.

I'm just sad that Phil states that he would like to keep Thomas Marrone, but from the tone of some of the post, Thomas probably is gone. I could be reading into that too much, but it seems to me that's probably the case. Which sucks, but understandable as well. After all, if the job expectations have changed, it might not be what Thomas would like anymore.

Hope I worded that last paragraph right. Reading it back it seems off. That said, here's hoping to like another 15 years.

[Chervil]

I'm just sad that Phil states that he would like to keep Thomas Marrone, but from the tone of some of the post, Thomas probably is gone. I could be reading into that too much, but it seems to me that's probably the case. Which sucks, but understandable as well. After all, if the job expectations have changed, it might not be what Thomas would like anymore.

I agree, especially after reading this from him in that same thread:

"Regarding the leadership questions - Cryptic remains at the helm as DECA is getting up to speed. They will take control at some point and will identify appropriate discipline leadership. They already have art and design leadership in place, but it's too soon in the transition for them to express their vision."


That makes me think that either negotiations with him stalled early, or possibly they wanted their own people to be in charge and he would have taken a lower position than he wanted. Either way, it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months.

I do know from other things that were said in that thread, the time difference is also likely a huge issue for some current Cryptic staff. A lot of them are on PST, and with DECA being in Berlin, that's a 9 hr time difference. Apparently DECA would require employees to be available to work during the company's local normal working hours, so that means basically a transfer to late-night shift. Which I am sure would be a huge factor for a lot of people.

[darthnovawave]

It is probably a combination of timezones as well as labor costs here based on the blurbs Phil has dropped so far. Yes, it would be an adjustment to basically convert to being a second/third shift worker instead of typical 1st shift business hours, but if that were the only thing then we'd probably see more people staying.

The other piece that seems to be in play are the comments around Cryptic transferring their games to DECA, which implies that at some point in the future Cryptic will be absorbed/dissolved once the DECA team is fully staffed and trained. Since DECA is building up their own team, they are probably looking at labor costs too. Game dev salaries are significantly higher in the US and Canada than anywhere else in the world, so for the cost of the Cryptic team they might be able to hire a team 2x the size or more from European countries, India, etc., or keep a similar sized team and boost bottom line sales figures for STO and the other games notably. I'd be shocked if DECA isn't opening these opportunities to Cryptic employees, but they probably don't pay as well as their current Cryptic jobs, which is why the vast majority of Cryptic employees are hunting for greener pastures to maintain their current living standards.

In the short term, things feel bleak since all these developer names we've associated with the game for years are all leaving, and with them is going a massive amount of working knowledge about the game code. That said, it also means we'll see a lot of new people coming in and with them new ideas that might breathe some new life into the game, and if they do have more overall devs we might get to see more content or at least more QA polish on the same volume of content before it drops. It is going to be rough in the shorter term as the DECA team learns the ropes, but it might be a positive for the game potentially in the long run. There will most likely be bugs and missteps along the way...but how is that different than every single patch we've seen for years now?

I think these games still have years of life left to them and will still see development happening for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, we'll just have to wait and see how things go as it moves into this next phase of its development life.

[Arno12]

I'm gonna take a wait and see on this one, While its nice that the new CEO is being open now, I am hesitant to see what they actually do.

[ForTheGamer]

Ah, I didn't see about the time zone thing. If they do want it to be during working hours, the other possibility is they don't allow for remote work either, which means if you want to do further work you have to be at the office. So yeah... That's just frustrating.

[Jestersmith]

With any luck, he can be brought in on occasion as a consultant. Initially, people speculated that this move was simply maintenance mode, given Decca's background. However, I choose to believe that this move is as much about stepping away from that and into the Console and PC market. STO and other Cryptic titles provide the perfect stepping stone for this.

I'm not going to get overly excited, but I am less apprehensive about the future being as bleak as we initially thought.

[Mack]

To be honest, from the chatter I hear in the industry about Embracer Group - especially on some of the recent meetings I've been in, being moved to DECA was a best case scenario and a lifeline.

It's not ideal, but from a bigger picture perspective its more like, you live to fight another day.

[Sorotia]

Could be good or bad, time will tell

Hopefully they will put more effort behind things that aren't bundles and gamble boxes

[Bridger]

[LegateImperator]

Honestly, I can see good coming of the whole thing. I don't think STO will be going anywhere anytime soon.

[ForTheGamer]

Yeah, it mostly seems to be a good thing. It just however is frustrating because it'll likely mean for the first year under DECA, it'll be a lot of speed bumps and handing over. So I wouldn't think we'll see any definite DECA decisions until at least then. Like this year from now until next year will be that transition period. So STO's still alive for at least a few more years and we'll likely get content for that. After those few years is when we'll know if it stays alive after that.