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I wrote yesterday of some fairly major layoffs happening at CCP which is cutting its staff by 20 percent. Today CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson has taken full responsibility for the matter. "This is a major thing, and it's something which it is my responsibility to avoid," an emotional Petursson told Gamasutra.
CCP, the creators of popular MMO Eve Online, has seen itself stretched thin by developing PS3 first-person shooter Dust 514 and beginning work on World of Darkness, an MMO stemming from CCP's partnership with White Wolf games back in 2006.
World of Darkness will now be put on the backburner, and teamed by a smaller group of people while CCP refocuses work on the core games in its arsenal.
"We have good people remaining here, which are going to advance World of Darkness on a much slower pace. So we still very much have an operation here in Atlanta, but it's much smaller than it was before. It's about 100 people that are here remaining, working on customer support and World of Darkness, but they are also adding value to EVE Online this winter, and there will also be a team here working on Dust as well."
For their part, CCP is doing its best to make sure that employees who have found themselves jobless find a new place to work. CCP is offering contacts, resume help, and in some cases calling CEO's of other development studios directly to find their ex-employees new jobs.
"We're doing a lot of things," he said. "I've personally been contacted by many CEOs in the industry which have offered to help with finding employment for the people who are leaving, and that's a great thing to see. So we are connecting people with our industry friends, we are helping them with their resumes, we are helping them to make contacts, and things like that."
In many ways CCP is a company beginning to re-find itself. After rolling out a handful of features which were met with ill from the community (which led to Petursson issuing an apology to the community), and now stretching itself thin to the point of layoffs, they are beginning to focus on what made CCP great to begin with. Honestly, it's not often you see a CEO act with such humility at the missteps of a company, and a company going so far out of its way to ensure that fired employees land back on their feet. It's refreshing, and acts as a good starting point for a company trying to find its way again.
Comments
13 years, 1 month ago
That's cool of CCP to help the ex-employees out with getting them new jobs. Its sad that the layoffs occured though.
13 years, 1 month ago
The smaller companies are always the most humble. This is not only true because they have a smaller, more critical audience to lose if they mess up, but also because they often start their companies at the same level as their communities.
Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?
13 years, 1 month ago
CCP's is a good company, but it's MMOG is not fun. Others may disagree, but I tried to start that game 3 times over the course of 5 years. Only once was a helped out as a new player and that was the second time. The featured filled start up was since removed. The other 2 times I watched players steal my ore. Instead of a 'own' container, players must buy a password container at a high cost. This isn't possible for new players, and mining is their main source of income. Veteran players may say 'I did it that way,' but CCP's 'apology to the community' and these layoffs are a statement. EVE treats new players as their M to it's S and rushes out half, to less than half, finished features. I tried play EVE many times and love space games, but CCP has to pick it up.
13 years, 1 month ago
that sucks that this had to happen for them to realize how bad they screwed up, but hopefully they'll start turning around. great article joseph.
13 years, 1 month ago
sucks the layoffs happened
13 years, 1 month ago
I played EVE for about 18 months and am one of the people who quit due to the changes and direction CCP was taking. Unlike a lot of the community, I wasn't overly vocal. I just quietly cancelled my account and moved on.
It really is a shame to see such a large portion of CCP lose their jobs but to see CCP doing SO much to still help those people, combined with how the latest patch notes show the direction of the game is beginning to head back to where players wanted it, fills me wit hope for CCP and their games.
It's behaviour like this that I wished we could see more in the industry. It really sucks people lost their jobs but CCP's attitude about all this is also one of the reasons I could easily see them winning me back to playing EVE.