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The CEO of NCSoft, owner of the site, says the current situation is not sustainable, he is considering cross-cutting and merging the publishing divisions.
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In a month already overshadowed by the massive layoffs at Activision-Blizzard, it seems that the developer ArenaNet Guild Wars 2 is heading in the same direction soon. According to one According to the Kotaku report from an internal source at the studio, ArenaNet is expected to soon face a large number of staff members throughout the organization.
According to the source, an email was sent to employees earlier in the day by Songyee Yoon, CEO of ArenaNet's parent company, NCSoft. "Revenues from our live gaming business are decreasing as our franchises age, PC and mobile development delays have created additional losses over our revenue plans, while our operating costs in the West have increased, "he says. "What we are is not sustainable and will not prepare us for future success."
The e-mail then indicated that the company would reduce costs and completely restructure ArenaNet and merge the ArenaNet Publishing division with that of NCSoft. Mike O'Brien, CEO of ArenaNet, has set a meeting of employees later in the day to provide more information on impending layoffs.
In September, ArenaNet employed approximately 400 people for a variety of projects, although the main goal of the studio was Guild Wars 2 and later extensions. The latest, Path of Fire, was released in 2017.
Update: In a statement provided to GamesIndustry.bizArenaNet confirmed that some staff reductions were planned, although the number of people involved was not specified.
"We can confirm that due to the cancellation of non-advertised projects, ArenaNet will proceed with a reduction of staff," the statement said. "This is part of a broader organizational restructuring within NCSOFT in the West, but Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 game services will not be affected, and no future gaming content will will be canceled. "
In addition, several current and former ArenaNet employees have offered additional details on Twitter. Jennifer Scheurle, chief designer of the video game, said Twitter feed that "we are not immediately dispelled, the decisions are pending".
"ArenaNet has been very, very transparent with us today at meetings, which I really appreciate," she added.
The former Guild Wars 2 reporter, Jessica Price (who had been released last year after an exchange on Twitter) said the layoffs were "not surprising" and added details about other projects going on behind the scenes of the company last year.
"[ArenaNet] had two major projects in the works when I was there. One of them was suspended indefinitely while I was still there. For those of us who work on GW2, our mandate was essentially to give the impression that the same level of resources was devoted to GW2, as they regularly moved people to join other projects.
"It was bad enough that at one point we were told that we could only have one cinematic for Ep5 (All or Nothing), which, since it was the culmination of season and had heavier emotional beats than anything we had done (at least while I was there), was devastating. "
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