EA job cuts rumoured at Mythic

By Oli Welsh Published 20 January, 2009

WAR developer next to suffer?

The grapevine has told Joystiq that Warhammer Online developer Mythic Entertainment is the latest victim of EA's massive job cuts.

The rumour suggests that 21 customer service employees were made redundant, along with half of the quality assurance department and all of the playtest group at the EA-owned MMO developer.

Joystiq contacted EA for comment but was only reminded of the big picture: a company-wide "cost-cutting initiative" that would see 1000 employees, or 10 per cent of the workforce, laid off.

If true, the news needn't impact the future of Warhammer Online at all, although the lack of support staff may prove frustrating for players, and the stability of future updates may suffer. Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine recently made similar cuts to QA and customer support, as did Age of Conan developer Funcom.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    Quick, everyone complain as much as possible to jusify the staff! That way, you're helping people keep their jobs. I doubt it'd work like that though.

  • Rizo #2 3 years ago

    So are we at the point where we admit WAR was a flop? Don't see them mentioning subscriber rates anymore!

  • DFawkes #3 3 years ago

    I don't think you could call it a flop based on them letting people go, since a lot of companies are. I'd certainly not call it a flop, flops tend to to badly from the start - I can't remember Tabula Rasa ever doing all that well.

    It is a bit too quiet on the WAR front though. My local HMV has a special edition sitting on the shelf, which is very pricey but I'm so tempted, if it weren't for the lack of people I know playing it.

  • qoobah #4 3 years ago

    @DFawkes: They supposedly merged a lot of servers, so the population issue shouldn't be as painful as it was when I was playing. It's still not enough to justify a re-sub for me - this game lacked the open-world epicness I enjoy the most in MMOs and of which WoW is still the king, sadly.

    And yeah I don't really think the layoffs are due to WAR doing badly, it's happening everywhere. It's TEH CRAISIS after all.

  • Rizo #5 3 years ago

    WAR seems to be going the same route as Conan did. Lots of box sales to begin with and then a slow drain on subs as people get bored!

    Which results in server merges!

    Am i wrong?

  • anomagnus #6 3 years ago

    @ rizo

    you're right, its BOUND to be the game flopping, and nothing to do with the current global economic downturn

    heres a piece of knowledge for you, when the shit hits the fan economically, customer service is always the first thing to be cut. It costs money without making it.

  • qoobah #7 3 years ago

    @Rizo

    There were too many servers at launch to begin with, merges would have to happen even if WAR had 100% sub retention rate.

    That aside, what you write (lots of boxed sales, then slow drain in number of subs) holds true for every MMO out there, it's also true that after a while, if the MMO isn't all shit some subscribers start to come back. All that, and WAR had unfair competition in the form of WotLK, and faced unreasonable expectations made by some people - that it would somehow be such a success it'll topple WoW.

    WAR doen't have this spark that makes WoW a magical, addicting experience for a lot of people, it doesn't have nearly half the level of polish and thought put into the design of the game. The drop in sub rate is naturally reflecting that, as it should.

    All this doesn't make it a flop. Some people prefer what WAR has to offer in terms of gameplay, and are quite happy with it despite the lack of polish and some issues, and apparently it's enough people to keep the game afloat and growing. So it really isn't a flop - it's just reality meeting with gamers' view of it.
    Edited by 1 at 20/01/09 @ 10:28

  • levitate #8 3 years ago

    And so it has begun....

  • sneetch #9 3 years ago

    @Rizo
    WAR seems to be going the same route as Conan did. Lots of box sales to begin with and then a slow drain on subs as people get bored!

    Which results in server merges!

    Am i wrong?

    I don't know, do you have a source for any of that? Or is it one of those "everyone knows" things (i.e. purely the posters opinion poorly backed up by stuff that "seems to be";)?

    I haven't heard about server merges but the population on my server is definitely up so it's not a bad thing. These games can do very well with about 250,000 players (although people seem to forget that, thinking that unless you're in the millions like WoW then it's a failure).

    In these kind of games I believe a lot of people more or less just dip their foot in with no real long-term plans to keep playing it. In the case of WAR I think a lot played the first "free" month while waiting for WOTLK to come out. I know two people who started it with that express objective and neither has actually bought WOTLK. I on the other hand bought WAR and also got WOTLK, installed it, ran about on my level 70 for about an hour, thought it was very nice and very pretty and then cancelled my WoW account and logged onto WAR again, it took me longer to install and patch it than it did to play it, now if I were as irrational as others on this site I'd be posting that as a sure sign that WoW was failing but I'm not, so I know it's probably just me and a few other malcontents who did that.

    As anomagnus correctly pointed out "customer service is always the first thing to be cut. It costs money without making it."

  • sneetch #10 3 years ago

    @qoobah
    WAR doen't have this spark that makes WoW a magical, addicting experience for a lot of people, it doesn't have nearly half the level of polish and thought put into the design of the game. The drop in sub rate is naturally reflecting that, as it should.

    That's true, about the polish, I'd disagree that less thought was put into the game as I think it has a far better design in many ways (I'm sure Blizzard are busy copying those areas as we speak/type) but people seem to forget that it took WoW quite a while to get to the level of polish and content that it has now, the guys in WAR will get there too.

  • hula hoops #11 3 years ago

    I am surprised people still play WAR!

  • qoobah #12 3 years ago

    That's true, about the polish, I'd disagree that less thought was put into the game as I think it has a far better design in many ways (I'm sure Blizzard are busy copying those areas as we speak/type) but people seem to forget that it took WoW quite a while to get to the level of polish and content that it has now, the guys in WAR will get there too.

    Well I agree that WAR is more innovative, with weight put on a different element of gameplay, and that Blizz will likely rip off some of Mythics ideas at some point - and while at it, they will polish it till it shines, and thats the main difference between the two companies.

    Being innovative doesn't equal delivering a well thought-through product - WAR has great ideas, but I'd argue that implementation is severely lacking. Take keeps for example - it's all fine and dandy, the decision to put the shape of the battlefront into the hands of players is a very good one, but how long till it gets stale? Raiding the same keeps, repeating the same battle scheme over and over. And it's not a question of adding more PQ's to RvR lakes, or new siege weapon types - it's the gameplay mechanic, one that limits players to it and doesn't allow for growth of content and diversification on it's basis, thats flawed here. It's an example of a great idea, but one that is not thought-through well enough to be delivered with greatness. I cheer for WAR as I'm much more keen to PvP centric games as opposed to the PvE juggernaut out there, but I fear that decisions like this one will ultimately block it's own growth.
    Edited by 1 at 20/01/09 @ 12:21

  • linksdad #13 3 years ago

    WAR wasnt as finished as it could be at release, the beta was too short so there were too many problems that werent mitigated for. It was released too early and will pay the price that every mmorpg that is released to early has.

    WOW was the only exception in terms of feature completion and a minimal level of bugs at release and they have reaped the rewards. Saying that I also spent more time patching and installing lich king than I did playing it before I cancelled. There are just to many quality games on the xbox to tie myself down to a monthly grind.

  • bdc #14 3 years ago

    Beginning of the end for Warhammer

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #15 3 years ago

    Note it's a rumour only, plus with the economical turndown it's due to be expected, plus bare in mind Mythic control THREE MMOs for EA not just WAR, plus Mark has commented on other boards stating it's not really affecting WAR itself 'if' cuts are being make in fact he's stated that WAR's subcripion numbers have increased from the early months..

    So with all you 'THE END IS NEAR!' ppl, do some research if you want to troll properly and find facts to doom us with not rumours

  • actionfitz #16 3 years ago

    "Turbine recently made similar cuts to QA and customer support, as did Age of Conan developer Funcom. "

    LOL @ Funcom CUTTING thier customer support.
    hahahahah.