Guild Wars creator leaves NCsoft West

By Oli Welsh Published 12 August, 2009

Preisdent and ArenaNet co-founder departs.

Jeff Strain, a founder of Guild Wars developer ArenaNet who became a senior executive of NCsoft West in its reorganisation, has left the company, according to MMORPG.com.

Strain's departure coincides with that of marketing man David Reid, although NCsoft said this was an "unrelated and separate event".

"Jeff Strain... has chosen to leave NCsoft under amicable terms and NCsoft wishes him the best in his new endeavour," said NCsoft West in a statement." This does not change our plans or negatively impact our upcoming launch of Aion... These changes do not influence any other teams, development schedules or other launches."

Strain became the president of product development at NCsoft West last year, when the Korean MMO company reorganised its North American and European operations. The move signalled a shift in power towards ArenaNet, whose Guild Wars had sold well for NCsoft, and away from Richard and Robert Garriott after the high-profile failure of Tabula Rasa.

Strain co-founded ArenaNet in 2000 after leaving Blizzard, where he'd been a programmer on Diablo II, StarCraft and Warcraft III, with fellow Blizzard alumni Mike O'Brien and Patrick Wyatt. The three went on to spearhead the development of Guild Wars.

O'Brien is still at ArenaNet, overseeing the development of Guild Wars 2, while Wyatt stays on as chief technology officer of NCsoft West.

Guild Wars 2 is still under wraps, but NCsoft West has its first game launch since reorganisation - the western version of Aion: The Tower of Eternity - next month.

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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 (9) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • ZuluHero #1 3 years ago

    Aww - hope this doesn’t affect GW2. And when they say "amicable" are we talking really amicable or Richard Gariott amicable?
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/09 @ 11:10

  • WinterSnowblind #2 3 years ago

    Guild Wars 2 is beginning to sound more and more like vapour ware.
    It was originally supposed to release next year, and we still haven't had even a scrap of information, concept art or anything.

    Edit: According to the GW forums, this guy wasn't directly involved in GW2 anyway, and there's apparantly news coming soon..
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/09 @ 11:17

  • Hantheman #3 3 years ago

    Preisdent?

  • ZuluHero #4 3 years ago

    Nah, Its not vapour - it was the same with GWs and Aion and alot of NCsoft MMOs. They really keep their cards to the chest and you won't see anything about it until the game is in its final stages before release. We all know that releasing early footage or too much information can be really damaging to a game, and this is magnified tenfold for MMOs.

    There has been concept art, btw :)

  • Anufea #5 3 years ago

    Mike O'Brien's take on it (he and Strain were both co-founders of ArenaNet):

    Jeff's departure

    Hi all,
    I wanted to take a moment to offer my personal note on Jeff's departure.
    Jeff is a personal friend of mine. We worked together very closely from the time he joined Blizzard in 1996, through our founding of ArenaNet in 2000, until he left ArenaNet to join NCsoft West in 2008. I'm sad to see him leaving NCsoft now. We remain good friends and I wish him great success in his next endeavor.
    It's important to understand that ArenaNet is a separate and self-contained development studio. Jeff hasn't been involved in the day-to-day development of Guild Wars 2 since he left ArenaNet more than a year ago, and I don't expect his departure to have a direct impact on our studio or on Guild Wars 2. I continue to lead ArenaNet, and I'm not going anywhere.
    We have an amazing team here at ArenaNet, and we continue to work hard on Guild Wars 2, preparing for the day when we can first reveal it to the world. That day is coming very soon now. I'm confident that, when you see Guild Wars 2 for the first time, you're going to love what you see, and any worries you have about its development will fade away.
    --Mike O'Brien 01:56, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

  • ZuluHero #6 3 years ago

    Thanks for that Anufea :)

  • Azazel #7 3 years ago

    Heh, the press release amounts to: "Man leaves. Affects Nothing."

    Looking forward to Guild Wars 2. May take a dip into the original again and check what birthday presents I have accumulated :)

  • kestral #8 3 years ago

    This does not change our plans or negatively impact our upcoming launch of Aion... These changes do not influence any other teams, development schedules or other launches."

    Makes you wonder what these guys do then if they have no impact on anything ;) Joking aside, good luck!

  • Nephirion #9 3 years ago

    * Waves