The wounds haven’t even begun healing from the announcement earlier today that Carbine Studios would be cutting as much as 40% of its work force, and according to insider reports the layoffs are not complete. In fact, if this source is to be believed, NCSoft has already made the decision to pull the plug. According to an article on Polygon, employees were notified following today’s layoffs that more are to be expected in the run up to the game’s closure later this year.
NCSoft later responded to the article, confirming not only the layoffs but that the plans to launch Wildstar in China have been scrapped. Despite this, the publisher is still standing by its claim that it remains committed to continued operations in North America and Europe.
Earlier this morning, Carbine Studios completed a reorganization of its operating structure. Moving forward, the studio will focus on operating and updatingWildStar as a live game in the US and Europe. As part of this change, the studio has canceled its plans to bring WildStar to China.
It’s interesting to note that it was just a few days ago in 2008 that producer Starr Long posted a statement to assure players that NCSoft was still committed to Tabula Rasa before announcing it shuttering later that year. See if you can find the similarities between Long’s statements regarding layoffs in 2008:
“Once all is said and done, we will still have a substantial live team for industry standards… NCsoft has committed a lot of money and resources into continuing post-launch development of Tabula Rasa.”
And NCSoft’s statement to Polygon today.
“As for WildStar, we remain committed to the game. Over the next few weeks and months we will deliver a significant update to the game, kick off a variety of community events, and continue our work on new content that we will talk more about in the near future.”
In my previous coverage of Wildstar, I noted that the game’s future rests heavily on a successful Chinese launch. With those dreams shattered, perhaps the Wildstar community should begin shopping around for a new home.
At this point in the timeline, it looks like the upcoming China launch may be Wildstars best, and only, bet at salvation. Assuming NCSoft is willing to shoulder the title to that milestone, we’ll likely be hearing in 2017 about whether or not this title goes on the chopping block.
(Source: Polygon)
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