After a short period of social media rumour, according to TheMittani.com, an official statement released by CCP Games spokesman Ned ‘CCP Manifest’ Coker has confirmed that a number of employees from the US offices in Atlanta, Georgia have been laid off.
The statement was as follows:
CCP today made strategic adjustments to the staffing on the team working on the World of Darkness project in Atlanta that resulted in the elimination of approximately 15 positions at the company. The change was due to our evaluation of the game’s design and ongoing development needs. While this was a difficult decision, CCP remains committed to the franchise and our promise to make a compelling, rich, and deep World of Darkness experience.
The redundancies are not thought to affect EVE Online or DUST 514.
Our thoughts are with the unfortunate developers at this difficult time.
The Ongoing Tribulations of World of Darkness
The development of the vampire-based World of Darkness MMO, based on IP acquired in a merger between CCP Games and White Wolf Publishing in 2006, has long been a cause of concern to fans after the team was significantly downsized in 2011 following CCP’s laying off of 20% of their staff contingent worldwide.
However, progress had clearly continued to some degree, with an impressive in-engine demonstration being showcased at CCP Games’ 10th anniversary Fanfest celebrations in May this year.
A short movie was shown under stringent security measures, in which a female protagonist was seen to drink from a victim in the alley of an nocturnal urban sprawl, before stalking an adversary across rooftops, through an open-air night club and into the dingy back streets where a trap was sprung and two more hostile vampires dropped out of the darkness.
A detailed discussion of the technology behind the brickwork of the city-based landscape also featured – every brick is apparently unique.
Little information has been released since that time.
Published: Dec 11, 2013 11:38 am