Carbine Studios, the team behind the sci-fi MMO Wildstar, just suffered a major blow as their publisher NCSoft announced a reduction in staff.
The official word suggests that Wildstar’s development will continue and fans can still look forward to content updates and community events. The game will, however, no longer be coming to the Chinese market.
Further reporting at Polygon suggests that the studio’s situation is pretty grim. The layoffs cover more than 70 people, which accounts for 40% of the studio’s workforce, and those remaining were told to expect additional layoffs soon. Polygon quotes one anonymous developer as saying “Those remaining only have a couple months left before Wildstar ‘coasts into the sunset.”
The MMO market is rough place, with insane development costs and loads of competition, and it seems to be shrinking every day. We hope the folks affected at Carbine land on their feet and get to keep making games, though hopefully in a less volatile space.
