WB Games Seattle cuts staff
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Warner Bros. confirms cuts to outfit behind Lord of the Rings Guardians of Middle-earth and Gotham City Impostors.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has instituted the third round of layoffs to its Pacific Northwest studios in as many years. Today the publisher confirmed that cuts were made to its WB Games Seattle operation.
"Due to shifting business imperatives, WB Games Seattle has made staff reductions," a representative told GameSpot. "The group will continue to remain an integral part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment."
The most recently released project from WB Games Seattle was Gotham City Impostors, a downloadable Batman-themed team-based first-person shooter for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The publisher's Seattle developers are also working on Guardians of Middle-earth, a Lord of the Rings-licensed multiplayer online battle arena game set for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall.
In early 2010, WBIE cut 25 staffers from its Seattle-area studios, including Surreal Software, Monolith Productions, and Snowblind Entertainment. Last year, WBIE laid off 60 employees from WB Games Seattle the same week Snowblind shipped Lord of the Rings: War in the North. The extent of the latest round of cuts is unknown.
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
45 comments
Brendan, this is a shame. I was really looking forward to playing Gotham City Imposters. I was going to play as Catwoman. Why do all the good game designers get axed? Brendan, you are truly the bearer of bad news, hun.
damit why all the game company go with same phase. by seeing the middle earth trailer its more likely to be LOL, dota, smith style games i play lol and dota but another game with the same concept that sucks developers needs to think and innovate things. They are just recreating the same concept. what they think is if they make a clone they can make profit. they put all the investment staffing and everything in it. If it fails then the guys who put there hard work they loose there jobs. they call it as layoff. stupid concept game company need to think before investing . How long we people can accept the same clone version.
This game's biggest problem is GFWL. Hands down. If you were one of the few unlucky people to own the game outside of Steam then you'd know how excruciating it was to install the patch that came out not too long ago. Why Warner didn't offer an outside link to download the update is beyond me.
More people need to play Gotham City Impostors on PC! GFWL has patched a bunch of it's BS. Still not perfect, but usable none the less. Hell, I've had more problems with BF3/Origin than with it. And if you ever hear someone say GCI is a COD rip off, they haven't played either a COD or GCI, or/and are full of shhh.
i hate warner bros... THEY CANCELLED THIS IS VEGAS!!!!!! i guess they really hate their seattle studios. i hope WB fails soon...
You've got to be kidding me, Monolith Productions is one of Warner Bros best studios, alongside Rocksteady, Netherealm & TT Games. They should layoff a lot of staff at Snowblind, after War In The North, they should get some punishment for that less than quality game.
1 Like noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Gotham City Imposters is such an awesome game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can someone please exlain to me WHO THE HECK THOUGHT BATMAN NEEDED AND FPS MULTIPLAYER SHOOTER!??! Its like turning Angry birds into fruit snacks and t-shirts... Oh wait.....
@BionicBrando The game is quite fun. Great atmosphere, fun gadgets and weapons and stuff. Using a grappling hook around a map is pretty fun. Seeing a big fat guy dive bomb you is pretty hilarious too.
GCI is better than alot of other FPS out there. Not the best by any means. But it holds its own very well. It's better than basically any movie game by far.
1 Like Maybe because this isn't even a Batman game?
The concept is pretty cool and it definitely worked out quite well for an online shooter. The game's not the best ever but a lot of fun to play.
Waited for the price drop on GCI but love every mineut of it sad to hear lay off in my home town (Seattle) but thats what you gotta do to survive in this economy. Thank you WB games for making some kick ass titles
@GamerDad420 Not really. The economic crisis is fraud. The fraud hasn't stopped. The fraud is risking everyone's deposits, because of the repealed law congress allowed.
Surviving in the downturn is going to take a much bigger scope that merely firing workers. It's Glass-Steagall or most businesses will go under, NO MATTER the industry/field/service.
Everyone betting on a recovery is a fool. There will be none until many events happen. The first of which is Glass-Steagall.
But yeah, I agree GCI was a great game and it's sad to see the fraudulent economy once again claim another victim.
1 Like I really liked Gotham City Impostors, very fun take on the Batman universe. I was there since the beta for it. However I stopped playing it when they launched their Steampunk weapons and gear which I believe broke the game. Poster child for how pay to win can destroy your game.
1 Like Well, yeah. That's how it's supposed to work. When the workload increases, you hire. When the workload decreases, you lay off. That's how every business in every industry operates.
When the game is finished, you reduce headcount. When it's time to start developing another one, headcount gets increased.
1 Like @Oleg_Huzwog Don't expect for most people here to understand a word you said. It's just easier for them to say it's "greed/fraud".
1 Like Yeah, these must be lean times for WB, considering how hard their latest blockbuster film is bombing... /sarcasm
Perhaps if they spent more time optimizing these games for the communities playing them, games like Gotham City Impostors would be more top-tier.I think the PS3 version is probably the best one since the community of players is strong (thanks to PS+ giving it away for free). The PC version is turning into a ghost town, though, because the game doesn't play well and isn't as impressive as some of the free-to-play options out there.
@dawil123 I wish I could play it, I've been spending the past few months trying to actually pick up a single soul through matchmaking.
Ugh, I wish there was a server browser.
@koospetoors Also try opening your ports and allow the game and GFWL through your windows firewall.
@koospetoors the trick is u enter into a match making lobby and wait for 30 seconds....if it doesnt connect u exit the lobby and then enter again.......do this 3-4 times and u will connect to a match.....the match making sucks in this game but thats how it works for me.....
i dont know about no one playin it, cuz i sure as hell have no issues finding full games at all. a lot of ppl play it, even in weekdays, days u dont expect . might not have call of duty community but there is enough ppl on it daily playin the game
@dawil123 people do play imposters well on the ps3 anyway every time i load up the game there be a lot of other players
sad, I wish they'd of kept making FEAR or Condemned games, I loved Monolith games like Tron 2.0, Alien vs Predator 2, again the FEAR and Condemned games that Monolith produced... yeah, sad, I wish WBIE had them making the kinds of games they were good at making instead of having them take on these other projects
Let's hope Guardians Of middle Earth is freaking amazing [holds breath] but Gotham City Impostors sucks, as far as character design I would have liked a fully customizable character, not pre set characters at certain levels...freaking lame. I also would have liked choosing my alliance from the beginning and sticking with them, I hate team crap where I'm always switching sides....I don't want to play reds, I wat freaking blues....I don't want top join the villains, I want to join the Batmen [and women :) ] even if this game had all that it's just a generic shooter at it's core and a far cry of what Monolith is capable of....
@MJ12-Conspiracy What the hell are you talking about? You DO have fully customizable characters... another dunce that played the game for 2 hours and decided he didn't like it. Also if they let people chose one alliance and make them stick to it what do you think would happen? Everyone would be a joker and we wouldn't be able to start a game with 1 bat and 6 jokers. And F that, I wanna be able to play as both. And how is it generic? By that you are saying that most big name FPS out right now have grappling hooks, super jump boots, jet packs, gliders, roller skates, support buffs, balance of body type/weapons, ninja stars, batarang, invisibility drinks, bear traps, a bird that attacks your face, and the deep character customization this game offers? Seriously have you even played the game?
GCI is a really fun shooter, and as for lag, only on bad weather days for me. Ya'lls internet must SUCK. >:D
Being free for PS Plus users I am able to experience the game without having to pay for it. Feels good man. It's a decent game it's just I'm not sure if it's worthy of being purchased like a lot of games.
@yuunnnnna Cookie cutter for sure. I have had some fun with it. However, the lag was brutal.
gotham city impostors could had been a cool fresh and fun IP to kill time with BUT.....wait for it ...wait for it....TATA "games for windows live" ruined the matchmaking and pvp rendering the game pretty much useless, lesson of the day please dont use it and comit financial suicide gaming companies we want to support you but we cant buy broken games.
1 Like @Dante0611 There are other ways around that. Get it for PSN or XBL, for example. Sure you'll be committing "PC Gamer sacrilidge" by playing a shooter on a console, but beggars can't be choosers now.
It's a tight economy, but I'm proud WB is making games. This is better than them shunting their games division altogether.
Oh no, I tried to support my local devs like monolith here in Seattle, but more bad news just keeps coming. Even my neighbors in Vancouver just got hit again. This sucks.
Conversation powered by Livefyre
Hot Stories
Newsmakers
-
Preowned games on Xbox One decided by publisher
Microsoft confirms that it won't charge any fees for any titles eligible for resale. Full Story
- Posted Jun 6, 2013 4:00 pm PT
-
Microsoft confirms required 24-hour check-in for Xbox One
Playing Xbox One games on somebody else's console will also require a check-in every hour. Full Story
- Posted Jun 6, 2013 3:41 pm PT
Featured Stories
-
PlayStation 4 will cost $399
Sony confirms a $399/€399/£349 price for the PlayStation 4 hardware, $100 cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox One. Full Story
- Posted Jun 10, 2013 11:19 pm PT
-
New Halo coming to Xbox One; runs at 60fps
Will be coming in 2014. Full Story
- Posted Jun 10, 2013 11:11 am PT
-
Del Toro calls BioShock Infinite a 'mindf*ck'
Pan's Labyrinth director praises Ken Levine and Irrational Games for latest BioShock, says he would consider large-scale Pacific Rim game "God willing." Full Story
- Posted Jun 13, 2013 8:53 am PT
-
Microsoft: Xbox One will be leading product people love and embrace
Xbox boss Don Mattrick believes concerns over connectivity are overblown, recommends Xbox 360 for those without an Internet connection. Full Story
- Posted Jun 11, 2013 5:52 pm PT
-
New Mirror's Edge is open-world
EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau describes new project as "open-world action adventure game." Full Story
- Posted Jun 12, 2013 10:45 am PT
Submit News
Related Game
Guardians of Middle-Earth
- Publisher(s): Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- Developer(s): Monolith Productions
- Genre: Strategy
- Release:
- ESRB: T
Related Games
Recent News
-
Microsoft changing Xbox One policies
Xbox maker does away with all used game restrictions and 24-hour online check-ins; region-locks also no longer in place.
