NCsoft confirms new layoffs

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Feb 11, 2009 2:37 pm PT

Guild Wars publisher plans to cut 70-90 support positions in US, Europe as part of final Western-focused label reorganization; rehire up to 80.

In September, Korean massively multiplayer online role-playing game company NCsoft announced sweeping plans to restructure its North American and European operations under a single, unified label: NCsoft West. Immediately, the initiative resulted in NCsoft laying off about 30 employees from its Austin, Texas studio and establishing an NCsoft West headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

Today, NCsoft announced what it plans to be the final element of its corporate restructuring efforts, revealing an additional round of layoffs that it expects will affect 70 to 90 employees. The cuts will primarily come in support services, and an NCsoft West representative assured GameSpot that no in-development projects will be adversely affected by the cuts.

"In order to solidify and streamline company operations across all NCsoft West territories, we are implementing some structural changes this week which will impact 70 to 90 employees," an NCsoft West representative told GameSpot in a statement. "We are working with these employees to determine the best fit for approximately 80 alternate positions within the company."

"The European office is transitioning to have a stronger focus in marketing and sales, with many of the existing disciplines being consolidated in our studios on the US West Coast and our headquarters in Seattle," said NCsoft West. "Additionally, we are transitioning to an embedded quality assurance (QA) model in which the QA staff works in our studios directly with the development teams, providing support throughout the entire development process.

"This finalizes the NCsoft West reorganization plan which began last September, and the resulting structure will better support the company's direction," the statement concluded.

Like many other game makers, NCsoft has been left grappling with a rough economic environment. As part of its most recent earnings announcement in November, the publisher saw profits fall 50 percent to 5.0 billion won ($3.58 million) on sales of 78.3 billion won ($56.1 million). The results were made all the worse on news that celebrity game designer Richard Garriott would be exiting the company, and that his unsuccessful sci-fi MMOG Tabula Rasa would go offline at the end of this month.

28 Comments

  • lucaskalas

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 11:25 pm PT

    And i hate how the orginal Guild Wars never gets like real updates....Them two newest useless heros/companions are still "new" lol. Rune Scape seems like it has a brighter future.

  • lucaskalas

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 11:22 pm PT

    Lol this is a joke...i love guild wars but this is just stupid...Probably Star Craft 2, Diablo 3 and COD 6 will come out sooner...besides who knows, the way they described the level system in GW2 seems like a joke, hopefully not, but it looks like its going to fail bad...

  • Slagar

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 9:21 pm PT

    I'm still playing GW, but I'm really looking forward to GW2. I hope they give us some kind of update soon.

  • tomas_kazokas

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 4:40 pm PT

    I agree there should be some info about the GW2. i'm so desperate i started playing WoW

  • BloodEagles1717

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 3:21 pm PT

    no CoH 2, but Champions Online, made by the same developers, is coming out in april

  • Lifeshifter

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 3:02 pm PT

    I'm hoping they'll bring out a new version of CoH/CoV because I like them, pretty cool games so far, Guild wars was ok, I played for a couple months and got bored with it, and only played the Beta of Tabula Rasa and I wasnt that impressed with it, same with Auto Assualt, but the Hero Craze is coming back with all the Comic book heroes coming to the screen again. A CoH/CoV 2 would be awesome!

  • Dixteel

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 1:06 pm PT

    It really is a bit weird that there are no news on Guild Wars 2...not even a few new screenshots etc after its announcement.

  • vortex_gw

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 11:18 am PT

    Yeah, you are right, the game will be huge FAILURE.

  • Chao_Of_Blades

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 11:04 am PT

    If theres no GW2 news in the next 3 months im giving up on it....lol this is looking bad.

  • aura_enchanted

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 9:42 am PT

    NOOOOOOoooooo!!!

  • Dmartcho

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 8:40 am PT

    Guys, Guild Wars 2 is making progress and will come out and it will be big. Just two months ago there was a video interviewing key Guild Wars 2 developers and although most questions had to be about Guild Wars thye did mention that they are already making a trilogy of Guild Wars 2 novels. Why would they make novels about the game if they expected this game to sink. They want this game to be huge when it comes out and so will focus their marketing tactics in a brief amount of time to get the most oomph!

  • xheart_corex

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 7:44 am PT

    Arenanet and GW2 should be safe. Its probably not a coincidence that Anet is also based in washington. Just seems like NCSoft are consolidating all their north american operations to one place. Also jeff strain and patrick wyatt (president and CEO of anet} are to assume leadership positions within the new ncsoft. cant see those guys cancelling gw2. But the lack of info about gw2 is worrying

  • vortex_gw

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 5:20 am PT

    Guild Wars 2 will probably never come out. No info whatsoever. Face it people, Arenanet isn't making money. The devs are too busy playing WoW and the female devs are addicted to the DS( I'm not lying, it's true). Only 5mil copies sold (including all exp.) and now less than 2mil people are playing. I left the game a year ago. Isn't it ironic, Lineage 2 reviewed badly but it sold 12mil copies and so many people are playing and paying monthly fees, not to mention the private servers. I bet, at least 40 of Arenanet's employees are layed-off.
    Aion better be a great game. NC Soft sunk so much money in the game and the beta is running more than 4 months now.

  • Avalanche_91

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 12:31 am PT

    Something weird is going on there. We should already have beta test for Guild Wars 2, it was announced for November 2008. We still haven't even heard something new about that beta... I hope at least Aion come faster than GW2... shame for either Anet and NCSoft.

  • Pete5506

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 10:46 pm PT

    Dose this effect Guild Wars 2? I hope not

  • Merl57

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 9:31 pm PT

    CRAP Guild Wars 2 was my most anticipated title since i heard about it

  • veggita-15

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 8:23 pm PT

    Guild Wars is a great game and I wouldn't want the developers who used to be Blizzard North left without a publisher again. btw, FU Ohaldere.

  • ExplosiveChorro

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 7:27 pm PT

    Guild wars 2 better come out soon...
    I'm getting a little worried. And now this....?
    Not good. Hurry up NCsoft and Arenanet.

  • Ohaidere posted Feb 11, 2009 6:01 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Ohaidere

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 6:01 pm PT (hide)

    Enjoy your subpar "MMOs" (Which they're not, but hey).

    Don't be mad because you don't have job that makes $15 a month seem like nothing.

  • Streetrider9873

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 5:24 pm PT

    Come on NC Soft... I need you to successfully lead the way in developing free MMOs and set an example! Hopefully other companies will follow suit (Blizzard? ). Plus I really am excited to play GW2 and see what goodies HoM brings me.

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