Signs continue to suggest that all is not entirely well at Carbine Studios, developer of sci-fi MMO WildStar. Polygon is reporting that “around 60” employees from the company have been laid off.
An accompanying statement from the company’s owner NCSoft claims that the layoffs are due to restructuring within their western operations.
“Today we announced a restructuring of key operations within NC West,” the statement reads. “As a result of this restructuring, we are implementing staff reductions across our Western operations with the exclusion of ArenaNet.”
Another anonymous source told Polygon that Carbine was particularly badly hit by the re-structuring, with 60 members of staff gone from an overall team of around 100. That’s a big hit for a company whose game has already not had the smoothest of launches. WildStar’s player base has criticised the game for its numerous bugs, leading Carbine to cancel planned seasonal content in favour of ironing out issues.
It might not be time to write the game off completely, however. In a recent developer post product director Mike Donatelli detailed an upcoming update, which adds two new chapters of content, “Mystery of the Genesis Prime” and “Journey to OMNIcore-1”. The first chapter is for level 50 players, while the second is aimed at players of all levels, “ from lore-filled immersive solo content, to fast and furious 5-player quests and massive 20-player public events.”
We’ll keep an eye out for any further comments from NCSoft or Carbine.
