[Official Thread] SOE Restructuring Announcement

Fellow Adventurers,
We wanted to share this information with you here, rather than having you read about it on another site. The EQII community is a large part of the ongoing success of SOE, and the game is in a strong position to succeed. Development continues unabated on EverQuest II, and you can look forward to a Producer’s Letter next week with more information about what lies ahead for the game’s development in 2011.
For those who wish to comment, please use THIS thread. It will remain unlocked as long as conversation remains constructive and polite. Our CMs and Mods have been asked to redirect all other related posts to this one as well.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations

Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.

So what about LoN, Vanguard, Planetside, Free Realms, SWG and that stuff Brasse?

And here I thought SmokeJumper wasn't one for 'Producers Letters'.
Brasse the tone of your post indicates that the EQ2 team is unaffected by the layoffs resulting from the restructuring, however independent news sources are including it.
Can you provide a more defenitive answer on this, as I'm sure its the most pertinent concern of *this* community.
Thanks,
Atan

rough, but with the economy the way it is I can understand why it happened. Hope the best for the folks having to pack it in.
What did Denver Seattle and Tuscon work on anyways?

Rezikai wrote:

Denver - Trading card games
Seattle - The Agency
Tuscon - Pora Nox / Pox Nora (sp?) mainly an asian interest title.

Terrible news for you, for your friends and colleagues. Best wishes to you, the very best of fortune.

They just bought Pox Nora not too long ago. I wonder how much they paid their consultants to buy and then later tell them to "reallign" it.

While it's sad to read that 205 people are losing their jobs, I am glad that Planetside 2 is still moving forward.
Also, while I like having you guys here in San Diego (I never miss a SoE Block Party), wouldn't you guys save a lot of money moving out of this ridiculously expensive city and state?

A sad thing indeed to see in a time when the economy is pointed out by news reports to be 'on the upswing', but we all know that we will never get back to the levels we were at 10-15 years ago.
My thoughts go out to the individuals whose jobs were cut, and their families, and to hope they find work either within another SOE department or somewhere else quickly.

I'm also surprised they didn't try to fire sale The Agency to a competitor to recoup some of the loss.

I'm only going to speak about "EverQuest II" because that's the project I'm authorized to speak about.
We were impacted also today. We lost two people from the team that we'll miss. I'm not going to mention who they are because I think privacy is important.
However, we still have a large team on this project, in fact, one of the largest in the company. SOE fully supports not only EQII and EQ2X, but also EverQuest and EQ Next as well. The "EverQuest" franchise is the backbone of this company and we'll do what it takes to ensure that the world of Norrath and the EverQuest games are as close to ForeverQuest(tm) as possible.
I'll post a Producer's Letter, probably next week, outlining where we're going and what we're doing in the coming year. I'm enthusiastic about it and I think you will be also. This year is going to be an extremely good year for EQII.
But today...well...today's just sad. If you know anyone that was affected, please extend your sympathies. Losing a loved job is like losing a friend. There's nothing good about it.

Denver is LON I think?

I'm glad my 12 years of subscription helped fend off the reaper and EQ/EQ2 is considered a "renowned" property by management.

The Agency seemed to be doing nothing but soaking up development funds and resources with nothing to show for it, so canning that one is probably a good move. It's sad that jobs had to be lost in the process, though.
A lot of players have felt like SOE was sticking their hands into too many cookie jars at once by trying to develop and maintain too many titles for a long time, leading to a mass of under-supported games and few truly great ones. Hopefully this restructuring will refocus the company on their key titles so they get the resources they deserve.

Sad news to read and thoughts with those that lost their jobs

SmokeJumper wrote:

Thanks for the comment SJ.
My heart goes out to those 2 and their families.

SmokeJumper wrote:

I was just thinking about their loss of income, but that is a real good point - I'll bet working for computer game company is a dream job for a lot of those people. Yikes

Nevermind, I'm way out of the loop!~
I hope the two EQ2 team members affected and everyone else quickly finds new jobs.

It always sucks when these things happen. Back before I was self employed I got laid off about 3 times from major corporations.
Welcome to Hope & Change

My thoughts, prayers, and well wishes to all those impacted.