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Firefall: Rumor: Mark Kern Removed as CEO of Red 5
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
According to a report at GameFront.com, Mark Kern has been removed as the CEO of Red 5, developers of Firefall. Citing sources close to the company, GameFront.com has published an internal email that indicates that the Red 5 Board of Directors has removed Kern who "no has any authority to act for or on behalf of Red 5 Studios."
The email, provided by a source close to the situation, is included below:
“My fellow Red 5ers,
“Today, the Red 5 Studios Board of Directors met and after deliberation have decided that Mark Kern will no longer be the Chief Executive Officer or on the Board of Red 5 Studios. Effective immediately Mark will no longer have any authority to act for or on behalf of Red 5 Studios.
“As one of the founders of Red 5 Studios and our leader for many, many years, we owe Mark a great deal of appreciation for all that he has done to help build this company and to set the vision for an incredible new game. I am personally grateful for my relationship with Mark and the many years I have worked with him.
“This is a major change to our company. Your managers and I will set to work to cover any and all areas that Mark was directly handling and we are continuing to solidify the plan for 2014. I assure you that we are and will continue to be here to serve and support each of you.
“We will be holding a team meeting to discuss this topic at 11:15 a.m. tomorrow but I wanted to make sure you were officially informed of this significant change to your company.
“Please grab me or any of the managers at any time or give us a call if you would like to discuss in private.
“Please refrain from discussing this topic outside the company.
Sincerely,
James”
Read more at the link above.
MMORPG.com has reached out to both Red 5 and Mark Kern for comment. We'll keep you posted.
Comments
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
It seems development took too long and they just want game to be released asap... Crapy managements.
Too bad for Kern, he is ok.
"Please refrain from discussing this topic outside the company"
Leaking this email is not right either.
I suspect a write up, if not a firing, is in order.
twitch.tv/itpaladin
@ITPalg
YouTube: ITPalGame
i believe their site will have an official statement. -releasing this incorp emails wasnt right either-so aparently some dont agree with this.
beign that he dosent actually 'code' the game, i wonder how this will affect FF in 2014.
they really should of just gotten rid of Orson Scott Card imo.
wish him the best!
LOL, yeh I saw that too.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Steam: Neph
The game was released months ago, they just never took the word Beta off it. Hopefully this change will result in some positive changes in the game, as its simply not worth playing more more than a month.
agreed.. I've had the game since about 1 week after founders packages were released for purchase and I haven't seen any real change in the game for the past year. I get on and play every 2-3 months and I can only bare it for maybe 3-4 days of doing the same crap all day ... run around and thump.. hit the odd Nado and repeat..
This is what happens when you dont know how to make a game.
I saw the faults of firefall in alpha, but I believed in it and the devs (yes I was wrong)
They just continued with its faults.
You dont release a mmo without any progression system NO NEVER EVER NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS YOU EVER DO THAT. This is also one of the reasons defiance failed badly
You dont focus on crappy pvp in a mmo that was made for pve gameplay.
Maybe the game will actually get some content that takes more then a hour to play now.
Firefall had such potential, but theres so little to do and It's progression feels weak at best
Here is a post on Glassdoor.com about working at Red 5 Studios. I think it speaks to this announcement quite heavily:
“Nightmare Game Development”I worked at
Red 5 Studiosfull-time for more than3yearsPros –
Surprisingly, despite everything that is wrong with this company there are still some good, talented people with a lot of passion for the project.Cons –
Horrible, inexperienced executive management with no clear, long term strategy. Most of the upper management, including and especially the CEO are often AWOL for lengthy periods of time, only to show up one day and announce a new strategy for the project.
After over seven years of development, there is still no concrete or cohesive design for the game. Priories and focus are constantly shifting, mostly dependent on the whims of the CEO.
Despite all of the talk of an "open" culture, if you disagree with upper management or run afoul of the CEO, you can expect a short walk to the door.
This is a culture fear:
Fearful that the company will fail to get additional funding
Fearful that the design will change again.
Fearful that you will fall out of favor with upper management and be fired.
Fearful that the CEO will have a bad day and berate or fire employees.
Despite having over 100 employees, there is no HR department. You can guess how that works.
Advice to Senior Management –
After seven years and tens of millions of dollars spent, I don't think this situation is fixable.No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company
Uh huh. /facepalm