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Trion Worlds hit by lay-offs
Just reposting the recent article from PC Gamer website. Hope the people affected can find new work quickly.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/12/trion-worlds-hit-by-lay-offs/
Comments
Clicky for Rift trial
some further info on just what type of positions Trion laid off from Rift
http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/general-discussion/347056-who-trion-cut-adventuring-google.html
I can tell you didnt look at the link, because you couldnt be more wrong.
Also, Bioware laying off people was a big deal because they specifically stated they were retaining their entire team.
In fact, the only instance I can see of employees being laid off after an expansion release is LOTRO last year.
PUBLIC INFORMATION found using google/linkedin. There is nothing not easily available tot he pbulic. Not my own research, see thread for more details. this is not the complete list, just people with public profiles.
Condolences to these employees, hopefully Rft on their resume gets them a job fast
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefftallon
Associate Systems Designer
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
May 2012 – December 2012 (8 months) San Francisco Bay Area
Associate Systems Designer on the RIFT team focusing primarily on crafting and itemization.
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/fterado
Senior Character Animator
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
September 2008 – December 2012 (4 years 4 months) Redwood City, CA
Worked on Trion's flagship mmo title "RIFT" and it's first expansion "RIFT: The Storm Legion," creating high quality keyframe animation for characters, creatures and props. Most significant contribution is the character development, animations, and facial tattoo designs of the male Bahmi player race.
Also organized figure drawing workshops for the company's artists.
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/williamshaughnessy
Game Designer
Trion Worlds
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
November 2008 – December 2012 (4 years 2 months)
RIFT: Storm Legion - November 2012
- Dungeons and Raids
RIFT - February 2011
- Dungeons and Raids
- World Building
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/matsaleh
Senior Software Engineer
Trion World Network
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
April 2009 – December 2012 (3 years 9 months) Austin, Texas Area
I designed, implemented, and/or enhanced a number of critical infrastructure and back-end systems that helped launch Rift in 2011. These include a crash handling service, a monitoring service to detect and restart crashed server processes, a game event logging infrastructure and log search tool. In addition, I contributed to scalability testing, and the development of server administration and customer service tools.
Copy Writer
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
September 2011 – December 2012 (1 year 4 months) Redwood City
Copy focused on, and required in-depth knowledge of, the titles RIFT, End of Nations, and Defiance
Composed and revised the manual for RIFT to coincide with the Storm Legion expansion
Created and updated web copy, including banner text, news stories, and Search Engine Optimization text
Transcribed videos for the purpose of subtitling and localization in foreign languages
Composed marketing emails to promote upcoming features and products
Contributed editorial feedback on copy pieces written by other team members
Sound Designer
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
August 2010 – December 2012 (2 years 5 months) Redwood City, CA
While working for Trion Worlds, I used a variety of tools including Audiokinetic Wwise to implement audio content into RIFT and RIFT: Storm Legion. I also designed sounds for creatures, props, ambience, and other effects. Other duties included mixing environment audio, tuning creature combat sounds, working with animations and scripting, and extensive troubleshooting and support for a large-scale MMO.
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/nholmes
Senior Game Designer
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
June 2010 – December 2012 (2 years 7 months) Redwood City, Ca.
RIFT: Storm Legion (PC); RIFT (PC)
- Worked closely with Creative Director to design core gameplay world and zone events within original game scope.
- Maintained clear and open communication with lead staff, including special attention to design milestones.
- Directed forward thinking gameplay concepts through open discussions to tackle existing design challenges throughout the development process.
- Creative direction behind several live world events prior to the Storm Legion expansion.
- Implementation of new, heavily scripted content, quests and cinematics via visual scripting tools.
-http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dave-hanson/16/383/49
Sr. Character Animator
Trion Worlds
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
February 2009 – December 2012 (3 years 11 months)
RIFT (PC MMORPG)
• Responsible for animating complete motion sets for over 40 enemy characters which amounts to over 1,000 animations.
Shipped Titles:
• RIFT
• RIFT Storm Legion
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/carlynlim
Concept Artist
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
September 2011 – December 2012 (1 year 4 months) Redwood Shores
Work for RIFT ranging from creatures, bosses, pets, race ideations, characters, mounts, props, armors, weapons, icons, capes, and the wedding gear.
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefftallon
Quality Assurance Tester
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
October 2012 – December 2012 (3 months) Redwood City
-http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-gainey/5/38b/a37
Sr. Animator
Trion Worlds
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
June 2009 – December 2012 (3 years 7 months)
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/seanvangorder
3D Artist
Liquid Development
Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Games industry
January 2012 – Present (1 year 1 month)
Remote freelance artist
Junior Environment Artist
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
July 2012 – December 2012 (6 months) Redwood City, CA
Software Engineer
Trion World Network
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
April 2009 – December 2012 (3 years 9 months)
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/arguy
Email Marketing Manager
Trion Worlds, Inc.
September 2012 – December 2012 (4 months)
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/mrkenallen
MMO Producer
Trion World Network
July 2008 – December 2012 (4 years 6 months) Redwood City, CA
-http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kristen-demeza/0/b17/65b
Content Designer
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
April 2011 – December 2012 (1 year 9 months)
- Created quest content for the latter half of the Defiant storyline as well as general zone population and flavor in Ember Isle Patch 1.6
- Created zone events such as Ithkus' Rise and the Architects
- Created quest content and wrote majority of text for the continent of Brevane in RIFT: Storm Legion
- Created Instant Adventures and zone events for the continent of Brevane
Associate Product Manager
Trion Worlds, Inc.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
April 2012 – December 2012 (9 months) Greater San Diego Area
heres another one, the head cleric dev:
-http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewakelley
Senior Systems Designer
Trion World Network
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Games industry
July 2008 – December 2012 (4 years 6 months) San Francisco Bay Area
Created systems for gameplay on RIFT and its first expansion, Storm Legion, from its early pre-alpha stages through release, then support of the live product.
• Designed and maintained ownership of the Cleric class (calling) and its 9 individual subclasses (souls). Used internal evaluations, player feedback, and user metric data to aggressively improve both the quality of gameplay and overall balance within the greater scope of the game.
• Built detailed spreadsheets and simulations, collaborating with the Lead Designer and other class designers, to maintain the integrity and balance of the game despite constant changes.
• Created the tools and systems used to make NPCs, greatly speeding up monster creation and eliminating common bugs and mistakes made via the old process.
• Built all standard monster AI and abilities used at Release to provide fun and varied combat.
• Made numerous tools and scripts used in the creation of abilities and class-related systems, automating and/or simplifying many long, tedious, and error-prone tasks.
• Served as a frequent trainer, mentor, and troubleshooter of abilities and monsters.
Not to seem unsympathetic, but doesn't this consistantly happen with every title, every time they release a game or expansion?
Anyhow, I hope that all the people affected have a chance to take a great holiday with their family and enjoy some well-earned time off before they get to work on another project. I'm also hoping that the people affected have this as a financial viability.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Hmm. I'm not sure you or a lot of folks in this thread know how the industry works.
MMO development, for the most part, is a contract job.
There are a few permanent employees of a studio, but only a few.
When the studio has a project. It hires people on contract to complete the work. When the work is finished, the contract ends.
Thus, what would you expect from a studio that just finished and released an expansion, an expansion that is larger than the original game I might add?
Well, I would expect quite a few contracts would come to an end.
I'm not saying that Rift/storm legion is doing as well as hoped. I'm not saying that they aren't having issues.
But they are developing a game which works in conjunction with a television series on a station which specifically targets the demographics for this genre.
Plus they are hiring at their san diego office: http://trionworlds.com/en/careers/san-diego/
So let's not scream the sky is falling just yet.
assuming sarcasm, the game isnt dying. It will probably just move to a 3month patch cycle instead of 6 weeks.
You sure about that? I tried looking up their employee base and found nothing.
I highly doubt they employ anywhere near that many people. Blizzard maybe, but Trion Worlds? Gimme a break. There might be like 25 permanent people tops; everything else is contract work.
They just laid off a bunch of people because they just finished Storm Legion. And thus, ended the contracts which were hired to create Storm Legion. This is how the industry works.
You have no proof they employ 500+ people. You have no proof they laid them off because of Obamacare or tax hikes, which is what you are implying. What you are implying isn't mathmatically possible or probable. You are a tool of the conservative propaganda machine.
I will just leave it at that.
edit: 25 is definately way under the mark. I re-read the article and it is quite clear that Rift alone 'had' around 120, down to around 80. Their new game may have a hefty staff though - due to its development and scope. So I'll concede they 'may' have 500 total employees.
no, it does not
As a matter of fact, this almost never happens.
B.S.
The vast majority of video game development is contract labor.
Studios have few permanent employees.
They contract the work and then lay people off. Y'know, like, let's hire a bunch of new folks to develop Storm Legion, then lay them off.
This happens with nearly EVERY game. Period.
When it doesn't, that is the anomoly.
Really? I'd have to go back and look but I thought TSW, TERA, NCsoft, etc all had layoffs shortly after their games launched. Like I said, I hope everything works out for those effected.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Have you even read the info? Sure, there were a couple contract guys scattered in there...but many people who have been with the company since day 1 were let go. The guy that created and maintained one of the 4 classes was let go.
ANyone who says this is standard is pretty clueless as to both the situation and the industry. Contract workers being let go isnt news, its not layoffs, it just happens and no one says a word about. Something like this is HUGE, for a game to let go this many longer term, quality people. And this is just people with public profiles, and not even all of them. Add in the rest + the ones with private profiles or the ones that use different methods than linkedin (artists for instance have better tools for employment searches).
And hiring at their San Diego office? Any good company is ALWAYS hiring, even if they only have one employee other than the owner. If the right candidate comes along, the owner would be foolish not to consider them over what he already has. Hiring does not always mean adding positions.
The sky isnt falling but its certainly cracked. And its more than likely End of Nation's fault, not Rift's. But Rift has clearly paid the price.
As you can see by my above post - I agree with you.
I hope it works out for them too; but look at it this way;
These guys have Storm Legion to put on their resume for the next contract. That's more than most people who are in the application pool.
TSW and TERA were massive failures (from a sub standpoint). NCSoft has made cuts (they just closed down a title, large part of the reason there) but ArenaNet was not affected.
How many game developers do you personally know? I know 3. They have all been contract workers. My nephew is currently getting his associate degree in game development. He is taking a class on how to make a career out of contract work. I also have been in developer discussion groups at conventions, and they confirmed this.
Did you even read the information posted? Clearly not contract workers.
And as I said, contract workers dont make news when their contract is up (aka they arent laid off- Their contract runs out and they go on their way). I never said that companies don't use them, but no one makes any news of it when they go, because it isnt newsworthy.
for those who didnt bother to read:
20 people posted with public linkedins
15 of those 20 with the company for more than a year.
10 of those 20 with the company since more than a year before launch of Rift
I read the article. It never clearly says the workers were not on contract. You can get hired on day 1 with a contract. That contract can be extended indefinately, as long as they have work for you. One of my friends got a 3 month contract that was extended every 3 months for 2 years. Another got a one year contract and worked for nearly 5 years through extensions.
They do publicize contract layoffs.
http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=25905
This is when one of my friends I mentioned was layed off from DCUO. So this and all the other related articles discussing these SOE layoffs, were effecting lots and lots of people who were on contract. And it was publicized.