Layoffs En Masse Entertainment
Article
“Today, we had to let go of some of the great talent at En Masse Entertainment. While a tough decision, it was necessary as we prepare for the next chapter of our business. Tera has been a great launch for us, and we are committed to our loyal players. We’re taking measures to align the needs of our business to continue supporting Tera and preparing for our future. We are working with those affected by this transition, including offering assistance on new prospects within the industry/area. If there are companies who are looking for talented people with publishing experience, please send an email with the details to info@enmasse.com.”
Good luck for those affected but I know you talented, wicked, awesome, breathtaking, mind-blowing, magnificent, majestic cool cats and a plethora of other synonyms, will land back on your feet in no time!!!!
“Today, we had to let go of some of the great talent at En Masse Entertainment. While a tough decision, it was necessary as we prepare for the next chapter of our business. Tera has been a great launch for us, and we are committed to our loyal players. We’re taking measures to align the needs of our business to continue supporting Tera and preparing for our future. We are working with those affected by this transition, including offering assistance on new prospects within the industry/area. If there are companies who are looking for talented people with publishing experience, please send an email with the details to info@enmasse.com.”
Good luck for those affected but I know you talented, wicked, awesome, breathtaking, mind-blowing, magnificent, majestic cool cats and a plethora of other synonyms, will land back on your feet in no time!!!!
Replies
This is what too many polycounters say in these kind of sad threads.
So... translated is like: "fuck off, this is the videogame industry". To use and trash...
They just settled a lawsuit with NCsoft
There are no good business plans in this industry. You may have luck or not. Making games is the most risky thing we can do, you do a huge invesment in n years, and if you don't get enough profits to cover another development for 3-5 years... ughhh! end of business, move on to another thing.
There are too many great games that fail.
BTW, Tera is a fail of game. And another example is with prototype 2 and radical. And THQ and its companies are in danger, so i don't expect anything good but more of these sad threads.
A good business plan would be to make small games with very reduced teams in less than 1 year of development. And if you want to cover/protect your efforts you need to have a DRM like blizzard.
Pretty much. The ex-NetDevil founders went on to start a company called EndGames - They make Facebook social games now, and their turnaround is insane. They had launched like two games in one year or something last year and were already in the black.
They saw the flaws in the traditional game publishing routes and decided to self publish, self contain and do it themselves.
Now they're like 12-13 people, I doubt they'll grow much more and experiencing quite a bit of success.
Compare that to the flop that LEGO Universe was. 6 years of development, millions and millions wasted, the game didn't even come close to making that money back. Not by a longshot.
It is going to be real interesting to see how this industry changes over the next couple years, especially if Zynga is unraveling as it seems to be, and EA starts getting the backs of the indies, as they have been trying to a bit.
And sorry to my Seattle homies affected by the layoffs. Send me a PM if you would like to do some textures for some mulah!
I know its true, but this really boggles my mind every time I see it written. I would love to one day be able to quantify what art style does appeal to 'most western gamers'
The thing that gets me in that press announcement how they say they've had a great launch in the same breath as making people redundant. Hmm
Call of Duty and Halo style.
Because the Old Republic is doing soooooooooo well, ain't it with all of it's traditional elements it took from the Western games (see, two can play at the 'nah nah nah nah nah nah, told you so' game), it's not like it took a text-book rip out of any Asian game.
Problem is another one, the art-style was Asian in a different sense, as in with all the Aryan, Loli, Skimpy and over-the-top flare which while good in it's own right, exposed too much can be a negative effect, and limited in terms of creation.
I mean think about it for a moment, the female characters in their underwear had more armor on then when using high level armor that looked like a Tattoo artist beveled their navel, which with all due respect, was pretty cheap looking, and you have entire female race of character who look like underage girls wearing cloth armor in little black dresses, that's not something a Western gamer would be proud of touting (too sexy is not a good thing). Don't get me started on how the underage looking race is better and more...sexy skin texture then all the other female characters...
I can honestly say, outside of a few things, I myself if based upon art-style wouldn't play this game, as opposed to something like say Skyrim or Guild Wars.
Then there is the issue of the storyline being mundane at best of time, and outright vile the others, you literally have to, in the beginning quests, kill little cute lamb/piggies and next second, you get a quest to kill a massive three which was being attacked by the previously killed lampigs, and the overach gets more disjointed from there.
So overall story and look, while not bad, isn't exactly the best points of the game, the gameplay was, but with the game being traditional in buy and sub, this also turns away many possible customers in this day and age, everyone who is willing to sub to MMO's are grown ups with jobs now, they don't have time to balance stuff like this, with maybe WoW or more adult games like SL and another game, where time spent not playing the game is time lost.
I would say good luck to all the peeps in getting on their feet, and honestly, just because the game you worked is an MMO, don't count on being kept around, just like any other company, it's a project...the industry as a whole needs changing on this, not what your company makes you work on.
Boring and repetitive - same as all the western games where everyone wears a US army outfit and you have a gun sticking out in front of you. When I grew up you could look at game screenshots and tell which game it is. Try this with those games... /rant off
Edit: Welp nvm guess no artists there?
Yep! That's why Indie games are so awesome. Purposefully limiting your tech is a great way to portray strong, original design work.
SNES is win.