The sale of Trion Worlds to Gamigo has panicked the fans of the games. There is already a heated discussion in the official forum of the MMORPG ArcheAge as the purchase is already having an impact on the title.
Many fans of Trion Worlds games are worried after the company was acquired by Gamigo – especially the players of ArcheAge.
Players are concerned
This is how the ArcheAge fans are reacting to the purchase of Trion Worlds by Gamigo: Initially, the community did not want to accept it and kept asking for an official statement. Panic erupted in the forum when Trion’s Director of Community Relations Linda “Brasse” Carlson finally confirmed that it is true: Trion Worlds has been sold to Gamigo.
Subsequently, the players expressed their concerns, as Gamigo does not enjoy the best reputation among many, and it also became known that almost all of Trion’s 200 employees, except for 25, had to leave. At least that was reported by Gamastura, citing anonymous sources.
- TheOuroborus sarcastically explains in the official forum: “No reason to panic, everything is wonderful in the world! Whatever comes out of this, it certainly won’t be good news for the players.”
- mulan states: “This is the end of ArcheAge. It’s sad, but all good things must come to an end…”
What does Gamigo plan?
What does “Assignment for the Benefit of the Creditors” mean? In the official press release from Gamigo, it is stated that Trion Worlds was bought as “Assignment for the Benefit of the Creditors.” Gamigo is therefore only purchasing the assets it wants to continue working with to generate profit.
This, of course, worries many players. Profit is now the priority.
This raises the question for some players of why a company would buy another studio that has interesting online games, but then does not retain the majority of the staff to continue operating those games as before.
- hinji writes on Reddit: “This is Gamigo. They buy ‘dying’ companies, fire most of the staff, and let the company continue with a skeleton crew (which can positively affect cash flow). Then they milk every drop out of the games.”
- Bloodthurst states on Gamestar: “My God, this is opaque. I wanted to know why you buy a developer if you plan to lay off (almost) the entire staff. So I did a little research and now I understand a lot clearer. Gamigo is actually not Gamigo anymore, but a financial investor, which essentially means ‘locust.’ Gamigo was originally acquired by Samarion S.E., which in turn was bought by ‘solidare real estate holding.’ After the purchase, they renamed themselves to ‘Blockescence PLC.’ And when I googled their ISIN, it also mentioned that it was not Gamigo that bought Trion, but Blockescence.”
- Andromeda Deluxe writes in the official forum: “Basically, Gamigo has taken over every old game that has gone under at its original studio and is now running it. However, the games are now in a kind of ‘limbo,’ although all data such as player accounts and logins are still present.”
ArcheAge fans fear the worst…
Why are ArcheAge fans particularly afraid? ArcheAge was supposed to receive the big update 5.0 on today’s October 24, which introduces a lot of new content. Many were looking forward to this.
There were fears that this update would now be delayed. And the fears were justified. Additionally, players are wondering how the Korean development studio of ArcheAge, XLGames, will cope with Gamigo and how this cooperation will unfold.
The purchase of Trion Worlds shows initial effects: As stated in the official forum, the major update 5.0 “Relics of Hiram” had to be postponed indefinitely. The purchase of Trion Worlds by Gamigo was cited as the reason, which brought about some changes. The team is now initially focused on keeping the servers running.
