The SF shooter Firefall seems to have serious problems. The launch in China does not seem to have met expectations. Layoffs are the consequence.
A few hours ago, rumors emerged that there had been large-scale layoffs at the software studio “Red 5”. These rumors have solidified over the past few hours. A community manager has now confirmed them in the forum.
The background apparently is the China launch of the only game Firefall in the middle of last week. There had been high hopes for the Chinese market. But the launch seems to have fizzled out.
Here in the West, the game was released in the summer of 2014, but remained under the radar of the mainstream for most of the time. It scores a meager 60 points on Metacritic. Common complaints about the game are that it develops too slowly and then tends to head in the wrong direction.
Thank you for all the overtime
In an interview with mmorpg.com, one of the laid-off developers spoke out, seemingly confirming the suspicion that the reason for the layoffs was the botched launch in China.
The developer stated: It was as if the China launch had never taken place. They received no feedback, only the vague feeling that the game was not doing too well.
On Friday afternoon, about 40 people were called into an office, where after some back and forth about how difficult the decision was, it became clear: They would be laid off without severance pay, health insurance would end at the end of the month, thank you for all the overtime.
About 20%-25% of the studio lost their jobs, across the board and at all levels, said the developer, who wishes to remain anonymous.
He adds: “What did they expect? We were supposed to remake the game in a year, develop 22 instanced missions, overhaul every system, and use graphics from 2008. Everything that is going wrong with Firefall is not due to a lack of passion or talent from the team, but to mismanagement at the corporate level.“
Chris Whiteside, former Lead Producer of Guild Wars 2, also affected
Among those laid off is, according to initial reports, Chris Whiteside, an experienced man who joined from Guild Wars 2 just half a year ago. He was the Lead Producer there, one of the key figures.
Whiteside had been the face of Firefall in recent months and described an exciting future. The tough times had brought the team together. Now they were ready to present the game “remastered” once again. They were confident that players would like what they see.
In addition to the move to China, they are also aiming for a Playstation 4 port of Firefall.
