Perpetual delays Gods and Heroes, cuts jobs

by Jason Dobson { Sep 25th 2007 at 2:29PM }

Clash of the Titans fans take heed, as Perpetual Entertainment has once again postponed the release of its upcoming Roman mythology MMO Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, laying off 30-40 employees as the project transitions from development to playtesting. The announcement marks the second such delay the game has suffered, the first coming in late 2006 when budget concerns resulted in 35 of the San Francisco-based MMO developer's employees losing their jobs.

Explaining the rational behind the layoffs in a recent interview, Perpetual CEO Chris McKibbin cited a need for "a much smaller, more focused and agile team," rather than the larger team required for the game's actual development. In a positive spin, the executive notes that Perpetual plans to help those impacted by the layoffs in finding new positions with other developers, or working on the studio's other MMO Star Trek Online.

In addition, while Gods & Heroes was originally planned for release this fall, McKibbin downplayed the delay, noting that "we have been targeting a fall launch and we are extending the time in beta to focus on quality and polish ... from our standpoint we want to give our game more time to get to [that level] of polish, rather than rush to a ship date."

Tags: delay, godsandheroes, greek, mmorpg, mythology, perpetual, roman

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ruibing @ Sep 25th 2007 2:39PM

I feel bad for the developers who got fired as soon as they finished their task. That's like a secret agent getting fired after taking a bullet for the president.

Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Sep 25th 2007 2:45PM

“Agent Bauer we appreciate you saved the world and the other stuff you did but we have this massive budget cut so I'm afraid we have to let you go”.

Craig @ Sep 25th 2007 2:59PM

It's not like there is a shortage of MMOs in the world. It's probably good that they are taking the time to polish the game. If that is indeed what is happening.

[url=http://virtualrealities.blogspot.com]Virtual Realites[/url]

Craig @ Sep 25th 2007 3:01PM

Bah I suck at teh html and I didn't even need to use it.

http://virtualrealities.blogspot.com

J.Goodwin @ Sep 25th 2007 3:03PM

Note to self:

If founding a game studio, avoid names that will come back to bite you in the ass in an ironic way.

ThornedVenom @ Sep 26th 2007 3:39AM

I wonder what inspired Gamecock.

LaughingTarget @ Sep 25th 2007 3:48PM

They could cut a huge amount out of their budget by moving out of San Francisco. It doesn't help to be in the most expensive city in America to try and run a business.

Evan @ Sep 25th 2007 4:19PM

"laying off 30-40 employees as the project transitions from development to playtesting"

This illustrates a major problem in the game industry - artists and programmers are treated as disposable and replaceable. The CEOs consider one artist to be equal and replaceable by another artist, without regard to the individual artist's background, skill, or personal style. Similar with programers. Great games are greated by great people, and individual talents can affect the quality of a game.

Evan @ Sep 25th 2007 4:21PM

(I meant "Great games are *created* by great people)

LaughingTarget @ Sep 25th 2007 4:33PM

But great games can't be made if you run out of money. Catch-22.

Snipehunter @ Sep 25th 2007 6:21PM

Lol @ Evan: You didn't mention designers; most studios think you can replace them with interns, producers, QA, artists, or programmers, in a pinch. Take it from a dev, no one is treated as more disposal than designers... unless you're counting QA. ;)

Forsakyn @ Sep 25th 2007 7:02PM

Most designers in the game industry think a poorly worded pitch is a design document. I imagine the majority of folks laid off were artists, and some designers. Programmers are generally the safest until the crap really hits the fan.

The Continuity Police @ Sep 25th 2007 6:33PM

"we have been targeting a fall launch and we are extending the time in beta to focus on quality and polish ... from our standpoint we want to give our game more time to get to [that level] of polish, rather than rush to a ship date."

Wow, deja-vu! I swear I've heard that before.

http://www.dopass.com/node/324

Thierry @ Sep 25th 2007 6:39PM

Isn't there some ex-Blizzard employees working on this game?

Ikthog @ Sep 26th 2007 12:00AM

Maybe the strategy is that they will HAVE to launch on time now, because even if the testing uncovers the need for additional feature tweaks or new art or sound, they can't add them, because they already fired the people that make them.

Come on, surely there are still more naive VCs out there ready to dump a few more million to get you across the finish line. Just point in the direction of Vivendi's profit reports, they'll hand you a blank check. Not that they'll ever see that money again, but when did that stop VCs?