Rumor: Mythic layoffs affect QA, customer support

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jan 19th 2009 at 2:59PM }

On Friday, January 16th, we heard through the tubes that layoffs had struck at EA's Mythic Entertainment, currently riding ~~high~~ acceptably with Warhammer Online. Here's what we were told: 21 customer service employees, half of QA and all of the playtest group were let go. We followed up with EA for a statement regarding the matter.

EA's corporate communications informed us that the publisher already announced a "cost-cutting initiative that includes facility closures and a headcount reduction," impacting about 10% of employees. The company doesn't plan to make any further announcements outside of its scheduled earnings report and can't give particular information about facilities.

Specific questions about the status and future of Warhammer Online were not answered. All the best to the EA employees who still have their jobs -- we'll try to get an EA butcher's bill together if we learn more.

Tags: ea, ea-mythic, electronic-arts, layoffs, mythic-entertainment, warhammer-online

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SoulBlade @ Jan 19th 2009 3:02PM

Sweeet buggy games and nobody to pick up the phone when we complain. Best move ever.

Rudolphe @ Jan 19th 2009 4:09PM

"Best move ever."
That should've been "Best. Move. Ever."

Darkhand @ Jan 19th 2009 3:12PM

Oh no so you mean they are removing the customer support people that can't ever fix any problems when I'm playing WAR anyway?

Chest Not Lootable = Make Bug Report
Item goes to wrong person = Make Bug Report
Mob not showing up = Make Bug Report

MMO Customer support is about as useful as a pair of Glow in the Dark Sunglasses.

arti57 @ Jan 19th 2009 3:44PM

Can you guys give us some idea as to the source of this since I'm not seeing it reported anywhere else?

LaughingTarget @ Jan 19th 2009 4:23PM

Rumors usually don't have traceable sources.

arsenyv @ Jan 19th 2009 3:39PM

WoW strikes again.

Bobaganush @ Jan 19th 2009 7:48PM

are you stupid? Do you not know what is going on in the United States right now? This has nothing to do with WoW and everything to do with the failing economy.

Strategy_Panda (The Sandwich Poisoning Crew) @ Jan 19th 2009 3:40PM

Thats to bad. I was hoping WAR could gather enough of a following to stay in the MMO game. Heavy QA doesn't seem necessary at this point, so hopefully the layoffs won't effect the final product.

Hey Apples @ Jan 19th 2009 3:58PM

So if they're killing their playtesting and QA teams, we're right back to DAoC style patches.

Matt @ Jan 19th 2009 4:57PM

Why not "all the best" to the employees who LOST their jobs??

Hardy @ Jan 19th 2009 5:44PM

Because the term "racist" can easily fit into how people treat other MMOs besides WoW, and sometimes including WoW.

Deck @ Jan 19th 2009 6:19PM

That's too bad.. laying off customer support in an MMO would have negative effects I would think. Heh

ill trooper @ Jan 19th 2009 7:08PM

Dead meme is dead.

So 'Meta,' huh?

smcn @ Jan 19th 2009 9:27PM

There was a QA team working on Warhammer? Few, if any, of the bugs I reported in beta were fixed when the game shipped. Even the bug reporting tool itself was buggy, sometimes to the point of being unusable. You can't ship an MMO without polish in a post-WoW world, I'd have hoped Mythic would be the company to realize this.