{"id":60660,"date":"2019-02-26T03:09:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T10:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/guild-wars-2-developer-arenanet-confirms-layoffs-and-canceled-projects\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T03:09:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T10:09:03","slug":"guild-wars-2-developer-arenanet-confirms-layoffs-and-canceled-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/guild-wars-2-developer-arenanet-confirms-layoffs-and-canceled-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet confirms layoffs and canceled projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ArenaNet is best known for Guild Wars 2, an online role-playing video game. (ArenaNet Screenshot)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ArenaNet, the video game maker behind Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, confirmed Monday that it\u2019s laying off employees and canceling projects.<\/p>\n

The confirmantion followed a report from Kotaku<\/a>\u00a0last week. The Bellevue, Wash.-based studio did not say how many employees were affected. The canceled projects had not yet been announced.\u00a0ArenaNet,\u00a0which employs more than 400 people according to LinkedIn<\/a>, is owned by South Korean video game developer NCSoft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is part of a larger organizational restructuring within NCSoft in the west, but the Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 game services will not be affected, nor is any upcoming game content canceled,\u201d the company said in a statement provided to GeekWire.<\/p>\n

Citing an internal email, Kotaku reported that NCSoft West\u2019s CEO Songyee Yoon told employees: \u201cOur live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased \u2026 Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colleagues and fans took to Twitter\u00a0to show support for the affected employees using the hashtag #Love4ArenaNet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Friends, today is going to be very very hard for all of us, whether people stay at the company or not.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to spread some love and appreciation for the devs, the stories we told and those we won\u2019t get to tell, tweet some positive thoughts under #Love4ArenaNet<\/a> today. ?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jennifer Scheurle (@Gaohmee) February 25, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Lead narrative designer Aaron Linde announced that he was leaving ArenaNet\u00a0on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\n

Welp, I spent the weekend thinking about it, and I’ve decided that I’m gonna be leaving ArenaNet. Really tough decision. I adore these people. I’ll miss them so. pic.twitter.com\/oa17GYUhGf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Aaron Linde (@aaronlinde) February 25, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This was the third recent restructuring in the video game industry. Last week, EA\u2019s Australian studio FireMonkeys also announced layoffs affecting an estimated 40 to 50 people<\/a>, according to the organization Game Workers Unite Australia. Activision Blizzard also said earlier this month that it would cut 8 percent of its staff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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ArenaNet is best known for Guild Wars 2, an online role-playing video game. (ArenaNet Screenshot) ArenaNet, the video game maker behind Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, confirmed Monday that it\u2019s laying off employees and canceling projects. The confirmantion followed a report from Kotaku\u00a0last week. The Bellevue, Wash.-based studio did not say how many employees… Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":60661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[174,377],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games-media","category-gaming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t