NCsoft Austin sheds staff

Rumors abound across the manifold tubes of the Internet over just what is (or is not) presently going on at NCsoft Austin. NCsoft's Austin office is presently home to Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, at least one unannounced fantasy MMO, and noticeably fewer developers than last week.

We have some confirmed departures, including staff from Dungeon Runners such as April 'CuppaJo' Burba, and Crickette -- The much-loved April Burba, you may recall was the newly minted Associate Producer for Dungeon Runners, having recently transferred from the Tabula Rasa team. That comes courtesy of Jester of w00tstudios.net, a well known DJ and broadcaster on the MMO scene, via the CoX forums.

Also Scott Jennings (aka Lum The Mad) is no longer with NCsoft as of today. The fate of the unannounced fantasy MMO that he was working on is unclear, Jennings reports that his whole team was let go.

There are mentions of "quite a few other" departures, though there's no word that this impacts on Tabula Rasa at this stage (pitched to move to the West Coast in any case, if you believe the rumors) and City of Heroes/Villains shouldn't be affected at all, not being an NCsoft Austin item.

You could argue that this is a reorganization and consolidation that has little to do with NCsoft's whopping 60% drop in quarterly operating profits. Sure, you could argue that, but we don't think that's the way to bet.

NCsoft was not immediately available for comment. We'll keep you posted, as we are expecting additional information from them later in the day.