Fallen Earth team responds to layoff concerns

Icarus dropped quite a bombshell on the gaming world late last week with the restructuring of the Fallen Earth team. Restructuring in this case led to the layoff of the vast majority of the staff, leaving the Fallen Earth community shocked and wondering what this meant for the game.

The rumors flew fast and furious as some claimed to know for certain that 80% of the team had been let go, others predicted with certainty that this was simply a prelude to the end of Fallen Earth, and so on. We at Massively were just as curious as anyone, so we went straight to the source. Fallen Earth Marketing Manager Jessica "Circatrix" Orr took some time out of her busy schedule to let us know where matters stand, so follow along after the jump to see what she had to say.

Massively: Many fans have speculated that this is just a natural progression of any game studio's life after launch. Once a game is out of the development stage and up and running, less staff is needed. But some rumors are saying 80% of the staff was cut. Is this accurate?

Jessica Orr: We had 110 employees, and we are currently at 35. The original numbers we got reflected a staff of 28, but 35 people are currently employed, and that doesn't include GMs or customer support staff. The contributions made by our team to date have been phenomenal, and we don't want to downplay that at all. But we all understand that for the health of the company and the game as a whole, this was a necessary step. We have a core team comprised of folks from the departments, and we're eager to push forward on our goals and milestones.

Speculation has even reached as far as to say that Lee Hammock left because he saw this coming. Can you comment at all on that?

Yes, I can say with certainty that Lee didn't have any knowledge of what was going on. Lee accepted an opportunity that was a good fit for him, and we wish him the best of luck in his new endeavors.

Moving forward, we've heard that these layoffs will not affect patch 1.4, 1.5 and beyond. What will these layoffs affect?

The layoffs won't affect the schedule and planned timing of upcoming patches. In the past, we've had a lot of projects on the table, but recent decisions have elevated a few key priorities. As a company, we are concentrating our effort on continued development and production of Fallen Earth.

Thanks for your time, Jessica.