mmo-business
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Frontier lays off 15 employees
Frontier Developments has axed 15 positions from its Halifax studio somewhat unexpectedly, leaving this branch of the overall studio with a somewhat hazy future. According to investor reports, the move is the result of a refocusing of the company's business plan around its two major games, and with all of the expertise on Elite: Dangerous and the upcoming Coaster Park Tycoon concentrated in Cambridge, it simply made more sense to reduce staff in the satellite studio. No word on what this means for the long-term health of the Halifax location, which may very well be facing the axe as well. Our deep consolation goes to all employees affected by the layoffs.
World of Warcraft down to 7.7 million subscribers
Back in May, we were told that World of Warcraft subscriptions had fallen to 8.3 million. Now there are reports that the MMO has lost even more subscribers, dropping to 7.7 million subscribers worldwide. Those of you keeping score at home will probably recognize that the game hasn't fallen below 8 million since before the game's first expansion launched some six years ago. On the one hand, World of Warcraft is obviously nowhere near failure, considering that it's still far and away the game with the largest number of subscribers on the market. On the other hand, that margin is slowly shrinking, and the game continues to have a slow decline of subscriptions over the past several months. It's unsure when the game will be getting its next expansion, but we know that changes are coming to the game's business model, so it's quite possible that Blizzard still has some tricks up its sleeves.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy and free-to-play
Subscriptions are dying. There's no two ways about it. Star Wars: The Old Republic is switching over, and whether or not they liked the game, fans of Final Fantasy XIV have no room to throw stones about the game's success. That leaves a handful of holdouts in the normal subscription space, and that doesn't include the next major release on the horizon, as Guild Wars 2 is under the same buy-to-play model as its predecessor. Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI are two of the holdouts. And in a world increasingly dominated by games without subscription fees, that's pretty significant. So the question becomes whether or not the games will embrace the free-to-play option, whether or not they should, and how this sort of option could work in the game's favor rather than against it. After all, there are some roadblocks to making the system work quite right, but there's a lot of pressure on the market for a change.
Shanda Games going back to private ownership
If you've been following development on Eligium, you're probably at least passingly familiar with the name Shanda Games. You'd be more familiar with it in China, since the company also operates a variety of games from other markets, including Aion, MapleStory, and Dungeons & Dragons Online. And after having a record-breaking quarter, the company is moving in the opposite direction of what you might expect from a successful company: It's going private. The requisite stocks were purchased by a single family, so the company moving out of the public market. All shares will be jointly purchased by a parent company headed by Shanda's CEO, Shanda's COO (the CEO's son), and the company director (the CEO's wife). A $180 million loan was taken out to ensure that the stocks could be traded, with the purchasers buying shares at a higher price to help ensure the transfer. The board of directors has already approved this move, which means that it should go through without a hitch before the first quarter of 2012.
