Unkillable Cat's Unpatriotic CCP Mockery Thread (aka WoD got cancelled)

[Zed]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/14/56...elled-as-ccp-atlanta-is-hit-with-redundancies

World of Darkness canceled as CCP Atlanta is hit with layoffs

World of Darkness, the in-development massively multiplayer online title based on the Vampire: The Masquerade universe, is no more, developer CCP announced today.

The cancellation of World of Darkness will result in layoffs of 56 employees at CCP's Atlanta office, it was confirmed, with a number of staff offered roles within the company.

"The decision to end the World of Darkness MMO project is one of the hardest I've ever had to make," CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson said in a prepared statement. "I have always loved and valued the idea of a sandbox experience set in that universe, and over the years I've watched the team passionately strive to make that possible.

"... To our current and former employees and fans of World of Darkness, I am truly sorry that we could not deliver the experience that we aspired to make. We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short. One day I hope we will make it up to you."

The remaining team in Atlanta will focus on developing games within the Eve universe, making the first time the company has worked on a single games universe as a whole since 2006. The studio is currently working on Eve Online, Dust 514 and Eve Valkyrie.

CCP has kept quiet about World of Darkness game since its initial reveal in 2006. The massively multiplayer title was brought into full production in 2009; however, the company laid off approximately 15 members of staff last December, in what the company called a "strategic adjustment" in Atlanta.

"The change was due to our evaluation of the game's design and ongoing development needs," read a statement from the studio at the time. "While this was a difficult decision, CCP remains committed to the franchise and our promise to make a compelling, rich and deep World of Darkness experience."

The long in-development game was said to incorporate the open-world sandbox style of DayZ and Rust, while maintaining the core dynamics of being either human or vampire. In 2013, executive producer Chris McDonough said the game was still years away from launch. At the time, CCP had a team of at least 70 working on the title and plans to include web-based social tools and player-versus-environment systems.

over-ambitious title by studio who made a game which was successful solely due to player-generated content.
too bad about the lay-offs but this was pretty predictable.

 

[Turisas]

How long has it been in full dev? Must've burned quite a bit of isk by now. Maybe they should turn it into a single-player game, that turned out so well for Kingdoms of Amalur.

 

[Minttunator]

Official press release: http://www.ccpgames.com/en/public-r...s-halts-development-of-world-of-darkness-mmo/

Most of us probably saw it coming (I think the game had been in pre-production for something like 8 years), but this news still broke my heart. I had been looking forward to WoD (though with ever-declining hope that it would actually get finished within my lifetime) ever since it was announced.

 

[Space Satan]

and nothing of value was lost

 

[Hellraiser]

A pity, then again I'm getting too tired of office intrigue to engage in powerplay backstabbing in an MMO.

 

[Black]

and nothing of value was lost

You don't look like Brother None to me, buddy.

 

[Durwyn]

Good, maybe now White Wolf guys will pull their heads out of their asses and give WoD IP to a company which may produce something of value (SP cRPG but in these days I'm afraid it will be a MOBA or Mobile F2P)

 

[Rahdulan]

Good, maybe now White Wolf guys will pull their heads out of their asses and give WoD IP to a company which may produce something of value (SP cRPG but in these days I'm afraid it will be a MOBA or Mobile F2P)

That might be difficult considering CCP owns White Wolf. Funny, really. They bought them specifically because they wanted to make this MMO and avoid any licensing shenanigans.

 

[Hellraiser]

If they axed jobs and ditched the project they sunk money into then getting money back by licensing WoD is a logical next step.

 

[Morality Games]

How long has it been in full dev? Must've burned quite a bit of isk by now. Maybe they should turn it into a single-player game, that turned out so well for Kingdoms of Amalur.

Well, maybe somebody could.

 

[Durwyn]

Good, maybe now White Wolf guys will pull their heads out of their asses and give WoD IP to a company which may produce something of value (SP cRPG but in these days I'm afraid it will be a MOBA or Mobile F2P)

That might be difficult considering CCP owns White Wolf. Funny really. They bought them specifically because they wanted to make this MMO and avoid any licensing shenanigans.

Jesus, in this case the scenario for MOBA or F2P mobile cash-grab is even more probable, if they would like to quickly compensate for the MMO disaster.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The morons could have got Obsidian to make a successor to Bloodlines instead of wasting money on this.

 

[DeepOcean]

I saw this for a mile, hate MMOs with their retarded shenanigans with a passion, nothing was lost here.

 

[Duraframe300]

The morons could have got Obsidian to make a successor to Bloodlines instead of wasting money on this.

Well

They cancelled that project (Well not a bloodlines successor, but a WOD game) when they bought/merged with White Wolf back in 2006/7.

 

[Morality Games]

If they developed any meaningful assets, they could hand them off to a thirty-party developer to help offset the publishing costs of making a single-payer RPG.

Gaming development companies rarely make the awesome choice, however.

 

[Hobo Elf]

How long has it been in full dev?

After nearly 7 years all they had to show for was some concept art. I'm guessing that actual development never happened.

Good, maybe now White Wolf guys will pull their heads out of their asses and give WoD IP to a company which may produce something of value (SP cRPG but in these days I'm afraid it will be a MOBA or Mobile F2P)

That might be difficult considering CCP owns White Wolf. Funny really. They bought them specifically because they wanted to make this MMO and avoid any licensing shenanigans.

Jesus, in this case the scenario for MOBA or F2P mobile cash-grab is even more probable, if they would like to quickly compensate for the MMO disaster.

With that said I'm pretty sure CCP laid off the entire White Wolf staff save for a few people after the acquisition. It's dead.

 

[Norfleet]

I told you this was vaporware.

 

[garren]

How about letting Obsidian make that VtM RPG now, CCP?

 

[J1M]

How about letting Obsidian make that VtM RPG now, CCP?

Should be an easy deal to close. Just threaten to make an Underworld RPG if they refuse.

 

[made]

More money to build CCP monuments all over Iceland.

Pity though, I was looking forward to "roleplaying" a vampire... if you know what I mean.

 

[Ninjerk]

If they axed jobs and ditched the project they sunk money into then getting money back by licensing WoD is a logical next step.

Can you possibly see a scenario where they license it out to someone who will make anything worth a shit?

 

[Azrael the cat]

WoD sounds like it would be a great setting for a mmorpg, until you remember that setting and lore in mmorpgs exist solely as drapes to put over the raid mechanics - will Frodo, Frodor, Frodike, Frodereke and their 20 brothers destroy the one ring, or will they grind Golum for legendary drops?

 

[Rahdulan]

So some pre-alpha screenshots were apparently leaked on 4chan yesterday just before the announcement about cancellation was made public. This was one of them.

 

[RK47]

Shut down by the Camarilla.
A pity, the Venture looks impressive too.

 

[Kem0sabe]

So some pre-alpha screenshots were apparently leaked on 4chan yesterday just before the announcement about cancellation was made public. This was one of them.

If that's the best they can show after god knows how many years of development, then CCP was right to shut it down.