Once burned, twice shy, as they say. A similar explanation was offered when a large round of layoffs hit BioWare Austin, and it later turned out to be the case that the game was…well, if not actually in trouble then at least seen as being in such. That series of events ultimately ended with the game transitioning to a hybrid subscription/free-to-play model, of course…and I find myself led to suspect that “reducing staff to appropriate levels to support” X, Y, and Z titles is the new “nothing to see here” in the world of corporate male bovine excrement. Surprise layoffs aren’t typically a good sign (see: 38 Studios) either.
Is Portalarium in trouble? You wouldn’t necessarily think so, given that they recently secured a good $7 million in venture capital, and also entered into a partnership with Zynga. Zynga hasn’t been doing very well financially of late; could it be that they’ve scaled back their support for Portalarium’s development efforts?
According to GameBanshee, at least, development of the Ultimate RPG hasn’t been affected by this, which is something. Still, if the company is falling on fiscal difficulties, does the possibility exist that we’ll see Garriott turn to crowdfunding to raise any additional needed capital? Is an Ultimate RPG Kickstarter on — or just over — the horizon?
Or am I making mountains out of molehills?
