Over the weekend, former WildStar Product Director Mike Donatelli and Design Director Chris Behrens announced on Twitter that their last day working for Carbine on WildStar had come. Now we’ve learned that Lead Writer Cory Herndon is gone too.
(Business) day one of my post-Carbine era. Think I'll start with editing some VO samples and preparing for phone interviews.
— Cory J. Herndon (@HernCo) May 16, 2016
– What?
Which is to say my last day was Friday. Time to seek out new adventures. Including VO work, I hope!— Cory J. Herndon (@HernCo) May 16, 2016
While it’s tempting to assume that last week’s devastating financial report is to blame, Carbine told Massively OP last weekend that the departures are part of the layoffs that occurred back in March and that the employees just now leaving had stayed on to finish up specific projects — which we might conclude means the impending Steam launch.
“On March 11, Carbine Studios conducted a reorganization and staff reduction. While almost all of the staff cuts were effective immediately, a handful of the people impacted were asked to remain at Carbine for a few additional weeks in order to complete key projects. Today, the Carbine team remains hard at work on a number of upcoming game and content updates for WildStar.”