Massively OP has received a credible tip from a former Gazillion employee who told us under condition of anonymity that Marvel Heroes will be over significantly sooner than Disney and Marvel previously declared.
The ex-employee says he was terminated as of today, that Gazillion is being shut down entirely, and that Marvel Heroes will sunset this coming Friday, not at the end of the year as originally announced.
The termination letter written by CEO Dave Dohrmann was shared with Massively OP and claims that banking creditors have effectively pulled the plug on the company, leading to the termination of almost every employee at the studio and the apparent renege of benefits including accrued PTO.
A representative for Marvel told us last week that the game would remain online until the end of December, but the letter says that Marvel directed Gazillion to prepare the sunset ASAP; we expect an announcement soon. You can read up on the whole sorry saga in our last summary.
We have reached out to Gazillion, Marvel, and Disney for comment. Our hearts go out to the innocent devs whose holidays and lives just got flung into turmoil.
Marvel lawyer number 1….”Ever wonder why we take a pittance from these subcontractor license agreements?”.
Marvel lawyer number 2, “It has crossed my mind. We could be making ALL the profit if we had our own in house publisher for MMO’s.”
Marvel lawyer number 1, “Gazillion’s license renewal is coming up in a few months.”
Marvel Lawyer number 2, “…..Hmmm, You thinking what I am thinking?”.
Marvel Lawyer number 1, “….heh….”.
The next story is did anyone profit more by closing early and with the “debt collectors” on the prowl? It would seem odd that Marvel would just say shut it down now knowing that closing something that already agreed to close at the end of the year, would just come off looking terrible from a PR perspective. Something doesn’t add up.
Just confirmed with my cousin who works (worked) at Gazillion that yes, they laid off everyone, and the game is likely to shut down on or by Monday. Sucks, Merry Christmas to them I guess. :(
Still up as of Saturday 7:00 am CT, at least on PS4
Same on PC.
Logged in today and got my highest hero, Colossus, to 60. It was bittersweet. Goodbye Marvel Heroes.
I can see a GAME shutting down…but how did this nuke an entire company? Plenty of companies have licenses and then move on to other things. Wonder why they couldn’t keep going? Or is this the owner taking his football when he gets called home?
Cost/Benefit – no reason to use one of the most valuable IP’s in the history of everything to make a game that’s not, at least, as profitable as other endeavors. The effort(s) can be better spent elsewhere.
If any Gazillion devs are reading this: Riot always needs people, especially artists, designers, and engineers.
^^^
Sucks that they lost Paid Time Off benefits at termination, but that doesn’t excuse the Company from knowingly continuing to charge for items and Gazillion saying “It’s all fine” for about a full month and effectively now ripping off customers who were initially told by both Gazillion and Disney the game would run through December 2017.
And what do we think the chances are that the suits are not getting PTO, severence, medical insurance etc? Somehow I doubt they will be suffering like they are making their hard working devs.
Gotta say I’m particularly disgusted that they lied to the press and the community. Right to our faces.
They wanted to count every last bean.
I was thinking about this in relation to SWG. It seems like there was clearly a time (maybe even in 2011?) when it was implied that Galaxies was fine even though we knew Swtor was coming, then all of a sudden the two couldn’t coexist and Galaxies would have to close.
This article has a quote from Smedley saying they could have kept Galaxies open which seems crazy. https://www.cinemablend.com/games/Why-Star-Wars-Galaxies-Shutting-Down-33425.html
At the moment I’m not sure how any studio could top Marvel Heroes as the shittiest shutdown ever but it seems pretty certain someone will try.
Looks like the source(s) that reported the game closing (so far, all of them) have also been lying right to your (being the press) faces. No real reason to bother asking anyone that’s worked there anything at this point. Literally every single story that’s been published has either predicted something from a source that hasn’t happened, or features blatant inaccuracy about benefits, PTO, etc.
I don’t think laid-off devs and sources lied fwiw. It’s way more likely that there’s nobody there to flip the switch on servers with money left on them (would you go in for that? I wouldn’t go back after a letter like that, eff that) or that the letter to staff just hasn’t been carried out in full yet.
I mean, they said something was going to happen, and it didn’t. That’s a lie. But OK, sure. Maybe they got told one thing and something else happened. I’d bet my house this isn’t what happened because…
So… Disney is leaving their IP dangling in the wind because they didn’t bother to make sure someone was contractually obligated to fulfill the physical shutdown of the servers? If you agreed to do this, and then didn’t, you would be liable for any damage Disney could prove the IP suffered from your failure to carry out the agreement. Your work in this industry would be over.
They’ve deemed this game is no longer something they’re interested in representing their brand – I assure you, they have already determined when it will be shut down and who is responsible for doing it. Who is more than one person – as there are multiple assets to physically secure after the server is physically turned off.
This is not a guy flipping a switch on a server rack and calling it a day, loading them into his pickup and driving them off into the sunset. Every machine with code on it will be secured. All the assets of the studio will be seized. Anything Disney doesn’t want after that will be scrubbed of IP and sold to cover the studio’s debts first, its creditor’s second, and then up the ladder any money that’s left goes.
The letter the employees got from the CEO said Marvel told Gaz to shut down the servers on Friday and that they would be putting out an announcement. I saw that letter myself. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet isn’t any kind of black mark on the devs who leaked the letter – it’s not their lie. I doubt it’s even the CEO’s lie. It’s far more likely the bank doesn’t care enough to send in dudes the day after Thanksgiving to rip servers from their racks in spite of what Marvel and Gaz’s plan, and Gaz’s laid off people sure weren’t going to come in on a holiday to help meet that timeline after they’d been told they wouldn’t get their benies.
Edit: Also, Disney let them have the license until the end of the year. Disney isn’t orchestrating this. It’s the bank basically calling in Gaz’s debts.
What a week! o.O
Wait, Ark is getting a sequel and not just those expansions? What this list is missing is Star Citizen drama. Maybe they can announce a sequel too.
I really hope somebody snaps up all those Gazillion devs before Christmas.