Yesterday, we learned through a trusted tipster that multiple Gamigo developers situated in the US and working on RIFT had been laid off from the company. The layoffs reportedly included both Kerilar and Acalos, long-running developers on the game, with the assumption that RIFT’s development is being shifted overseas.
We reached out to Gamigo for a statement yesterday morning, specifically asking about the impact on RIFT, Trove, and ArcheAge and whether development was being shifted to Gamigo’s European outfit. The studio did not reply to our polite inquiry [Update: We’ve updated below with the new statement], but a staffer did give a brief update to players on the forums in response to a long and panicky thread discussing the future of the game – the “change in internal structures” line appears to be an oblique confirmation of the layoffs.
“Hey everybody, let me briefly address your biggest concern(s): Rift is not going to be shut down! Most of you already noticed and pointed out a change in internal structures. While we’re not able to publicly address or communicate about those changes in detail, we can assure you that there will be a team responsible for and working on Rift (future development being part of this). If there are still any concerns or worries left about that topic, please feel free to PM one of the CMs at any time. We’ll close this thread by answering the thread’s title (Is Rift Next ?) with a clear NO!”
The news is chilling for RIFT players, who are understandably nervous following the sunset announcements of four other Gamigo MMORPGs two weeks ago. As we noted at the time, Gamigo urged players from those games into Trove and ArcheAge, but not RIFT, prompting fears about the game’s future.
