Earlier this week, we learned from one of our sources that multiple developers from Gamigo’s RIFT team had been laid off from the company, which further added to the fears of MMO players that RIFT was in trouble following the sunset announcements of four other Gamigo MMOs. Initially, the studio did not respond to our inquiries, instead confirming a “change in internal structures” and telling players that “there will be a team responsible for an working on RIFT” in a locked forum thread. But by the following day, Gamigo responded to our request for a statement by telling us that it would not be relocating dev teams to Europe as rumored and that it would continue to work on its “core MMORPGs” in addition to other titles in its pipeline.
The statement actually raised more concerns for us than it answered, as the studio didn’t expressly say that RIFT was a core MMO, and in fact it mentioned incoming content for ArcheAge and Trove instead. We asked additional questions to clarify, and as of this morning, Gamigo has given us answers for those too.
When you say you’re working on core MMORPGs, does Gamigo consider RIFT one of those?
RIFT is contributing a great deal to our roster and we will continue working on the title, but we have to adjust the team structure to the size of the game and its contribution to our company.
You mention incoming news and content for Trove and ArcheAge, but what about RIFT? Is the studio able to assuage RIFT players’ fears specifically?
We’re celebrating the game’s 10th Anniversary this week, so players can look forward to various celebratory events. If there will be relevant updates in the future, we will announce them in due time. At the current stage, we cannot elaborate on the future content updates for RIFT.
You note that you’re not relocating developer teams to Europe – does this mean RIFT‘s development is still based in the US? Or does it mean a European team is simply taking it over? How many developers are working on RIFT, and where are they located?
We have multiple teams working on our games at different locations. We’ve realized that location is not as crucial as it’s been perceived during the Covid pandemic. Due to competitive reasons cannot give you any more insights about the location or size of our operational teams.
Were any games affected other than RIFT? (We’d originally been led to believe community staff from other games were also affected.)
I can, once again, assure you that, at this point in time, we have no intention of stopping development on any of our MMORPGs that you have mentioned. Also, there is and there has been no action taken to reduce any community staff on any of our projects other than the ones we announced to be shut down.
