Mythic Entertainment has posted an open letter to reassure gamers that despite EA’s recent Night of the Long Knives, the company remains committed to its games and the people who play them.
It hasn’t been a good week for EA. In its quarterly earnings call, the company revealed that another 1500 workers would be laid off and at least a dozen projects had been canceled. It was the sort of midnight massacre that makes people nervous about the amount of brown they have hanging in their closet. But in a message posted on the Warhammer Herald, Mythic said that despite having its workforce cut almost in half, everyone should remain calm because the situation is under control.
“At Mythic, we remain committed to our games and the passionate people who play them – we’re going to continue to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing,” wrote Mythic Executive Producer Jeff Hickman. “We want to assure our community that we will maintain the same high level of customer support you’ve come to expect and continue to improve our games with an exciting schedule of patches, live events and new content.”
The venerable Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot are still going strong despite their advanced years, Hickman said, and Mythic has no plans to pull the plug on either; ditto for Warhammer Online, which “has had a solid first year despite some issues that we’re working to address every day.”
“We want to thank you again for your continued commitment to our games,” Hickman said. “In return, we remain committed to providing you with the best possible gaming experiences and customer support both now and in the future.”
It’s a good pep talk on the surface, but I’m not convinced that all is well. No company can endure this kind of bloodletting and not suffer from it on some level; it’s possible that all three MMOGs will survive but I don’t believe for a second that in the short term at least, Mythic’s ambitions won’t be drastically curtailed.
