"New" company on the MMO scene.

Might explain some of the problems Blizzard is facing meeting expansion expectations.

Recently, several former Blizzard employees who have been working on World of Warcraft left the company announcing that they had raised 18 and a half million dollars to fund their newly created MMO development company: Red 5 Studios.

http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/general-news/community-news/173/blizzard-employees-leave-to-start-mmo-game-dev-company/

The full yahoo story which link dosent work anymore.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Red 5 Studios, an online video-game developer led by members of the team behind the wildly popular "World of Warcraft" game, said on Monday it has raised $18.5 million in venture capital.

The funding from Benchmark Capital and Sierra Ventures comes as a rise in high-speed Internet usage in the United States and elsewhere fuels interest in online gaming -- the standard mode of play in many Asian countries.

"World of Warcraft" from Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment provides an online world in which thousands of players compete simultaneously. Revenue comes from game sales of about $20 per unit, subscription fees of some $15 per month, and downloads of add-on content.

The game has obliterated former usage records with a subscriber base of more than 6.5 million globally, and forced U.S. video-game publishers to rethink online gaming as development costs climb.

In the United States, games for consoles like Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news).'s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 are dominant. Top titles sell for $50 to $60, and play time is often measured in hours rather than months.

Mark Kern, Red 5's chief executive and former team leader on "World of Warcraft," said his California-based game studio will create original games for online game operators and distributors -- much as Pixar Animation Studios did in the movie world with its animated films such as "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo."

"Pixar really showed that you can have a content-focused strategy," Kern said of the animated film maker that is now owned by the Walt Disney Co.

Red 5 is already working on a massively multiplayer online game for Webzen Inc. The South Korean company is financing the development of the game, which Webzen will distribute.

Online games are currently sold at retail outlets or via Internet download.

Benchmark General Partner Bill Gurley predicted that massive online games like "World of Warcraft" will become a dominant form of entertainment.

"Major media companies are paying attention in a major way," said Gurley, whose firm's investments have included "Second Life" virtual reality game maker Linden Lab and mobile game maker Jamdat, which sold to video game publishing giant Electronic Arts Inc. earlier this year for $684 million.

although this didnt happen exactly recently its kidna intresting the turnover devs face and how it shows up further down the production path.

Good luck! You'll need it!

BadMojo wrote:

Good luck! You'll need it! :)

I definitely named the thread wrong and will rename it. Im not trying to expose this company and create hype for whatever they do. What interests me more is when a company is on the top and people start splintering off for whatever reasons how does the company stay on top in the long run while bleeding talent. I'm using the WoW example because they are clearly king right now of what others want but 2 months into the expansion there's a growing wave of malaise from certain camps of players that the game is actually going backwards in quality checks and design.

problem is I cant think of a good title

Might explain some of the problems Blizzard is facing meeting expansion expectations.

Huh? Wha? Yeah, that part where they sold more copies of the expansion in 1 day than any PC game had sold in a full month must have been a disappointment.

Anyway, it's like being the team that wins the Super Bowl. You always lose some starters to success.

how does the company stay on top in the long run while bleeding talent.

Considering that Blizzard has been on top for more than a decade while shedding the best talent in the industry to venture projects indicates that the magic is in the methods employed by the company and not the individual talent itself. Companies can sustain that are built on sound models regardless of the names that pass through the doors. It's the Rockstar developers that live and die on a "name" that are flashes in the pan.

Let me try and elaborate more and flesh out what I meant. The expectations that are not being met are not blizzards but of some groups of players.

Recently in the past couple of days 2 active and vocal communities within WoW have been irked with news.

The first being the raiding community who have received confirmation from the bleeding edge content guilds that quality testing of instances has actually reverted backwards closer to AQ40 quality from Naxx which they were holding as the new gold standard of quality. This hit its peak with Nilhium after their world first Lady Vashj kill where they pretty much declare the encounter near impossible in its current state because of lack of game testing. Other raiding concerns are not a proper 25 man raid progression, future of consumable use and lack of meaning full gear progression.

Being a player who played WoW for its raiding side recently my guild that formed for TBC raiding disbanded and instead of trying to relocate and regroup I canceled my subscription. Not trying to say that me or my guilds fate is the overwhelming trend but it seems to be similar to whats happening to other people from the raiding forums I read. Other guild leaders from a wide range of servers are also reporting a general un-happines with current raid content.

The other group of players who were hit with bad news was some of the players involved in the 5v5 Arena tournament and even had aspirations of qualifying for the live event. Blizzard recently released the official rules of the contest and some of the more sticky points are some battle groups wont even be represented at all because the they are too small, you can only bring 5 players although blizzard allows you to form teams of up to 10 and if you reside in certain states you are also not eligible. Although some of these things are out of Blizzards control some players and teams still feel hard done on as these rules were only presented much later.

Im not trying to say that WoW is dying or that Blizzard is doomed just that for every group of employees that leave in public fashion like the Red 5 Studio guys how many more invisible designers and testers are leaving for whatever reasons and is it now starting to show up in the problems 2 months after launch.

The expectations that are not being met are not blizzards but of some groups of players.

That makes more sense. You had kind of combined a business story with that, and my impression was you were suggesting there was an evacuation from Blizzard because of disappointing results with TBC.

I sympathize with the raiding community, but I sincerely doubt that the extremely limited complaints of a small segment of the WoW community (though, certainly the loudest) are having any effect on the movemenets of personnel. I certainly imagine as a heavy raiding player the news of the raids seems monolithic, but in general it barely registers on most people's radar if at all.

I think the loss of talent is an endless and certain cycle, and that Blizzard hasn't lost more people is a testament to its strength. Think of Blizzard as the Super Bowl Patriots rather than the Super Bowl Rams.

Considering that Blizzard has been on top for more than a decade while shedding the best talent in the industry to venture projects indicates that the magic is in the methods employed by the company and not the individual talent itself. Companies can sustain that are built on sound models regardless of the names that pass through the doors. It's the Rockstar developers that live and die on a "name" that are flashes in the pan.

Absolutely. And I would add to that the fact that the "Rockstar" developers that have been able to amass the most longevity are the ones that do walk the walk while talking minimal talk. People hear Sid Meier, Will Wright, John Carmack etal do talk but they are mostly to the point rather than pie in the sky. They are also programmers so they can do more than just illustrate their ideas. They can roll up their sleeves and make them work. And so they whether the storm when those around them pull David Carusos.

jowner wrote:

Let me try and elaborate more and flesh out what I meant. The expectations that are not being met are not blizzards but of some groups of players.

Ultimately, this is the problem with developing any MMO. You can go after the hardcore segment, and sacrifice the bottom line, meaning kill any chance of hitting something remotely close to the numbers Blizzard has put up. EVE is a pretty good example of this, and is an outstanding game; it's just never going to get to the WoW level of success. The dev team there is fine with it, and that's what matters. You can go after the PvP segment, and again, we see this in EVE.

Vanguard tried to go after the hardcore segment. They dumped a ton of money into development, pulled what I've seen called a 'Carmack'[1], and ultimately had to make a lot of sacrifices to their vision, and we see the result of that. They were forced into releasing early, and are paying the piper with a community backlash. Currently, unless they can turn Vanguard around, I see it being in the same boat, similar to what happened to SWG, as perhaps that's actually a better comparison. Wonderful concept, executed less that wonderfully, and driven into the ground by corporate shills. Should Vanguard be driven into the ground in the same manner as SWG, I'll mourn its passing in the same way that I did for SWG. I enjoy WoW immensely, and while I had no plans to play Vanguard, I applauded it for trying to do something different. People are so concentrated on killing WoW that they lose sight of what really matters; making games that people enjoy.

[1] I borrow this term from various places around the internet. John Carmack, of id Software, as we all know left to form Ion Storm. Daikatana, which was supposed to be the greatest FPS of all time, because of the amount of money and time spent on it, ultimately flopped on it's face in a more stunning fashion than the guy who face planted on American Idol(which was hilarious, IMO).

AnimeJ wrote:

[1] I borrow this term from various places around the internet. John Carmack, of id Software, as we all know left to form Ion Storm. Daikatana, which was supposed to be the greatest FPS of all time, because of the amount of money and time spent on it, ultimately flopped on it's face in a more stunning fashion than the guy who face planted on American Idol(which was hilarious, IMO).

Er, I think you mean John Romero. Carmack is the genius programmer, and is still at id.

Right: http://www.idsoftware.com/business/t...

Tyrian wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

[1] I borrow this term from various places around the internet. John Carmack, of id Software, as we all know left to form Ion Storm. Daikatana, which was supposed to be the greatest FPS of all time, because of the amount of money and time spent on it, ultimately flopped on it's face in a more stunning fashion than the guy who face planted on American Idol(which was hilarious, IMO).

Er, I think you mean John Romero. Carmack is the genius programmer, and is still at id.

Right: http://www.idsoftware.com/business/t...

/teached. You are indeed correct. I'd been thinking about that, but since I can't really look up a great deal of stuff on the internets(it's a small miracle I can actually post), I figured some other kind soul would hook that up.

/tipo'thehat

I think it also boils down to the fact that most employees who know/think they are valuable tend to have aspirations beyond their current situations (no matter what that situation might be). Most of the time the people who are content to just sit and do their job and get by are not the ones who will drive your company to the forefront of whatever industry you are involved in. It's the guys who have dreams and ambition who make sh*t happen. Once you have released your product to the markets and driven the masses wild are these people really going to want to sit around and fix minor bugs and/or balance issues? I know I wouldn't. Onward to the next big thing *shrug*.