CCP is unmerging with White Wolf, get your beards out

[tmp]

My perspective is romance fiction, but as far as I can tell, the Vampire thing peaked with Twilight and True Blood and has been on a very steep hill heading down since then. (...)

Ohh, that's good info. I had no idea that ship has sailed like that even for the Twilight wave, too.

[IainC]

Would they be aiming at a young-adult paranormal romance audience though? Surely the plan is to round up all the gnarly pen and paper guys with their black leather trenchcoats?

[satael]

I thought White Wolf would have been a great IP for that since it has Nosferatus and Malkavians for those who do not care about the sparkly (Toreador) vampires.

[Numtini]

Would they be aiming at a young-adult paranormal romance audience though? Surely the plan is to round up all the gnarly pen and paper guys with their black leather trenchcoats?

I'm thinking those people no longer think it's cool after finding out their 14 year old sister was writing Twilight fanfic.

[tazelbain]

The amount of innovation required seems staggering.  There is no model of MMO that they can build on.  I don't see how Day Z helps. The only solution I can think is follow VTES and manage your vampire's empire (vampire tycoon if you will) and take only take direct control of your vampire in STO style away missions.

[tazelbain]

The IP is good and if the execution is good, than all they need to market it as anti-twighlight and they are golden.  Besides at the rate they are going, vampires ready for a comeback.

[ajax34i]

Would they be aiming at a young-adult paranormal romance audience though? Surely the plan is to round up all the gnarly pen and paper guys with their black leather trenchcoats?

I think they'll be aiming it at consoles, as that's where the money is.  And they already have the avatar system in place from Dust, so it'll be like Dust.  Train skills in real time to unlock equipment etc.

[Yoru]

Late yesterday afternoon, CCP Atlanta has either undergone massive layoffs or the entire arm got shut down - it's currently unclear which. Most employees in the foreign studios haven't received so much as an email explaining anything.

No idea what this means for the future of WOD (I expect 'indefinitely postponed'), and they're keeping this extremely quiet. Even rumormonger sites like Massively haven't picked this up yet.

UPDATE:

The CEO and Head of HR are being flown to CCP Atlanta and holding a meeting Monday. The rest of the company has been informed that they will be further informed until Tuesday, and Atlanta staff have been begged not to discuss this until then. (Management appears to have no clue how the internet works.)

The CCP Atlanta studio's head producer has been fired, and the rumor mill is going strong on this reddit thread.

UPDATE 2:

Rumor is stating that only 7 people will retain their jobs, likely the customer support/GM staff.

[Margalis]

I remember the year CCP started its US operations there were like 100 American dudes in CCP shirts at GDC and they had a lavish party as well. It seemed pretty clear back then that it was destined to crash and burn.

[satael]

I was really hoping for CCP to create a MMO (or a single player game) based on the White Wolf's IP but I guess if DUST514 was any indication it might be better this way. Still sad to hear that people are losing their jobs (due to the failures of the company executives) 

[Yoru]

Confirmed, they axed the whole Atlanta operation, save some GMs and administrative staff.

Here's the official press release. Wisely, they decided to push it out less than an hour after informing the staff of the studio closure.

CCP Games Halts Development of World of Darkness MMO

CCP Games today announced that they have cancelled the World of Darkness massively multiplayer online (MMO) game project in development in their Atlanta, GA studio.
 
As a result of the change, 56 employees of the Atlanta studio have lost their jobs.  Some team members have been offered roles on other projects inside the company, and CCP has provided severance packages and job placement assistance for those affected.  
 
The remaining team in Atlanta will focus on games in the EVE Universe, which will mark the first time since 2006 that the entirety of CCP will be working on a single universe.
 
CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson:
 
The decision to end the World of Darkness MMO project is one of the hardest I’ve ever had to make. I have always loved and valued the idea of a sandbox experience set in that universe, and over the years I’ve watched the team passionately strive to make that possible.
 
I would like to give special thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the World of Darkness MMO a reality, especially the team members affected by this decision.  Their considerable contribution to CCP will not be forgotten, and we wish them well.
 
To our current and former employees and fans of World of Darkness, I am truly sorry that we could not deliver the experience that we aspired to make.  We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short.  One day I hope we will make it up to you.
 
Although this was a tough decision that affects our friends and family, uniting the company behind the EVE Universe will put us in a stronger position moving forward, and we are more committed than ever to solidify EVE as the biggest gaming universe in the world.

Other than that, there's not much to add aside from what I already posted, above.

Edit: Permalinked to the press release.

[satael]

So they basically bought the company (White Wolf) for the ip (WoD) that they now have no use for (afaik no projects in the works that would use it). 

[WayAbvPar]

Does this mean I can't train my high sec alt to be a mage?

[HaemishM]

What a fucking shame. Maybe they can make back some of the money they pissed away by licensing the IP out to a company that actually can successfully bring a product to market.

[Fabricated]

maybe they can do a kickstarter.

[WayAbvPar]

I bet McQuaid would run it for them for a few bumps.

[Nevermore]

maybe they can do a kickstarter.

That's actually how the RPGs are done now.  Onyx Path licenses the IP from White Wolf, then does a Kickstarter to produce the book.  Now if they would ever finish that new edition of Exalted...

[sigil]

Everything I've ever seen from the WoD or Exalted universe has reinforced the opinion that it is utterly foul shit.  This may have something to do with the horrible people that I know who play those games.

[Merusk]

Everything I've ever seen from the WoD or Exalted universe has reinforced the opinion that it is utterly foul shit.  This may have something to do with the horrible people that I know who play those games.

I only knew folks who played them from AOL chatrooms back when AOL was a thing.  Considering how utterly fucked-up each and every one of them was when interacting at a personal and not a character level, I'm inclined to agree.

Even if every single thing they told me about their life was a lie, they're even worse for doing so.  It was some seriously messed-up shit.

[Simond]

Everything I've ever seen from the WoD or Exalted universe has reinforced the opinion that it is utterly foul shit.  This may have something to do with the horrible people that I know who play those games.

Yeah, it probably was the people. WW was one of (if not the) first PnP RPG studios to have anything even vaguely close to a progressive viewpoint - with one or two weird blind spots ("mundane-yet-magical RACE" with cast in stone links to "specific supernatural GROUP" being one of them).

[5150]

If the [lack of] progress in DUST is any indications of CCP's non-Eve stuff (over a year old and still doesn't have all 4 factions full represented and maybe 4 maps) this thing was never going to launch!

[Ghambit]

Everything I've ever seen from the WoD or Exalted universe has reinforced the opinion that it is utterly foul shit.  This may have something to do with the horrible people that I know who play those games.

Regardless of all that, VtM was a masterpiece.  I never even really got to play it, just bought it to read.  And VtES is still arguably the best CCG ever made; which btw is the preferred template for any WoD MMO.  Translate the base CCG + werewolf(rage) into a hefty f2p game.  Instant wealth.

Only reason this hasnt been done yet is because of... welp, CCP.   

If they decide to license it out, there will be a line of developers a mile long; no matter how many smelly trenchcoat goths are hangin about.  There is serious value with that IP, and they know this.

[Reg]

It's too bad CCP will never admit even to themselves that their success with EVE was completely accidental. They still believe that they're talented game developers.

[apocrypha]

I'm pretty certain I've used the phrase "diversify OR excel" with respect to CCP before.

[Fabricated]

Of course you've used the word excel if it's in reference to Eve.

[Bzalthek]

ba dum tish

[apocrypha]

Groan. 

[Ghambit]

It's too bad CCP will never admit even to themselves that their success with EVE was completely accidental. They still believe that they're talented game developers.

99.9% of all entrepreneurial success is accidental.  There are no special snowflakes; talent is all over the place to the point it's unrecognizable as such.  Therefore, what makes people 'successful' is typically luck...  Luck defined through social engineering typically, i.e. knowing a richfuck that'll bail you out (like in the case of EVE).  

What's the best/first hire you should make in a startup??  A hawt white girl with a Technical Communications degree.

[Yegolev]

*furious note taking*

[Furiously]

No I'm not.

[Setanta]

I would have like to see this, even as an ARPG aka The Masquerade or as an online CCG with animated play fields (do WotC still hold the CCG rights to it?). I still have my Jyhad card set as well as its remake as VTES. As a MMO - nah.

Shame though - CCP seem to recover from failures quite well as no-one cares about Dust's impact on the game and WiS is but a memory (wasn't it part of the tech-demo for WoD?). They do make some stupid decisions though, why wasn't Dust re-done for the PC when the Eve universe is PC driven?

[ajax34i]

Well, their announced summer expansion for EVE involves a complete overhaul / redo of the industry and manufacturing aspects of the game, so I guess they are focusing on EVE, but the "stupid decisions" part will remain to be seen.

I've seen some calls on their forums to sell the WoD intellectual property, but I'd surmise it's not worth much at this point and they don't want to sell for pennies.

EDIT:  I guess part of the reason why they kept the Atlanta office open at all is because of this.

[Modern Angel]

I've seen some calls on their forums to sell the WoD intellectual property, but I'd surmise it's not worth much at this point and they don't want to sell for pennies.

Onyx Path's (the company doing the RPG stuff now) Kickstarters bring in circa 1m. That's before sales in the wild. Definitely not worthless.

[ajax34i]

Yeah, they thought they were going to make the big bucks with that, enough to justify absorbing a large-ish number of people, so I'm going to guess "1 million = worthless" in their view.

[Modern Angel]

Yeah, but it's basically free money. Reckon that Onyx Path pays something like 20% in licensing fees on new books and even more on old titles (since they didn't actually produce the old titles). It doesn't take much for those sales to add up. No way do they make that much selling it at this point. Because, even if it's still selling at a decent clip, it's enough of a niche product after they yanked it from stores years ago that it's not in the broader public's view.

I have a friend who tried to buy the license for a substantially smaller RPG which he worked on extensively. They wanted nearly a million bucks. Which is ludicrous, but I can't imagine how high the asking price is for WoD if they choose to sell it. I'd bet they want 10m for it.