Funcom - Layoffs

Ten Ton Hammer are reporting (rumour) that Funcom have fired 70% of their customer service people in the US.

Rumor has it that Funcom fired about 70% of their U.S. Workforce today. Sources say that they were released this morning, the cuts are mostly in the Customer Service and Quality Assurance departments. What this means for Age of Conan and the rest of Funcom is uncertain, but Ten Ton Hammer will keep you updated as this story unfolds.

More information.

Well, customer subscriptions are down so they should be able to make cuts in customer service. Cutting QA, though? Aren't they just about to release a DX10 version??

They replaced the customer service with volunteers just like in AO. Much better put that money into development since thats what the game needs most right now. Also since there is a recession and the subscriptions are down its just natural for them to do cuts right now - especially in US.

Som are allready making this look like the end of AoC but I dont see it like that. Funcom has too much invested just to throw away everything - and besides old and dated AO this is their only milking cow. I doubt they would be easy on pulling the plug on it.

They are launching the game soon in new areas (dont remember where - russia/asia?) so new revenue is in horizon. I havent seen that mentioned in many sites.

Not really a big surprise. Almost all big companies have to reduce the number of employees (and a lot of smaller ones simply vanish), due to the economic situation in the world right now. Unfortunately, I very much doubt the gaming industry will somehow avoid the crisis (I see no reason they should).