{"id":4428,"date":"2017-11-03T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T19:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/308959"},"modified":"2017-11-03T19:27:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T19:27:00","slug":"gigantic-developer-motiga-has-been-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/11\/03\/gigantic-developer-motiga-has-been-shut-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Gigantic developer Motiga has been shut down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gigantic<\/em> developer Motiga has been shuttered according to reports from multiple\u00a0employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As reported by Destructoid<\/a>, the studio was apparently closed by Gigantic<\/em> publisher Perfect World, which quietly acquired the company<\/a> in May last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Various Motiga staffers broke the news<\/a> on social media<\/a>, but studio CEO and co-founder Chris Chung confirmed the story with a candid statement, though he later admitted he might not have “all the facts.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“All of Motiga was acquired by Perfect World last year. Perfect World decided to announce the arrangement as partnership by the directions from corporate for the reason we were not privy to,” he commented.<\/p>\n

“Yes, [the closure] was the corporate decision. It was a budgetary decision at the highest level. Perfect World as a public company has a profitability goal and they decided to cut parts of the company that were not profitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In\u00a0short, Gigantic<\/em> was not making enough revenue. Unfortunately, Motiga is not the only Perfect World studio being impacted by the decision.”<\/p>\n

Although it’s not exactly clear what went on behind closed doors, it might not come as a huge surprise.\u00a0Motiga has\u00a0flirted with layoffs and cutbacks for the best part of two years, often making headlines<\/a> for those exact reasons<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It meant Gigantic<\/em> had a rocky road to release, and had to be rescued by Perfect World after funds ran dry. While the game finally launched earlier this year, it’s now unclear what the future holds for the free-to-play MOBA.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong>\u00a0Gamasutra has received\u00a0confirmation from Perfect World that significant layoffs have occurred\u00a0at Motiga, reducing the staff to only a “core team of developers” to support\u00a0Gigantic.<\/em> Additionally, the publisher has revealed that it has closed Runic Games’ Seattle office<\/a>. The full statement can be found below:<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the news that Motiga has reduced the staff of its studio, Perfect World Entertainment can confirm that as the publisher of\u00a0Gigantic<\/em>, the game will continue to be available on our platforms. A core team of developers remains at Motiga, who will work with us to support the game and its players, including moving full steam ahead with the upcoming November update and future content. We cannot thank everyone enough for their contributions in making Gigantic the outstanding experience it is today.
\u00a0
Perfect World Entertainment recently closed the Seattle office of Runic Games as part of the company\u2019s continued strategy to focus on online games as a service. We\u2019re grateful to the team for all of their hard work bringing incredible experiences like\u00a0Torchlight<\/em>,\u00a0Torchlight<\/em>\u00a02<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Hob<\/em>\u00a0to life. Runic Games will remain a part of Perfect World Entertainment\u2019s portfolio of studios, and its games will continue to be available to players, as we stay committed to supporting and growing Runic Games\u2019 beloved franchises.
\u00a0
The staff reduction at Motiga and the closure of Runic Games Seattle were unrelated. Perfect World Entertainment stands committed to delivering the best massively multiplayer online gameplay experiences to our players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gigantic developer Motiga has been shuttered according to reports from multiple\u00a0employees.\u00a0 As reported by Destructoid, the studio was apparently closed by Gigantic publisher Perfect World, which quietly acquired the company in May last year.\u00a0 Various Motiga staffers broke the news on social media, but studio CEO and co-founder Chris Chung confirmed the story with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}