Trion Worlds is latest developer company to be hit with a massive round of layoffs. The company behind the recently released MMO Defiance, has laid off a huge chunk of its staff. However, Trion Worlds later confirmed that they weren't as high as the originally-rumored 70-80 percent.
Despite the earlier news that RIFT, one of the Trion's two major MMO titles, would be changed to a free-to-play business model later this year, the massive job cut came as a surprise to many. According to the original rumor in Kotaku, it was estimated that the layoffs affected about 70 percent of the company. However, Trion Worlds later refuted this claim and says the rumored numbers are grossly exaggerated. The company then released a brief statement confirming the layoffs but nothing more.
Here is the full statement from Trion Worlds as provided by IGN:
"To best position Trion in a rapidly changing industry, we have reorganized our teams and are expanding our free to play offering. With Defiance, we delivered a great game that more than one million gamers registered to play and continue to enjoy. As we progress from launch to ongoing development of the game, we are adjusting our staffing levels to deliver new content and improved features. RIFT, and our other titles in development, were unaffected by these changes. We are very much looking forward to the free to play release of RIFT and are excited by the other new titles currently in development."
Citing unnamed sources, IGN reported that employees were being escorted out of the building and that senior leaders from various Trion teams may not receive severance due to "undelivered services." However, it later updated the report saying a Trion representative has termed that all these claims are "100 percent false."
