It looks like WotC has kept up its December tradition of layoffs, as is being reported on industry blogs across the internet. Reports on EN World show that Pramas and Dave Gross are semi-confirming the rumors, it’s a sad day and I’ll update this post as I get more information.
***Update from Lisa Stevens, Paizo CEO
Here are the names I have confirmed as of a few minutes ago:
Randy Buehler (VP of digital gaming)
Andrew Finch (director of digital games)
Stacy Longstreet (senior art director)
Julia Martin (editor)
William Meyers (creative manager, digital design)
Dave Noonan (game designer)
Jennifer Paige (online community manager)
Jennifer Powers (marketing)
Jonathan Tweet (game designer)
It looks like DDI got hit pretty hard.
Dave Noonan posted a message to EN World.
More possibilities, from EN World:
Barry Holldorf (Dir. of Facilities and Business Services)
Ian Wilkinson (Director of Operations)
Nate Heiss
10:54 pm on December 2nd, 2008 1
Damn, John Tweet designed my favorite game: Everway. Sorry to see him go, but he’s talented enough to land on his feet.
11:07 pm on December 2nd, 2008 2
Yeah, he’s one of the best game designers in the world right now.
11:15 pm on December 2nd, 2008 3
Paizo’d be smart to sign him. John Tweet is one of the best designers working.
I’m sorry to see so many folks go, especially with the DDI. I wonder if the DDI’s issues contributed to any of those decisions?
5:34 am on December 3rd, 2008 4
Wow, Dave Noonan, that one floors me given how involved he’s been in 4E’s design, marketing, and writing. Considering he’s been one of the hosts of the D&D podcast since its start & he starred in their video podcast demo of 4E, it is going to be kind of awkward when he suddenly disappears from it as well.
7:20 pm on December 3rd, 2008 5
Jennifer “Solice” Paige confirmed at http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=17367446#post17367446
10:41 am on December 4th, 2008 6
[...] a comment » It seems that a lot of people at Wizards of the Coast are being axed because of the economic meltdown: Randy Buehler (VP of digital gaming) Andrew Finch [...]
3:07 pm on December 4th, 2008 7
[...] blogs, but the Star Wars line is a massive cash cow, so maybe the folks there will weather it out. (Wizards of the Coast, [...]
4:35 am on December 6th, 2008 8
[...] Week in Magic Big news of the week is the announcement of a large number of layoffs from the digital games division at WoTC, and includes some well known names like Randy Buehler. [...]
11:51 am on December 9th, 2008 9
Tweet may have made some good designs but he made two terrible blunders that took a huge cash dent out of WotC:
Dreamblade
Hecatomb
Both had huge amounts of money invested and both stunk it up big time.
12:01 pm on December 9th, 2008 10
Tweet is not responsible for marketing or organized play, he’s responsible for game design. I’ve never played Hecatomb, for which he’s the second-credited designer, but Dreamblade is an exquisite game.
A company that wants to be known for making great games has to have great game designers. Tweet is one of the, if not the, best game designers in the country. Sacking him is proof that Wizards is no longer interested in designing games, but only in becoming a profit machine based on their two big properties and one license. That’s fine if that’s what they want to do, but it doesn’t bode well for the gaming scene.
6:37 am on December 12th, 2008 11
Some of those people should have been fired a long time ago for the MTGO 3.0 DISASTER. Its just pathetic.