A shift to a more studio-centric approach in game development and support will impact 70 to 90 employees at NCsoft West, the game developer said today.
In order to solidify and streamline company operations across all NCsoft West territories, we are implementing some structural changes this week which will impact 70 to 90 employees. We are working with these employees to determine the best fit for approximately 80 alternate positions within the company.
The European office is transitioning to have a stronger focus in marketing and sales, with many of the existing disciplines being consolidated in our studios on the US West Coast and our headquarters in Seattle. Additionally, we are transitioning to an embedded quality assurance (QA) model in which the QA staff works in our studios directly with the development teams, providing support throughout the entire development process.
This finalizes the NCsoft West reorganization plan which began last September, and the resulting structure will better support the company's direction.
Of those 70 to 90 employees effected, some will move to new positions and some will be laid off. NCsoft could not say yet how many would be laid off. Roughly one-third of the employees effected will be in Austin with the remainder in Europe.
The cuts and reorganization will not impact support or game development a NCsoft spokesperson told me.