Relic re-organisation and Kyle's response

Layoffs (and turnovers) are quite common, I don't know what's the big deal about this. If anything it's no surprise how CoH2 turned out. But it's not like a few guys leaving must mean some purge is occurring that's spelling doom and gloom for Relic and the entire SEGA/ RTS scene.

Here's why it's a big deal:

People see layoffs in game communities as serious. Why? Because it's not your typical workplace where they lay off workers because of budget cuts or any other reasons. Certain game developers leaving the company can effectively change the development process significantly. In the gaming community, your ideas matter more than your skills. This is different from being hired by a tech company where your skills matter more than your ideas. That's why a lot of game companies can release buggy or almost incomplete games. It's not how well the game runs, it's how innovated it is and why so many games can get away with being released broken.

Game developers being laid off have far more implications than any other companies because the very same game you are playing are made by those very same developers. CoH is CoH because Relic made it, it's their design, their project and their ideas. CoH wouldn't be CoH if you replaced the team with Blizzard.

It just takes 1 guy to be laid off to change the development of a game because the game was programmed and based on the ideas of an entire team working together. The change would be even more drastic if the developer in question has been with the company for quite a while. The more involved the developer, the more noticeable effects.

If you replace or remove a team member, you effectively change the game for better or worse. That's why it's a concern for the community. You know the music you like or the art you're fascinated by? A lot of people buy the games because of these sole reasons. A lot of gamers remember certain music or like certain art because it made an impact. Compare the differences between Men of War with CoH and you have two drastically different games even though they have the same themes they have different ways to deliver it.

One of the lead designers of CoH ended up in a fatal car crash. The same developer who helped create the British and Panzer Elite factions. Imagine how different of a game CoH2 would have been if he were still around?

This applies to all gaming companies. It's sensitive and one move by any team member can effectively screw the company over or give them incredible success. This isn't something you see with any other companies.

tl;dr

Game development is extremely sensitive and shouldn't be compared with standard companies.

No more Cuddletronic, sad day


https://www.reddit.com/r/CompanyOfHeroes/comments/4agx0d/kyle_confirms_theres_been_some_recent_changes_to/

yeah that's great but where are muh community skins guys! I need a new paintjob

No more Cuddletronic, sad day


https://www.reddit.com/r/CompanyOfHeroes/comments/4agx0d/kyle_confirms_theres_been_some_recent_changes_to/

wow! that is such bad news!

Cuddle was great o7

Maybe they are bringing back Cynthia

Maybe they are bringing back Cynthia

pretty sure she's busy with Mobile Marvel community stuff. She has a job its not like she stayed unemployed after she left Relic

You know at some point in time or another, the CoH2 development team was pretty fractured. The team balancing multiplayer was different, or at least separate, from the team developing commanders and(/or) DLC. IIRC, the team that made Ardennes Assault was another branch as well. That alone has been a bit of a red flag for myself when looking at how this game's been developed and balanced.

So, in my opinion, any reorganization that increases communication or consolidates development may be a good thing, regardless of any layoffs whatsoever.

All the best to CuddleTronic and Brad.

All the best to CuddleTronic and Brad.

personal things aside last year patches were not good. Ie why 19 popcap for heavy while its clearly worth 2 mediums, 13 popcap for mortar, R-move, cheap axis unit unlock, leig abuse with 0 user input, T2 stuka- all of this is still in game - whoever is responsible for that must go.

Probably they lost interes to playing gam. While the game is most likely best rts so far.
. They didnt calculate basic things for some reason.

I believe it was momo4sho123 who said he had spoken to Brad directly, as they are friends, who basically insinuated that the game was R.I.P. This is where a lot of the heat has come from surrounding these rumours and why you can't just make them disappear even though Kyle requested the last thread be closed.

The game has been dead a long time. The engine is just so horrid that working at the edges means nothing. There is like 2 second input lag built into the late game because of some horrid optimization issues.

Watching "high-level" players is more like watching the WSOP. There is no fine micro-control. The luckiest person wins unless there is some weird meta strat that is OP (read AEC spam last patch).

Better to let this game die and then hope COH3 hopefully fixes things like 5 years from now.

What if they just decided that ESL draws more attention to the game than any of relic employees so they decided to give out their salary to continue relics' little e-sports dream?

Such a small thing blown out of proportion. Lay-off happens and it does not affect anything. Implementation of the projects are affect but not much. Company has plans and they follow them. Nothing is shut down because someone (or some people) left the team.

It would be very disappointing if this was the end of life for CoH2. There are just so many things that could be worked on - stuff like the valentine, sexton and greyhound that have next to no use currently.

even when players make wrong conclusions out of patches its their fault to some extent. Since online games arent easy, they require learning. And with that they change the game every 3 month making previous game knowledge wrong in some way.

If they say game is dead why they have been working on it then? With that attitude coh3 would be deader than coh2.

The game has been dead a long time. The engine is just so horrid that working at the edges means nothing. There is like 2 second input lag built into the late game because of some horrid optimization issues.

Watching "high-level" players is more like watching the WSOP. There is no fine micro-control. The luckiest person wins unless there is some weird meta strat that is OP (read AEC spam last patch).

Better to let this game die and then hope COH3 hopefully fixes things like 5 years from now.

I've never noticed any input lag, and I find your dismissal of micro and skill among top players a bit much. Maybe you're having some driver issues, or running the game at too high video settings for the late game action leading to input lag?

Ie why 19 popcap for heavy while its clearly worth 2 mediums, 13 popcap for mortar,

Wow, you're not going to let that go, are you?

IF coh2 is RIP then at least we will get patches later on in life but you cant deny that a new IP or DOW III is being worked on. It should be a surprise that coh2 is on the back burner.

I believe it was momo4sho123 who said he had spoken to Brad directly, as they are friends, who basically insinuated that the game was R.I.P. This is where a lot of the heat has come from surrounding these rumours and why you can't just make them disappear even though Kyle requested the last thread be closed.

From Romeo Public Stream
https://www.twitch.tv/romeocoh2/v/54189042

momo4sho123: game is finished for me and others in 1 month
momo4sho123: brad told me game is 100% rip " probably no more substantive balance changes "
momo4sho123: this is when they kill off support for a project, they lay off the majority of their devs
momo4sho123: its more employees laid off
momo4sho123: coh2 is at the end of its life cycle
momo4sho123: they are removing overhead
momo4sho123: ofc it wont die
momo4sho123: but it will be pointless for "myself"
momo4sho123: so dead to me
momo4sho123: ciez dust and I are done after 1 month i believe
momo4sho123: no its not fun
momo4sho123: game sucks
momo4sho123: its not a troll
momo4sho123: @god_is_an_astronaut_CoH3, i dont think you know him like ciez dust and I do, maybe im wrong
momo4sho123: @Maskedmonkey2, dude its several employees that have been laid off, people who have been there since the start. they are getting rid of overheard because they are cutting off most support for the game

----------------------

Personal, I don't agree with Momo but that does not mean these players are by Katitof remarks:
tinfoil crazy, braindead and stupid.
With the recent lack of balancing and testing, I think players had the right to be concerned.
IMHO, it's just restructuring going on and players need to calm down. Brad won't necessarily know what's going on within SEGA.

I wish Brad all the best and hope he will keep playing COH2. I remember Brad playing 2vs2 with ExcessiveProfanity
https://www.twitch.tv/excessiveprofanity/profile/highlights
Everyone having a good time in chat and for the first time ever we actual see Brad talking more openly about his background etc..
Then here comes the COH tough guys in chat;
Why is this guy ExcessiveProfanity not good? Why is Brad streaming with ExcessiveProfanity? What have ExcessiveProfanity done to deserve this attention?

When a COH2 fan and designer like Brad try to help market COH2 (which is SEGA's goddamn job), what does the community do?
Devs don't go out of their way to be terrible to their fans, that's always the publisher.
Take your anger where it belongs.

COH2 have the potential to become a successful eSport title and SEGA most definitely, should take some blame for screwing that up. They throw COH2 into the meat grinder, chop it up into DLC pieces with questionable quality and balance.
On the steam store page, COH2 scores only 77% from 23,167 player reviews. Go read the reviews and you'll see most of it has to do with the marketing strategy and DLC commanders.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/231430/
In comparison COH1 on the steam page scores 95% (3,524 player reviews)

Using an FTP model with all the DLC money grabbing on top of a full priced game is like trying to reinvent the wheel. It's just stupid and I doubt CA is going to tolerate a bad publisher for much longer. CA is not stupid and they have previously stated before joining SEGA, they have the financial backbone to go independent if need be. Not because I think that will happen, but in worst case scenario they have Microsoft to buy them out. Microsoft is currently like the invincible elephant in the room which with the Halo Wars 2 dev team could potentially decide the future for CA and Relic games on Console.

Why Microsoft is finally pushing for cross-platform online gaming
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/why-microsoft-is-finally-pushing-for-cross-platform-online-gaming/

Microsoft has no RTS studio and they have no intention of rebuilding one. MS owned AoE2 (non-HD version) was in the top20 of eSport earning last year, 178.400$.
http://www.esportsearnings.com/history/2015/games
COH2 currently have 2x more players online than the AoE HD edition on steam which probably haven't gone unnoticed within MS.
http://steamcharts.com/app/221380

With the new SEGA CEO, there is undoubtedly some restructuring going on at the top.
FYI;
Sega Spending More Time on "Higher-Quality" Content Prompts 90% Profit Forecast Cut
(December 2015)
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/sega-spending-more-time-on-higher-quality-content-/1100-6432822/

"Higher-quality content is expected, thus resulting in a trend of longer development lead
times," the company explained. "Sega also has titles whose launches were postponed from the initial schedule and titles that did not fulfill our expectations in terms of market reception."
*SNIP*
In July, Sega Games CEO Haruki Satomi admitted the company betrayed the trust fans put in the
company over the last few years. At the time, he stressed that Sega's goal was to improve the quality of its games in hopes of re-establishing itself as a valuable brand.

We Betrayed Fans And Want to Be a Brand Again, Says Sega CEO (July 2015)
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-betrayed-fans-and-want-to-be-a-brand-again-says/1100-6428680/

President of Sega Games Finally Realizes That Gaming Quality Is Important (July 2015)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/07/08/president-of-sega-japan-finally-realizes-that-gaming-quality-is-important/

First a bit of context, the company is actually part of Sammy Corporation who bought out Sega
a fair few years ago. Sammy has a history of mostly doing pachinko in Japan and while they did a few games over the years, it was never their main line of business.
So the direction of Sega since Sammy took over is not an entirely surprising one, as they’ve almost ignored what made games work and went after what they thought would make money based on their pachinko expertise.

Sega May Be On The Verge Of A Renaissance
http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/07/24/sega-may-be-on-the-verge-of-a-renaissance/