An attempt to save Star Wars Eclipse due to corporate mismanagement is being made by staff. A new report has detailed how the game’s developer, Quantic Dream, has hit a breaking point. It has gotten to the point that Lucasfilm are having to get involved.
According to French publication Gamekult who spoke with Quantic Dream employees, the company is at a perilous point. Their report claims all 115 staff working on multiplayer game Spellcasters Chronicles will be laid off despite Star Wars Eclipse lacking staff. This is a quarter of the entire headcount at the Paris office.
Bringing You Up To Lightspeed
Over the past couple of months, we have been hearing stories about the slow pace of Star Wars Eclipse’s production. Whilst parts of the game are complete, little progress has been made since the end of last year. This is due to the lack of staff and mismanagement of the entire company. Game developers have been hired every week or so for the past few years but the amount of people is not enough to complete this project. Gamekult also note that there is a “lack of vision”.
Quantic Dream later announced they would be ceasing development on their early access multiplayer game Spellcasters Chronicles. A video game union STJV revealed that Quantic Dream we’re looking to cut the entire team instead of moving them onto Star Wars Eclipse. The unions are argument is those staff members would be able to help get the game from a galaxy far, far away over the finish line.
In retaliation of these proposed layoffs STJV launched a national strike on June 25th. A protest was organised to take place on the same day in front of Quantic Dream’s office in Paris. Artwork featuring one of the characters from Star Wars Eclipse was drawn to show solidarity to those affected.
Lucasfilm Plays Emperor Palpatine
One of the more interesting things about the report is how Lucasfilm have sent out team members to visit the Paris-based studio. Lucasfilm Games staff have been checking in on the progress and status of the production this week. This took place at the same time as the strike. Those affected believe the strike will have sent to message to Lucasfilm.
Staff Speak Out
Affected Quantic Dream developer Théo tells Gamekult:
“We believe that, as things stand, the game literally cannot be finished if the redundancy plan is implemented as currently scheduled. We absolutely need the 115 people who have been inactive (or almost) for a month already. That’s a whole month of lost production! During that month, employees could have been trained on the specific tools of Star Wars Eclipse. We also want to strongly alert management and tell them to look at all these people who are eager to work but aren’t, on the day of an official visit.”
There is also a claim that management at Quantic Dream are not sharing all of their parent company’s requests onto staff. NetEase’s decisions may have made Quantic Dream higher ups “embarrassed” and are keeping the developers in the dark. Théo thinks this “might improve things on Star Wars Eclipse . But management refuses, because it would involve cutting content.”
Star Wars Eclipse developer, Jules, also spoke with Gamekult about the situation. He said this to say:
“We’re trying to save Star Wars Eclipse. We could manage to release it with 115 additional people, and that wouldn’t be ‘overstaffed’ It’s what’s needed. We’re understaffed, like in many other companies in the sector, because bosses know very well that passion will lead people to crunch time and that games will eventually be released. But it’s impossible to run a sustainable industry like that.”
Development Details
Gamekult report that Quantic Dream staff began working overtime on Star Wars Eclipse not too long after the Spellcasters Chronicles layoffs were announced. The outlet calls retaining some of the 115 staff “necessary” for Star Wars Eclipse to release.
The consensus among staff is the company’s management is to blame for Star Wars Eclipse’s delays. Those working on the game really are trying to push the game into a finished state for release and fighting against the the power structure above.
“They told us they don’t want to touch the Star Wars Eclipse team so as not to disrupt the project. But launching the redundancy plan has already disrupted the project itself!” Théo told Gamekult. “David Cage keeps saying that Star Wars Eclipse is a particularly ambitious project. So let him give us the means to achieve his ambitions.”
The reported atmosphere is “tense” as Star Wars Eclipse could implode and cause that existence of storied developer Quantic Dream. These are troubling times but as the employers have said, they do believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel and they are trying to reach there.
We will just have to wait and see how the situation continues to unfold.
Curious what other Star Wars games are coming aside from Star Wars Eclipse? Check out our full run down here.
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