Jump to content
  • Sign Up

How many employees does ArenaNet have at the moment?


Recommended Posts

Given the situation with the current Icebrood Saga, announcement of the Expac3, the speculations on a new console game, there are too much projects for the studio to work on. I was wondering what is the current number of employees at the moment for all to work smoothly, fast but well made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the console rumor does not reflect the truth.Afaik, they cancelled all non-GW2 projects after the critical lay-offs.

As for the expansion: I think it's currently just the 4th content team, which previously worked on the visions of the past, that's working on the expansion.The other teams, currently working on Living World episodes, probably will join the expansion development after their episodes are over.

I don't have any numbers, and I doubt anyone (including the two or three Arenanet employees) using the forum has them.But I can say for certain that their number is insufficient to make development smooth, fast or well done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Fueki.4753 said:I think the console rumor does not reflect the truth.Afaik, they cancelled all non-GW2 projects after the critical lay-offs.

Actually the layoffs happened around February 2019 and the job application for Art Director for unannounced 3rd person fantasy action console title was around the end of 2019. So that's 10 months gap between the layoffs and the leaks for the console game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@maddoctor.2738 said:According to linkedin they have 269 employees.

So what I'm finding is that before the layoffs they were more than 400 employees. They laid off 143 from that number and that leaves 257+ employees currently working.What I can see from the statistics is that the studio is not growing because A - they don't need more employees or B - people are leaving as fast as they hire new ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"Gopaka.7839" said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:According to linkedin they have 269 employees.

So what I'm finding is that before the layoffs they were more than 400 employees. They laid off 143 from that number and that leaves 257+ employees currently working.What I can see from the statistics is that the studio is not growing because A - they don't need more employees or B - people are leaving as fast as they hire new ones.More like C - they can't afford to have more. I mean, what's the point of having to lay off ~150 employees if you start rehiring those positions right after it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:According to linkedin they have 269 employees.

So what I'm finding is that before the layoffs they were more than 400 employees. They laid off 143 from that number and that leaves 257+ employees currently working.What I can see from the statistics is that the studio is not growing because A - they don't need more employees or B - people are leaving as fast as they hire new ones.More like C - they can't afford to have more. I mean, what's the point of having to lay off ~150 employees if you start rehiring those positions right after it?

Blizzard fires ppl and reopens the same position, but with a lower payThere's likely no point in them having more employees tho

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:According to linkedin they have 269 employees.

So what I'm finding is that before the layoffs they were more than 400 employees. They laid off 143 from that number and that leaves 257+ employees currently working.What I can see from the statistics is that the studio is not growing because A - they don't need more employees or B - people are leaving as fast as they hire new ones.More like C - they can't afford to have more. I mean, what's the point of having to lay off ~150 employees if you start rehiring those positions right after it?

You do with lower salary for entry lvl workforce.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Toby.8105 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:According to linkedin they have 269 employees.

So what I'm finding is that before the layoffs they were more than 400 employees. They laid off 143 from that number and that leaves 257+ employees currently working.What I can see from the statistics is that the studio is not growing because A - they don't need more employees or B - people are leaving as fast as they hire new ones.More like C - they can't afford to have more. I mean, what's the point of having to lay off ~150 employees if you start rehiring those positions right after it?

Blizzard fires ppl and reopens the same position, but with a lower payThere's likely no point in them having more employees tho

Blizzard has a completely different revenue stream. I so wish people would stop trying to compare Blizzard with Anet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are at least a few people at Anet who are not working on GW2. Jennifer Scheurle has said on Twitter she works at Anet and not on GW2, and the recent hire of an Art Director was for her team. Unfortunately she won't say what she is working on and has more than enough experience in the industry and with NDAs to avoid giving anything away (in spite of my best efforts!) except a few bits which don't really say anything. At one point it involved sad story writing, and has involved discussions about how to establish trust between the game and players so they know they have been given the tools to solve a problem and just haven't worked out how to use them yet.

But I don't know how many people are in that team, or how many other people are working at Anet.

(For what it's worth I'm also not sure the number of people working for a company is necessarily a good gauge of how much they get done, because it depends a lot on their processes and how work is managed. I've known organisations with hundreds of staff to take months to get through the work a smaller team can do in a matter of weeks just because there's so many people to go through to get everything approved and assigned to the right team, and then reviewing and signed off, where a smaller team can just get on and do it. I'm not saying Anet is, or was, that inefficient, but it's an example which stands out to me.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@"Gopaka.7839" said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:According to linkedin they have 269 employees.

So what I'm finding is that before the layoffs they were more than 400 employees. They laid off 143 from that number and that leaves 257+ employees currently working.What I can see from the statistics is that the studio is not growing because A - they don't need more employees or B - people are leaving as fast as they hire new ones.More like C - they can't afford to have more. I mean, what's the point of having to lay off ~150 employees if you start rehiring those positions right after it?

From what I can gather, NcSoft did the layoff and Anet didn't actually think it was necessary. Business doesn't always lay off people because they can't afford them. They lay off people sometimes, to show that they're working on streamlining their business. Blizzard laid off a bunch of people too, pretty sure they could afford those people. However, NcSoft was looking to reassure investors they were making changes. It's unlikely that Guild Wars 2 is the driving force behind Korean investors. It's just showing something is being done.

Basically no one knows what the case is besides NcSOft and Anet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...