BioWare will be cutting down on its staff members in its Austin, Texas offices for its recently launched MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a post on the game"s official forums, the EA-owned developer admitted:
Sadly, we are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality. Impacting people’s lives this way is always very hard, but we’re ensuring the affected people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.
The note did not say how many staff members will be affected by these layoffs. However, BioWare claims that it still has "a very substantial development team working on supporting and growing the game." Indeed, the developer has already posted up some information on what players can expect for the next major 1.3 content update to The Old Republic, including a new Group Finder system designed to help players find and organize player groups.
Launched in December after several years of development, and three years after it was first announced, EA claimed in February that the game had 1.7 million subscribers. However, EA admitted earlier this month that the game"s subscriber base had been reduced down to 1.3 million, a 400,000 loss in just three months.
Image via EA