The Energon Pub

News Credits: 4 · by **MasterSoundBlaster** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 3:35 am

I know most people are saying they're getting a Dreadwing vibe from Switchblade, but am I the only one who is getting a Deathsaurus vibe from him? Only thing truly missing is a grand ol' beak protruding from his head.

News Credits: 118 · by **megatronus** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 3:39 am

MasterSoundBlaster wrote:I know most people are saying they're getting a Dreadwing vibe from Switchblade, but am I the only one who is getting a Deathsaurus vibe from him? Only thing truly missing is a grand ol' beak protruding from his head.

Honestly, I was thinking the same thing. Or, at the very least, that Switchblade is the love child of Prime Dreadwing and G1 Deathsaurus (or BH Darksteel).

News Credits: 3 · by **Lockdownhunter** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:28 am

mirageandjazz1197 wrote:Here is some more that came out today feel free to make a new article if you want

Edit: fixed link images

Pandemic (the recently released Decepticon)

Diabla

Mismatch

Those are cool! :michaelbay:

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 9:18 am

First people said Dreadwing looked like Depth Charge, and now they say Switchblade looks like Dreadwing.

Blue and gold bots just can't catch a break.

News Credits: 118 · by **megatronus** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:05 am

Sabrblade wrote:First people said Dreadwing looked like Depth Charge, and now they say Switchblade looks like Dreadwing.

Blue and gold bots just can't catch a break.

Good point - Switchblade DOES look like Depth Charge

News Credits: 23 · by **Madeus Prime** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:19 am

Wow, tire-crotch from Diabla. I think I just came up with a new Transformers disease!

by **TF Cagle** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 4:29 pm

I've been on the site RPing there for a while awaiting the game, but now having actually played it, it's fun, but isn't as good as WFC.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:26 am

Via the website gamesindustry.biz, we have some unfortunate news hailiing from Jagex, the company behind the Transformer: Universe MOBA online game. It appears that the company is in talks regarding having to let go a number of its employees, as a result of a company-wide downsizing. This follows the news of the current CEO Gerhard leaving by the end of this year, too. Read some more below, and the full piece here.

UK studio Jagex has confirmed that it is currently in a consultation process with the staff assigned to its Transformers Universe project. Some will find new roles on other Jagex games, others face redundancy.

"It is with regret that we can confirm some members of the Transformers Universe team will now be facing the possibility of redundancy. The proposed downsizing comes as the product reaches a new stage of development in its life cycle with a view to refining specific areas of gameplay for a live environment," the company told GamesIndustry.biz in a statement.

"Proposing to lay off staff is not something reached without due care and consideration and comes, in this instance, only at the end of a long period of deliberation. We remain grateful to all members of staff who will be affected by this process, and would like to thank them for all of their work on the game."

News Credits: 17 · by **Starscream** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:10 am

Big f'ing surprise: company makes years-worth of bad decisions on game design and marketing, delays release of falgship game, people lose jobs. A simple cause and effect. See ya Jagex!

by **Nemesis Maximo** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:38 am

Video game companies have been hit hard lately, what with High Moon, Lucasarts, and now Jagex, among others. Never good news to hear about layoffs, in any industry.

On a more TF related point, will this have a negative effect on TFU?

by **griftimus prime** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:46 am

pat lee must be running the place

News Credits: 3 · by **Shockwave7** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:53 am

Typical corporate behavior these days. They work employees to the bone to finish a massive project with the promise of job security and wealth if they do a good job. Then as soon as the project is done, they fire everybody and funnel all the profits into their own pockets.

News Credits: 4 · by **padfoo** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:24 pm

Va'al wrote:Via the website gamesindustry.biz, we have some unfortunate news hailiing from Jagex, the company behind the Transformer: Universe MOBA online game. It appears that the company is in talks regarding having to let go a number of its employees, as a result of a company-wide downsizing. This follows the news of the current CEO Gerhard leaving by the end of this year, too. Read some more below, and the full piece here.

UK studio Jagex has confirmed that it is currently in a consultation process with the staff assigned to its Transformers Universe project. Some will find new roles on other Jagex games, others face redundancy.

"It is with regret that we can confirm some members of the Transformers Universe team will now be facing the possibility of redundancy. The proposed downsizing comes as the product reaches a new stage of development in its life cycle with a view to refining specific areas of gameplay for a live environment," the company told GamesIndustry.biz in a statement.

"Proposing to lay off staff is not something reached without due care and consideration and comes, in this instance, only at the end of a long period of deliberation. We remain grateful to all members of staff who will be affected by this process, and would like to thank them for all of their work on the game."

I was concerned about these guys from the moment I saw the number of delays they were having at various stages of game development. As mentioned by someone else here, its also not unusual (even though its unethical) for companies to hire on people and let them go as the project draws near completion.

News Credits: 1 · by **karyuudo** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 11:54 am

This is usually a standard with most Video Game Companies. After all the main programming has been completed, staff are reduced since there's no need to program as much as before for the game. I'm sure most of those folks will land on their feet in other parts of the industry.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:00 pm

After the news last month that Jagex employees were being laid off, we now have confirmation from the Transformers: Universe website that the game is effectively shutting down - despite never really exiting the beta phase - as of the end of January 2015. You can read more about this below, including how to recover anything you may have spent on Founder packs.

Today Jagex and Hasbro can confirm that Transformers Universe will close. This decision comes at an important time for both companies as they both realign their plans and focuses for 2015.

What does this mean for our players?

We’re hugely disappointed, but the game will be closing over the coming weeks before its full closure at 10am GMT on 31st January 2015.

As a team, we can’t thank players enough for the support that they have shown us over the last few years of development, and even more so during our BETA period.

What’s next?

The shutdown period will begin from today. As part of the winding down we will be refunding all those that have purchased a Founders Pack, as well as anyone that has purchased relic bundles and starter packs. These refunds should be all processed in the next 30 days. In addition we will be closing the ability for new players to make accounts, those of you that already have accounts will continue to be able to use them until the closure date.

If you haven’t received a refund after 16th January 2015 and believe you should have, then please contact the Jagex customer services team (tu_refunds@support.jagex.com). We will also be pushing an update live today that will switch off the ability for players to buy any more relic packs, or starter bundles.

As mentioned, on 31st Jan 2015 @ 10am GMT we will be shutting down all servers and forums and will freeze all Transformers Universe related accounts. These accounts will then be live for another 60 days (approx.) for any final queries before deletion on 31st March 2015.

Between now and the date of closure the Jagex CM team will continue to operate on the forums and we will provide relevant updates on the website as necessary.

If you have any queries about your account or refunds please contact our customer support team on tu_refunds@support.jagex.com. Please understand that they may be very busy during this time but they will respond as quickly as possible.

Thank You

Once again we want to thank all of the players that have played Transformers Universe and all those that have worked on the project. We’re sure you have thoughts and feelings that you’d like to share on this, so please do so on our forums. Please bear in mind that this is obviously a challenging time for all involved, especially the CM team. There will be plenty of things we can’t comment on, so please respect their position.

Sincerely

Transformers Universe Development Team

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:24 pm

Welp, so much for possibly filling in a massive, needing-to-be-filled, yet-to-be-explored hole in the Aligned timeline.

News Credits: 251 · by **Mindmaster** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:27 pm

What a shame... I was excited at the prospect of a Transformers MMO, too. By the makers of RuneScape, no less! Hopefully another company will take a whack at it in the future.

Though I never really cared for it, either.. When I first tried to play it, it was practically unplayable for me: ridiculous amounts of lag and the controls were slightly confusing to me.

by **Grahf_** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:33 pm

I guess that rumor of them making figures out of some of the new characters will remain just a rumor. It's a shame too as they had some really good designs that, theoretically, would have made good toys.

News Credits: 461 · by **mooncake623** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:38 pm

Wow... that's sad..., but not unexpected

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:38 pm

Aww shucks. I made an account for this but never really got into it (although I will echo that the designs are just plain awesome). A shame to see it go, it looked promising.

Website · by **Fires_Of_Inferno** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:38 pm

Can't say I'm sad to see it go. Hopefully if Hasbro tries an MMO again, they won't tell us that it'll be an open wold RPG where you can make your own characters and interact with classic transformer characters, and play with hundreds of people on line who've all customized their own characters. Then turn it into a MOBA where you can't do any of those things.

News Credits: 4 · by **craggy** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:52 pm

so did the time between the initial announcement and any kind of update on what the game was actually going to be end up being longer than the time between launch and closure announcement?

by **TFfan92** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:56 pm

This is how you do not do an mmo game. Do not advertise features that you can't deliver. It turned from something that could have been cool into a disappointment. I won't miss it one bit.