Transformers: Universe - Jagex Confirms Possible Layoffs

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."

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

• Announced summer of 2011
• Registration available a full year later, summer of 2012
• Open beta nearly two more years later, summer of 2014

Transformers… Robots in Disguise – Jagex Promotional Pieces
Transformers... Robots in Disguise

“Transformers..Robots in disguise” Echoes through every child of the 90’s ears (despite the blockbusting Michael Bay efforts). We were asked to look at a solution for a extended creative to introduce Transformers Universe to the world and its characters. Commissioned by Jagex and Hasbro we set about our work. We quickly decided it was much better to have 10 Episodes rather than 1 trailer which didn’t really speak to the demographic. We have all been disappointed watching MMO trailers and then actually playing the game!This also allowed us to use what would usually be the budget for one trailer across episodic release.

A lot of R and D work went into the project and we looked at even rendering it all in real-time in unity making the solution we came up with interactive also.(Which did give us some inspiration when we worked on the WW1 interactive piece for the BBC).

Unfortunately the ill fated game Transformers Universe was re-booted several times and our work was consigned to the archives (As they decided to go with in game captures for a trailer).The game has been fully decommissioned now unfortunately and a lot of really talented people re-assigned within Jagex or moved on to great things. (Nick cooper, Steve Huckle, Gerrard, Andy.. all great chaps).All audio was by Jagex internal, (Legend that is Ste Lord and his team), we “up rezzed” pretty low game models, created environments from concepts and then went about our usual business and came up with a motion comic treatment we really loved. Mixing some CGI sequences with motion graphics manipulated stills and some super sharp editing from our team. Script and content direction came from Jagex’s Alex De Rakoff and Alexander Horton.

Initial meetings were in person and then we used cinesync daily to keep us on track. (Which worked great with so many stakeholders on the franchise).

We hope you enjoy our 2 episodes that were still WIP, We have another half done we may finish of as a labor of love. (you may see some similarities in the transformers prime series also as some of the characters are shared). We really fell in love with them and sooo wanted to complete the set!

ah well….

Like Optimus we lived to fight another day.

Autobots…..roll out!

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