Carbine Studios, the developer of the massively multiplayer online game WildStar, is shutting down, Kotaku has learned. Fifty people will lose their jobs in the process, according to a person briefed on the shutdown. The game will also come to a close.
Staff were informed of the closure at a meeting today, according to someone who was in the room, but it had been looming for a while after at least two of the studio’s game projects failed to gain traction with the studio’s parent company, Korean publisher NCSoft.
“Today, we are closing Carbine Studios and will begin the process of winding WildStar down to ultimately shutter the game,” NCSoft said in a statement. “WildStar players who have spent money within the game will be refunded purchases from July 1, 2018 until the payment system is shut off. We are also in the process of identifying the teams that will be doing the work to bring WildStar to a close. These decisions are very difficult to make and we are in the midst of shifting as many of our teammates as possible into other roles within the organization.”
Carbine was founded in 2005 by former members of the World of Warcraft team at Blizzard Entertainment. In 2007, NCSoft purchased Carbine, and in 2011 the studio announced WildStar, a stylish MMORPG that would eventually release in June 2014. After launching with a monthly subscription, it went free-to-play a year later. In February 2016, Carbine laid off a number of staff, and the game had been quiet in recent months.