‘CCP staff cuts were my responsibility’ says CEO

CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson has said it was his responsibility to prevent layoffs at the Eve Online studio.

“This is a major thing, and it’s something which it is my responsibility to avoid,” said Petursson in an interview with Gamasutra.

The Eve Online studio reduced its global headcount by 20 per cent earlier this week, making more than 100 jobs redundant.

The developer admitted to spreading its resources too thin on its projects Eve Online, Dust 514 and World of Darkness and made the decision to “sharpen” its focus by reducing staff.

Petursson added that efforts were being made to provide ex-staff with new jobs at other studios.

He said: "We’re doing a lot of things. I’ve personally been contacted by many CEOs in the industry which have offered to help with finding employment for the people who are leaving, and that’s a great thing to see.

“So we are connecting people with our industry friends, we are helping them with their resumes, we are helping them to make contacts, and things like that."

Despite the large amount of redundancies, mostly at the developer’s Atlanta studio, Petursson said there are still plans to continue work on all titles, but World of Darkness will release in a “less ambitious” form.

The CEO added that CCP would look to claim back the users it lost in the recent walkout after a backlash from gamers over new micro-transaction policies.

"Now we really have to focus as a company on just really showing our commitment to EVE Online, and giving the game the love from CCP which people claim we have lost,” he said.

The studio is to release PS3 MMOFPS Dust 514 next year, which is based in the Eve Universe and will feed back into the bigger space faring MMO on PC.