Embracer’s Ongoing Attempts To Restabilize Is Resulting In Layoffs And A Massive Changing Of The Guard For Cryptic

While it seems that fans of Cryptic’s MMORPGs: Star Trek Online, Neverwinter, and Champions Online don’t have to worry about their favorite game going away, yet things will be different soon. This is due to the fact that as Embracer continues to try to restabilize the company, many of Cryptic’s original staff are being laid off according to posts made by team members like Community Manager Mike Tatum and Character Artist Amelia March.

According to a report on MassivelyOP, these layoffs are “just the tip of the iceberg”. The report notes a statement from Star Trek Online stream CasualSAB that “nearly all remaining Cryptic staff” are impacted by these changes. The exceptions are some team leads and those hired by DECA, the German company that has been overseeing Cryptic.

The sole bit of good news here, according to Massively’s report, is that the DECA employees hired to work on Star Trek Online are Trek fans and players note their portfolios are strong. Maybe that's something, at least.

Obviously, the bad news is that the community is losing well-known and well-loved staff and that those individuals are now having to look for new employment.

Of course, this also means the end of Cryptic as a studio—something that seemed to be on the horizon back in March. However, I wouldn’t rule out Embracer and DECA keeping the studio name and using it where convenient. After all, gamigo did it with Trion.