Massively

How do you figure?

http://www.massively.com/2008/08/12/rumor-ncsoft-austin-to-be-shut-down/

Day before yesterday's post Zenke said he'd verified through third party "thrustworthy" sources and "highly placed NcSoft Employes" That any or all of the following would be happening:

-NCSoft Austin will be closed, with work on Tabula Rasa to be moved to the West Coast. Dungeon Runners is apparently to be closed. TR to be headed to Arena.net (implying the DG shop would've been closed and shuttered).

*Patently false.

-Future collaborations between NCSoft and the Garriott brothers will be very limited in scope due to "frustrations" between them and Korea.

*Wholly fabricated baseless supposition.

-Tabula Rasa may see closure by this time next year, if team fails to turn tide of subscribers and expectations.

*Utter bollocks, in particular given the current development cycle, 7% quarterly gain in profit and seems more like the fervent wish of the author (in particular given his statements on podcasts) rather than being based on anything based in reality or that of a vetted source, which in point of fact that whole article smacked of.

Finally, the alteration of the above's title about a hour after it'd been posted from "Rumor: NCsoft Austin, to be shut down" to "Rumor: NcSoft Austin, Dungeon Runners to be shut down". In point of fact none of the tabliod-esque rumour mongering in the above article proved to be remotely factual.

It'd be like taking a report of a incident along the American-Mexican border where a single illegal immigrant slipped across and then reporting that Mexico had invaded Texas, its that order of exaggeration and sensationalisms which a responsible journalist would've avoided by taking time to take a statement by or paying attention to, the repeated statements issued minutes after that "article" went to press by NcSoft representatives before going to press. It was and is nothing less than unfounded, unvetted tabloid rumor mongering drek and the editor at massively should've stepped in long before it got to press.

To quote another poster comments from said article:

Wraith:
"Solid reporting = doing footwork to get verification before spreading potentially damaging, unsubstantiated rumors. For example- from
http://kotaku.com/5036705/ncsoft-lays-off-21

Today NCsoft confirmed to Kotaku that they are indeed laying some folks off from their Austin offices.

"We are announcing that 21 positions are being eliminated in the Austin office of NCsoft in the area of product development," an NCsoft spokesman told Kotaku. "Primarily this is related to products which we have not previously announced and were in prototype phases. We are also cutting some positions on the Dungeon Runners team after deciding not to port the client to other platforms at this time."

The news comes a day after parent company Korean-based NCsoft announced a bump in sales but a drop in operating profit and net income. The news is a stark contrast to rumors that surfaces earlier this week that 140 to 160 people were going to be let go and the office possibly shuttered. At the time NCsoft told Kotaku that the rumors were "not accurate at all" and "pretty outrageous.""

Note how Kotaku spoke to NCSoft? And not some highly placed source?"


"At the time NCsoft told Kotaku that the rumors were "not accurate at all" and "pretty outrageous." indeed, quite so. Quite so.

That comment about $100 million was indeed interesting. I noticed that NcSoft stock is taking a nice uptick with sudden high volume of sales. That may be because the corporate board of directors is at last ready to show some discipline about Austin.