SOE Seattle staff departures shouldn't affect The Agency

by Shawn Schuster Jul 31st 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, The Agency, Spy

In the wake of the recent layoffs at SOE, we're now getting word from Eurogamer that some voluntary departures had happened at the beginning of the month as well. Studio Director and Executive Producer Matt Wilson, Art Director Corey Dangel, and Producer John Smith had all left the Seattle studio to form a new venture called Detonator Games. This Seattle studio is currently producing the upcoming espionage MMO The Agency.

Eurogamer also states that a source "in the Seattle game development community" suggested to them that this means some major changes to The Agency, possibly delaying it beyond its projected 2010 release date. SOE responded to that rumor by saying, "The Agency is not undergoing a reboot of any sorts - that is incorrect. The team in Seattle is still working diligently on this project and we're looking forward to showing you new content in the future."

Whether these departures will affect the production of The Agency or not, we'll just have to wait and see. What we do know for sure is that the game is playable and looks quite good, according to a demo we saw at E3 earlier this year. Best of luck to the SOE Seattle team and to Detonator Games for whatever project they may be developing.

Tags: breaking, breakingnews, detonator-games, layoffs, soe, soe-seattle, sony-online-entertainment, the-agency

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

rulez said on 11:08AM 7-31-2009

Ah EG the epitome of game journalism integrity at it's finest.

Jack said on 11:18AM 7-31-2009

Yeah SOE never lie to the people before... They left for a reason and in his comment he did say "It's true that Corey and I no longer work for SOE," Wilson told us. "This was a very hard decision to make, but it's the right decision for both us and the project. There were a variety of factors into making this decision, but we wish SOE and The Agency the best success.".

I think they left like the game did not go the way there wanted it to go....

Leshrac said on 12:32PM 7-31-2009

This just in; John Smedley gives himself a raise, while they continue to cut headcount at the once successful, but steadily declining under Smeds control, MMO developer.

mysecretid said on 11:09AM 8-03-2009

Hmmm. When three of the main people behind a game's development voluntarily leave (to start an independent studio) before said game even launches, you've got to wonder why.

Based on past track record, I'm guessing SOE corporate was meddling in the creation process (again) and/or not listening to their development teams (again) in favor of whatever the marketing division wanted to see instead.

We'll see The Agency on-schedule, I'm sure, but I have my doubts about how finished or polished it will be when it finally arrives.

And SOE wonders why they're losing market share ...