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Are we seeing a downwards spiral there? After Funcom announced the "refocusing" of their community staff (meaning they reduced it from 3 to 1), they now reduce the staff even more:
Cost Reduction at Funcom
-Customer numbers increase but US dollar value falls -
Oslo, Norway - January 30, 2003 - Despite a continual increase in the Anarchy Online customer base and all time high numbers of active players just last week, Funcom regrets to announce that staff cuts were made last week, mostly affecting the company's marketing and operations departments. The ongoing development of Funcom's massively multiplayer online game Anarchy Online and its upcoming expansion pack, Shadowlands, will not be affected.
"Over the course of the last year the U.S. dollar has depreciated 23% against the Norwegian kroner," Funcom President & CEO Trond Arne Aas explains. "This has hurt Funcom's margin since most of our income is in U.S. dollars, while most of our costs are in Norwegian kroner."
16 people were affected by the cut, and most are being put on "forced leave". This program gives Funcom the option to bring back affected employees within 6 months. Many employees who were put on forced leave in previous cuts were brought back, and Funcom plans for the same scenario this time.
Funcom's customer service has been consolidated to the company's North Carolina office as a part of cost reduction, with key representatives staying at the Oslo office. The weak dollar is indeed a problem for european based companies, and the latest US economy data isn't encouraging at all, so we will have to watch closely how this affects companies in the future... | | Source: RPGVault |
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Anarchy Online Reduces Staff
