ANNOUNCEMENT: PM Wyrom announced that despite layoffs at Simutronics, the IFE (Interactive Fiction Engine) Studio of GemStone and DragonRealms has the full focus of the Stillfront Group going forward. It sounds like any other games were on the chopping block. There’s a pending new CEO to be announced, so Simutronics Founder David Whatley was one of those who will be leaving. We thank everyone who had a hand in making GemStone great that got touched by these staffing cuts.
P.S. Wyrom and Chris in billing are safe from the cutbacks!
Texts of Discord Posts Follow:
PM Wyrom
Simutronics Layoffs
on 13 January 2023
from the Official GemStoneIV Discord
on #general-announcements channelThe Simutronics team in St. Louis has become somewhat smaller. We are sad to see some of our our friends and family leave, but we want you to know that the same key team is still in place. DragonRealms, GemStone IV, and their communities will have the full support of Simutronics and Stillfront Group, and we will continue to develop and maintain the games with our full focus.
other Discord Clips from Wyrom:
from General channel at 10:29 AM:
The studio is just IFE (GemStone IV and DragonRealms) focused now. Let me poke at how much I can share there, but there is a new CEO who has been with the company for over 20 years.
From General channel at 10:36 AM:
It’s tough to say I feel good about the change right now. There were a lot of staff members let go. This week has been a pretty intense point in my life, and I don’t think, professionally, I’d want to go through something like that again the way I had to go through it. That said, I am very optimistic for our future here. I know the team that are left at Simutronics are very passionate about both GS and DR. We want to see the games be very successful. We’re just a very slimmed down team now.
Wyrom summarized all the info in one place in the Discord Forum/general area in the thread called Simutronics Announcement at 6:53pm:
The Simutronics team in St. Louis has become somewhat smaller. We are sad to see some of our our friends and family leave, but we want you to know that the same key team is still in place. DragonRealms, GemStone IV, and their communities will have the full support of Simutronics and Stillfront Group, and we will continue to develop and maintain the games with our full focus.
Chris “Skippy” Moore will be taking over as CEO of Simutronics. Skippy has been with Simutronics for over 20 years and was the COO over the company. He is very in touch with DragonRealms and GemStone IV and even started as a DR GM. He has been my direct leadership and we work very well together.
I want to reiterate that both DragonRealms and GemStone IV are the focus of the company and all of the Simutronics staff are committed to that. I know the general thought it that for years, Simutronics put all their efforts into other projects, and while other projects did take the spotlight, we’re now the priority.
For us over here, you’ll still have Chris in billing and myself working on the game. Chris does get split with DR and works directly with Lyneya, their Product Manager. For the time being, we’re working on the transition, so I just ask for everyone’s patience as we adjust to these changes. This news comes after Creating Adventure, and I did not know about any of this until this week, but we are still dedicated to everything we stated in that announcement as well. Our GameMasters are still here to continue to work on the game. I might be more behind the scenes, but I am still working around the clock to make sure we continue to have growth.
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