‘There is a future for WildStar’, Carbine insists

NCsoft MMO WildStar is not under threat, developer Carbine Studios has insisted.

Many had presumed the worst for the MMO following its muted arrival in June and subsequent cancellation of content, but product director Mike Donatelli has told Eurogamer that its long-term future is secure.

"[NCsoft] specialise in MMOs, that’s what they do. And they see a future for WildStar," he said. "We have legs. And as far as NCSoft is concerned, they’re going to support us, and I take them at their word for that when they’ve made a commitment to us for the future, so I feel very comfortable making that statement."

Donatelli wouldn’t discuss firm sales numbers, but did say that sales were far in excess of his of his 250k estimate.

"When we came out, my expectation was not, ‘Oh we’ll do a quarter-of-a-million people’… I didn’t have a gigantic idea of what it would be," he added. "And then when we came out and we – and I’m not going to talk super-deep into numbers obviously – sold many, many, many times that amount.”

The exec also played down concerns about recent layoffs at Carbine, arguing that part of it was as a result of the need to boost staffing levels ahead of launch to ensure the game was ready

"In the studio I’m sitting at now, we still have hundreds of people working on WildStar. And that’s the honest to God truth,” he insisted. As far as I was concerned it [laying people off] sucks, but it’s part of game development."

Carbine was formed in 2005 specifically to develop WildStar. At its peak it employed 271 people.