Former Firefall Producer: "Everyone From Red 5 Has Been Let Go"

By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted: July 26, 2016

Is this the end for Firefall and Red 5 Studios?

That seems like a possible outcome following the recent news that the studio suffered mass layoffs, with former employees saying things like "Everyone from Red5 has been let go" and "Everyone I know of who was still there (there weren't many left) was let go today" (meaning Monday). You can find the grim news on the Firefall subreddit.

It's not all that surprising, considering Red 5's actions as of late, such as layoffs back in November and that thing about missing payroll in December. Looking around the web for the exact reasons behind yesterday's culling, it's easy to point a finger at the recent collapse of the stock value of the Cayman Islands cashmere company (no, really) that owns 30.6% of Red 5 -- seriously, look at that chart. It's so bad, the stock has been suspended from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

If you're still playing Firefall, I'd suggest getting your fix while you can. This sounds more like the sort of MMO game closure that doesn't come with fanfare and events to celebrate the community but with a quick and casual flipping of the switch from "on" to "off." Our condolences go out to those affected.

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In this article: Firefall, Red 5 Studios.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

SethEyes 8 years ago

like the guy said good ideia...but a bad execution of the ideia a lot of bugs issues,the game is awesome i love sci-fi games,defiance is nice too but is dying i played a lot but today not anymore ,truth is we dont have a good mmofps they have a nice ideia but they fail to make the game works as it should...unfortunately but i have hopes for this genre one day someone will create a nice one.

Xazur 8 years ago

After kicking out one of the main developers they streamlined the game way too much, the old systems is what made Firefall unique and fun to play and yet not that complicated.

Todoran 8 years ago

good ideea bad execution

LutheBear 8 years ago

Play Defiance instead. Its was better. RIP Firefall. Was a great game in Beta and worst after Release

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NGoHT 8 years ago

Enjoyed closed and open beta, was a fun and unique game.
Then as the release came closer and everything got dumbed down, PvP arenas taken out and it started to slowly die with each update as the core devs/staff members got suppressed/kicked/left.
Really hope the talented guys restart somehow and manage to make the game they wanted to b4 all those wastes of airs let them down.

trionisshit 8 years ago

Great news, another predicted shit is down , its dead many years, very bad devs, they scammed players many times, deleted their all items few times , gameplay was fun when game was in closed beta then soon after that game changed few times to bad side, very bad skill tree, very bad system about weapon fixing, item making is a total pain, you need to google monnths nad months to find all needed shit, great its dead ! They should bring this poop to consoles, brainless ideots liek play shit!

Adrian 8 years ago

Yeah it does look like it might be the end of Firefall and since even FadedPez (best community manager a game can have) is not working there anymore i guess we can safely assume it is the end for Firefall.

Still... this is a bitter/sweet day for me, as on one hand i loved playing Firefall a while back and even though i don't play it anymore it is still sad to see it close. On the other hand, Ember forums launched just hours ago and even if Ember (aka Firefall's spiritual successor) it's still far from being a real game it's a step closer to it and that makes me happy.