Hilmar Petursson, CEO of Eve Online developer CCP, has spoken candidly about the redundancies announced earlier this week, explaining how the company was going about helping affected employees.
"I feel very accountable for the situation and it's really hard to go through these steps in this way," Petursson told Eurogamer. "We took on too many things as a company and our focus was spread too thin. These were very much the decisions that I as CEO made and supported, and I think everyone now agrees that we need to do these adjustments. That's a hard thing to realise, especially because people are hurt in the process. That's the reality.
"It's a danger of having gone from success to success for such a long time. We've consistently bucked the trend with Eve now for eight years. Eve as an initial creation was an almost impossible feat and we've carried that through the years, growing each year. It frankly made me arrogant and making a change to the game as we did over the summer - in the way that we did - led to taking a look at the whole company as a result."
Speaking to Gamasutra, Petursson revealed that other developers were helping to find new positions for departing staff.
"I've personally been contacted by many CEOs in the industry which have offered to help with finding employment for the people who are leaving, and that's a great thing to see," he said. "We are connecting people with our industry friends, we are helping them with their resumes, we are helping them to make contacts, and things like that."
The cuts came about as a result of the company's inability to sustain the number of simultaneous projects it's currently juggling, which include Eve expansions such as the controversial Incarna update, console MMOFPS Dust 514 and MMOG World Of Darkness. CCP's Atlanta, Georgia studio will bear the brunt of the cuts, but some positions at the Reykjavik headquarters will also be affected.