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Only one year after acquiring new management and being taken over
by businessman Emmanuel Olivier, MC2-Microids proceeded with laying-off
a substantial amount
of employees on Friday, Oct. 29th.

“While this was
a difficult decision for us, it was necessary in order to ensure
that Microids continues to produce high quality
games, and that all our loyal and talented employees can keep working
on creating those graphically stunning titles that we’ve been known
for. We’ll work hard to ensure the speedy return of our troops,” Emmanuel
Olivier, President of Microids told Just Adventure.

MC2-Microids, known to
the adventure community as the developers of such popular games
as Syberia I & II and Post
Mortem, was
recently formed through a merger of Microids and MC2 to create and
develop video games for multiple platforms. Much of the staff is
comprised of the same team members who were responsible for the atmospheric
Amerzone,
the classic Syberia series
and the gritty Post Mortem.

So how will these lay-offs affect the development of the much-anticipated
Still Life? Just Adventure also spoke to Nathalie Bergeron, Senior
Consultant for High Road Communications, the company that handles
public relations for MC2-Microids:

MC2-Microids had to proceed with temporary layoffs in the studio,
effective last Friday. It is only a temporary situation, while management
is restructuring the activities and evaluating its production process.

As you might know,
the industry is fast evolving; production cycles are changing
rapidly
and conception cycles are longer. This affects
staffing, as while the core team is going through the first stages
of creation, other team members are not “busy”, their
expertise being needed later in the process. This in turn creates
a heavy financial
weight on smaller studios. Employees will be called back as early
as January, gradually.

This situation will in no way disrupt the development of Still
Life,
which is coming along great and still scheduled for release in Spring
05.

So before the rumors begin
flying, let’s end any speculation
of MC2-Microids being in financial straits. While we do empathize
with any employee being laid-off, we are also cognizant of the financial
restraints in today’s marketplace that is increasingly driven
by big-budget titles and look forward to MC2-Microids employees returning
to work early next year and providing the adventure community with
many more quality titles.