Scott Hartsman, executive producer of Rift, stepping down
The Rift team at Trion Worlds already experienced some losses in the past few months, and now executive producer Scott Hartsman is stepping down.
The first part of this year’s state of the game post for Rift, Trion’s MMORPG, revealed the sad news. Bill “Daglar” Fisher will be taking Hartsman’s place in writing the second part of the post for 2013.
Hartsman has been with the Rift team since the start. He was one for the most vocal advocates for the game — a known personality in the game industry even when Rift was relatively unknown.
Just recently, Rift released its first expansion pack, Storm Legion. The expansion garnered widespread critical praise, and it currently holds a solid 79 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Unfortunately, the launch of Storm Legion was followed with bad news at Trion. On Dec. 11, it was reported by multiple outlets that as much as one-third of the Rift team had been laid off. Trion explained in a statement the layoffs were “in response to market conditions, product timelines, and the natural evolution of our company.”
Hartsman’s departure is yet another big blow to the Rift team. For many, he was the face of the game.
Read the full letter from Hartsman below:
I wanted to let you know that I’m stepping down from my position here at Trion. It’s been an amazing time, working with some of the best developers anywhere, getting the company’s first game off the ground, taking it all the way through a multitude of amazing updates, then to Storm Legion, and even a little bit beyond.
Thanks for all of your support and dedication throughout.
The good news is that if you enjoy what’s been going on in RIFT lately, the folks who are now in charge are the same ones who have been making all of the game-impacting decisions, both to content and gameplay, for some time now. You’ll definitely be hearing from Bill Fisher, the lead game designer soon with some exciting updates. They love and play the game a lot as well and I feel strongly that RIFT couldn’t be in better hands.
This time at Trion has truly been an amazing journey. It’s been my great privilege to have been a part of it.
And I’ll still see you in RIFT.
Scott Hartsman
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