Just a few days and the “sky is falling”.

It started on Thursday of the last week. Arthur_Parker links to some rumors about AC2:

Developers down to two, support slashed to minimum people, and closure planned.

Just from talking to people that say they know a turbine employee and this is what is going on in AC2. This is AC2 only, all other projects are running normally.
The bad thing is I have heard this recently from two totally different people that live states apart. Both just happen to play other games I play.

Then he links together two other rumors. One says “Farewell Citan”. The other says that “Perpetual Entertainment hired veteran developer Daron Stinnett as Executive Producer in May”. The company now working on Star Trek Online.

Citan = Daron Stinnet, I guess.

Later the same day, we discover that the rumors are true and that AC2 is done. Along with the game, Turbine is shutting down the studio in Santa Monica:

Turbine reps tell GameSpot the studio will be officially shuttered concurrent with the shut down of AC2 in late December 2005.

Turbine staffers downplayed the connection between the two bits of news, stating the Santa Monica office was focused solely on the original Asheron’s Call, released in 1999. The rep elaborated, stating all business-development functions had transitioned back to Turbine’s headquarters in Westwood, Massachusetts, months ago.

He added that all 10 staffers in California will have the opportunity to relocate to Turbine’s headquarters in Westwood.

Uhm, 10 staffers. I guess most of them left the building long ago.

More insights:

Stormwaltz:
How many of them moved from Mass to LA last year? Having done two cross-country moves in two years myself, I know the financial havoc it can wreak.

Mr. Poppinfresh:
The move was two years ago, and was all of the AC1 team as far as I know. That leaves a lot of people holding on to mortgages by now, I’d guess.

Now excuse me. AC2 is closing but noone is being laid off. All its devs are now working on DDO or LOTRO. The studio in Santa Monica is closing too. But then the studio in Santa Monica had only 10 people left in it. And working on AC1, not on the sequel.

It was rather obvious that more was to come.

Firstly we have the confirmation that Citan, executive producer of AC2, is indeed leaving Turbine.

Yesterday, the news that even AC1 may be in trouble.

Sandra “srand” Powers, formerly a Lead Engineer and Producer, leaves AC1 and puts someguy called Alex “Ibn” Beckers in her place:

I wanted to post to let you guys know that I am no longer with the Asheron’s Call 1.0 Live Team. My last day at Turbine was about a week ago.

Before I left, the team worked out a solid plan for the future: Alex “Ibn