Triple Town Cloner Lays Off Most Of Development Staff

[Andy Chalk]

Triple Town Cloner Lays Off Most Of Development Staff

6waves Lolapps, the social gaming company that was sued in January for ripping off Triple Town, has laid off most of its development-side employees.

If the name 6waves Lolapps rings a bell, it's probably thanks to the furor that erupted in January when social game studio Spry Fox took it to court over claims that the iOS game Yeti Town was a flat-out ripoff [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115568-Triple-Town-Dev-Sues-Over-Cloned-Game] of its hit Triple Town. That matter is still in dispute, but now it appears that the company is facing other troubles as well, as it has laid off "most of its employees on the development side" of the business.

"6waves Lolapps will now focus on working with independent developers to launch and grow their mobile and social games," 6waves Lolapps CEO Rex Ng said in a statement. "As a result, we have restructured the company to focus on key functions which include developer outreach, product advisory, user growth initiatives and our publishing platform."

Games that were already in development, like Ravenshire Castle, will still be released through a spin-off venture funded by Chief Product Officer Arjun Sethi and Lolapps co-founder Kavin Stewart. Whether and how existing Lolapps games like Ravenwood Fair will be affected is currently unclear.

The move is particularly ugly because the company was only formed last July by the merger of publisher 6waves and social game developer Lolapps. The company said the merger is still intact but the new focus on publishing third-party titles strongly suggests that the plan didn't come together quite as well as hoped.

Source: TechCrunch [http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/19/6waves-lolapps-layoffs/]

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[Hungry Donner]

*braces for six waves of laughter directed right towards them*

I feel bad for the people who were laid off, but I can't say I'm sorry for the company.

 

[gigastar]

They tried to launch themselves to success out of a toilet. They have failed. Now theyre going right back down the S-bend.

Now only if it were to happen to all the ripoff social developers, especially Zynga, i might view the world in a better light.

 

[subtlefuge]

I feel bad that the people responsible for making their awful decisions are likely to be the only ones left unscathed.

 

[MetalMagpie]

Here's hoping they find new jobs, I guess. Never nice to hear about people being laid off due to "restructuring".

 

[weirdee]

if churn is this much of an issue, it's a wonder why we haven't made any real effort towards structuring the process

 

[Viral_Lola]

fjthfghfhghfgififiifiovirogifdhdrhffhfftftvtftigiffiiffifiiffitiriti

Apparently my child thinks she has important things to say about this matter. She doesn?t like that people were laid off.

 

[ResonanceSD]

So who did you last work for?

[sub]"6waves"[/sub]

Oh really? Well the door is over there, goodbye!

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Social gaming taken has a whole simply hasn't got enough creative thought to fill a thimble. There are rare sparks but social gaming seems DESIGNED to be shit.

Not terribly surprised, most of these "games" aren't much more than gateways to endless micro-transactions.

"You've completed your turn but you still have fifteen minutes to kill and didn't think to bring a book along for the wait? Sucks to be you! Give me all your cash-money and I can give you inflated Brownie Points to buy virtual goods in our crummy little store! Thirty bucks for five sunflower seeds! DEAL OF THE WEEK!"