Perpetual laying off up to 40 staff

Perpetual Entertainment has said it will be laying off between 30 and 40 staff as the company moves from development to playtesting of its latest PC MMO.

Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising was originally due for release this autumn but has been delayed due to further beta testing.

"The size and bar of content creation is very high and requires a pretty sizeable team," said Chris McKibbin, CEO of Perpetual, speaking to Gamasutra.

"The process of really play-tuning and balancing takes a much smaller, more focused and agile team, and so that is the transition right now," he commented.

McKibbin stated that Perpetual would help former employees to find work with other developers or on its other project, Star Trek Online.

Although God and Heroes: Rome Rising does not have a solid release date, it is expected in early 2008.

"We put a high value on listening to our beta community and then reacting and making those changes, and we want to continue and give ourselves more time to do that, and give the community more time to play the game," added McKibbin.