End of Nations not cancelled but moved from Petroglyph to Trion

Update: Petroglyph Games specified that its workforce was reduced by 19 employees, bringing it to over 90 people. The developer issued the following statement to Eurogamer:

"Petroglyph Games Inc., an innovative studio that has created and launched multiple successful games over the years, has concluded its work as developer on End of Nations for publisher Trion Worlds. As a result, Petroglyph has reduced its workforce by 19 employees. The team at Petroglyph is very excited about End of Nations, a title which earned more than 50 nominations and awards while in development, and looks forward to its upcoming release."

"Additionally, Petroglyph recently moved into a larger facility in Las Vegas to house its current headcount of over 90 employees. Development work continues on multiple projects across different genres and platforms, both internally and externally funded, with releases planned through 2014."

Original story: Persistent online RTS End of Nations hasn't been scrapped or shelved, despite foreboding news of lay-offs at developer Petroglyph.

That's because End of Nations development has moved from Petroglyph internally to publisher - and maker of Rift - Trion.

Community manager Myll Erik explained:

"Hey guys, I wanted to give you a status update on End of Nations and let you know that we're still moving full steam ahead with the game," he wrote in the game's forum.

"In light of the recent announcement around postponement of the End of Nations open beta, we wanted to let you know what we have been hard at work getting End of Nations to the quality level it needs to be at. We are committed to delivering the top-notch product we know this game can be, and we are looking forward to welcoming you back into the testing phase of the game to help get it there. "

Some of the things the team is working on is easing the level curve for new players, revamping the UI, increasing player strategy and generally polishing the experience.

"As End of Nations was reaching the pre-launch phase in its lifecycle, we officially brought the game development in house to Trion Worlds and will complete the development internally," Erik added.

"Our team has been hard at work implementing many changes based on your feedback from the beta events. Keep checking back for more updates as we are looking forward to showing off some of the cool new things the team has been working on."

Las Vegas-based developer Petroglyph still has League of Legends-alike Battle for Graxia to concentrate on and its recently launched open beta. How the lay-offs and loss of End of Nations will affect the team long-term remains to be seen.