Rumor: Wuthering Waves has poor performance because its engine specialist was fired before launch
From stuttering screens to high ping, loading issues and clunky gameplay, Wuthering Waves has experienced a less-than-ideal launch, with performance issues at the forefront of player concerns. While the developers have done a great job of communicating updates with the player base and distributing generous compensation, one can only imagine what is really going on behind the scenes.
A Reddit post recently discussed a rumor about how Wuthering Waves’ Unreal Engine Specialist, Jiff (王宏波), was allegedly fired just two months before the game was released. The blog post written by Jiff and translated by the community, alluded to horrible working conditions and profit practices. Another one Reddit post translated a conversation that revealed a rumor about how Kuro Games had previously fired 100 employees on probation (zero to six months in the company) without compensation, further highlighting the company’s inability to nurture fresh talent to grow in the gaming industry.
In addition, Kuro Games bit into a compelling deal with Tencent – a multimedia conglomerate with massive influence on China’s gaming industry. In 2023, they invested in Running Games at 14.3% share. While some netizens believe it could help Kuro Games push Wuthering Waves into the global market, it certainly did nothing to improve the apparently terrible HR practices at the company (if the allegations against Kuro are to be believed).
Jiff’s firing came at the oddest time. Kuro Games invested heavily in Wuthering Waves, which was expected to net the company a lot of profits. With year-end bonuses just over the horizon, some netizens claim that the big layoffs could be done to reduce the company’s profit-sharing expenses, although this remains speculation.
It’s not the first time that Kuro Games has neglected technical support for its games. Their debut title, Punish: Gray Raven experienced a shaky launch as the technical developer was rumored to have left before releasewhich caused bugs that couldn’t be fixed by anyone on the team – until he was rehired to save the game.
Regardless of the aforementioned rumors, Kuro Games has continued to pay attention to Wuthering Waves, which has already seen some improvements from the launch day chaos.
We’ve reached out to Kuro Games for comment on this story, and will update if we hear back.
Speaking of compensation, check out our guide on How to use Mutual Tides Coupon in Wuthering Waves here on Pro Game Guides.
