Discord is reportedly laying off 17% of its workforce, affecting 170 people

The development team behind Blizzard's now-cancelled survival game, reportedly called Odyssey, is seemingly among the teams dramatically impacted by the layoffs at Microsoft today.

Black Forest Games, the studio behind the recent Destroy All Humans! 1 and 2 remakes, has reportedly laid off about 50 people. This news comes from Kotaku, which learned from a source with knowledge of the situation that these layoffs were announced yesterday, January 24, and that more information about them would be provided next week. 

Twitch has announced a major change to its Partner Program set to start later this year, expanding the qualifications for the site's lucrative revenue split. The streaming platform's partnership program has undergone a plethora of major changes throughout recent years, both adjusting its revenue splits and changing its partnership contracts. Last year saw Twitch introduce a new 50/50 revenue split with partnered creators, which was met with significant controversy and later saw a 70/30 revenue split introduced through its Partner Plus Program. Now, Twitch is set to expand its highest partnership tier.

Microsoft is reportedly laying off 1,900 of its 22,000 video game staff following the $69 billion Activision Blizzard King acquisition.

Outriders and Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly has joined the long list of developers and companies in the games industry that have been hit with layoffs, less than a month into 2024. As per a report by Kotaku, the studio has laid off over 30 people.

A bunch of companies in the technology sector have been laying off some of their employees recently after quickly ramping up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic while people spent more time and money online. Now, many of them are making job cuts to help lower costs and bolster their bottom lines. Here's some of the companies that have laid of employees of late:

People Can Fly, the developer behind the likes of Outriders and Bulletstorm, has reportedly laid off «over 30 people» working on a currently unannounced game — codenamed Project Gemini — that's set to be published by Square Enix.

Amazon-owned Twitch is preparing to lay off 35 percent of its employees or a little over 500 people. The news was first reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday and confirmed a day later by Twitchin a blog post signed by CEO Dan Clancy. Employees will learn today via email whether they are or aren't losing their jobs.

Discord is the latest gaming-centric tech company to lay off a large number off its employees, with 170 people from across various departments being cut.

The CEO of streaming platform Twitch, Dan Clancy, has publicly spoken about the company’s recent layoffs, and revealed that right now, “we aren’t profitable.”

Community chat application company, Discord, has laid off 170 employees, or 17 percent of its staff, according to a new report from The Verge. Discord CEO Jason Citron cites overhiring, which has led to the company becoming «less efficient» in how it operates. The layoffs affected people across various departments. 

Discord is about to lay off 170 people from the company.