Embracer has laid off a ‘sizable portion’ of Gearbox support studio Lost Boys Interactive

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a labyritnhine Metroidvania with a sprawling map crammed with upgrades like Soma Petals that expand your health bar, Damascus Ingots, those pesky little silver rectangles that are used to give your attacks more power, and many other collectibles that make your life easier as you explore the mysterious ancient kingdom filled with timey-wimey mystery.

Reikon Games, the studio behind 2017 action game Ruiner, has reportedly laid off around 80% of its staff.

No matter what industry you work in, there is always a chance for layoffs. In many ways, it’s one of the biggest things people fear. After all, they could be happy and think they have a long-term solution to their money problems one day, and then the next day comes, and they’re told it’s their last day at work due to “corporate changes,” or “cost-saving moves” or some words of the like. One might feel that the Video Game Industry, with its various successful studios and titles, would be immune from this. But as the website Video Game Layoffs has noted, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Earlier this morning, it was announced that Microsoft is laying off 1,900 staff from its gaming division, a reduction of around 8% of Microsoft Gaming's total workforce. Following the announcements, Mike Ybarra (also known as Qwik) has announced on X that today is his last day at Blizzard Entertainment.

Embracer’s latest round of layoffs affect two studios, one of which had just been announced to be working on a major AAA.

Nintendo has finally announced the release date for Splatoon 3's Side Order expansion.

Hytale, the spiritual successor to Minecraft, hasn't been impacted by the layoffs at Riot.

Palworld, the survival game where you recruit adorable Pokémon-like creatures and send them to fight or work, has been out for four days and is already a massive hit. On Monday morning, the Early Access version of the game reached over 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam, making it the most-played game on the platform and marking the third highest number of concurrent players on the platform of all time. The statistic doesn’t even include players who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass, meaning its overall active player base is likely much larger. According to its developer, Pocketpair, the game sold over 5 million copies in three days.

Another developer has joined the increasingly long list of companies in the games industry that have companies that have initiated layoffs in the early weeks of 2024, continuing the brutal waves of job cuts that devastated the industry the entirety of last year.

Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has reportedly laid off 45 people, Kotaku has learned. The publication says those with knowledge of the situation at the studio said the layoffs only affected people at Behaviour's Montreal, Canada studio, with those 45 affected let go last week, between January 9 and 11. 

Bethesda has been known for delivering some thrilling RPGs into the marketplace. But they have slowly dipped their toes into the mobile market. We’re used to seeing developers and publishers release ports for past games on the mobile platform. More impressive title ports are being released, with new devices proving better suited for gaming. It was a bit of a surprise when Bethesda unveiled Fallout Shelter, a game that was being developed for mobile devices rather than consoles and PC. But if you enjoyed that game, then you might be interested in The Elder Scrolls: Castles.

Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive has reportedly made a round of layoffs.