Hello Neighbor publisher Tinybuild is accelerating a cost reduction plan that will result in an unknown number of layoffs.
15.11.2023 - 23:47 / polygon.com / Christoph Hartmann
The video game industry’s string of layoffs continues: Digital Bros. Entertainment and Kongregate have both announced job cuts.
Digital Bros., which owns Control publisher 505 Games and other studios, is laying off 30% of its workforce — roughly 130 people — as part of an “organization review,” it announced Tuesday. The job losses will largely impact Digital Bros.’ studios, according to a news release. Beyond 505 Games, Digital Bros. Entertainment owns DR Studios (Terraria for mobile and console), Kunos Simulazioni (Assetto Corsa), Infinity Plus Two (Puzzle Quest 3), Supernova Games, Nesting Games, Avantgarden (Last Day of June) and Ingame Studios (Crime Boss: Rockay City).
Kongregate, the online gaming portal and publisher, has cut more than a dozen jobs across several departments. Kongregate has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment. The layoffs span multiple departments, including art, VFX, marketing, community management, and production. It’s been a challenging few years for Kongregate, which made a name for itself in the early 2000s as the online portal for Flash games. When Adobe dropped Flash support for good in 2020, Kongregate had to shift toward preserving its Flash games.
In July 2020, Kongregate announced it was no longer accepting user-created games, as it moved toward its own internal development. At that time, it laid off several people to “reshape” the company. One person laid off by Kongregate told Polygon it came as a total surprise.
Three video game studios have laid off workers in as many days: Amazon’s gaming division announced layoffs on Monday. More than 180 people have been cut from Amazon’s Crown Channel and Game Growth programs as the company “refocuses” on Prime Gaming, according to a staff memo sent by Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann. Humble Games, which publishes video games like Coral Island and Mineko’s Night Market, also laid off an unknown number of staffers this week, it confirmed to GLHF. Over the past year, more than 6,000 people have been laid off in the video game industry, according to a layoff tracking website.
Hello Neighbor publisher Tinybuild is accelerating a cost reduction plan that will result in an unknown number of layoffs.
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Developers at Palia studio Singularity Six were still celebrating a successful early access launch when a surprising announcement was made: The company was laying off around 10% of its workers. Though the game is a cozy life simulator, layoffs were something that was “not so cozy,” as a Singularity Six leader had said in a previous meeting, according to two workers.
505 Games parent company Digital Bros have announced - you guessed it - a round of mass layoffs. Following in the wake of Microsoft, Epic, CD Projekt, Sony and, well, take your pick, the company aim to cut roughly 30% of their workforce to shore up profits. The specific reasoning here is that Digital Bros think that people aren't interested in playing original new games; they'd rather get to grips with fictions and franchises they know and love already. As such, the company plan to "limit" their big budget projects in future, though no specific cancellations have been announced.
It’s anotherdifficult week in the games industry, as both Humble Games, and 505 Games’ parent company, Digital Bros, are confirming layoffs. At Digital Bros, the cuts are deep, affecting 30% of its workforce, and a refocus on fewer projects under successful IP…
Digital Bros Group, the parent company to publisher 505 Games, has announced plans to lay off 30 percent of its staff. It says it is doing so to align with «the new competitive market.» 505 Games is the publisher behind games like Ghostrunner 2, Control, Payday 2, the PC version of Death Stranding, and more; it's unclear how much of that team will be affected by Digital Bros' overall plan.
Digital Bros — the parent company of 505 Games (known for publishing the early Cooking Mama games in Europe, as well asTerraria, Ghostrunner 2 and many more) — has announced plans to cut around 30% of its global workforce as a result of a new organizational review across both its publishing units and development studios. It expects that “the predominant portion [of reductions will be] concentrated within the studios.”
Digital Bros has just announced that they are laying off 30 % of their employees, as the latest company to follow this unfortunate trend.
505 Games parent company Digital Bros is cutting its global workforce by 30 per cent.