Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced its latest free PlayStation Plus online multiplayer weekend.
14.11.2023 - 22:12 / gamesradar.com / A.Tale / Lays Off / Will
Digital Bros Group, perhaps best-known in the video game industry as the owner of publisher 505 Games, which is behind the likes of Control: Ultimate Edition and Death Stranding PC, is laying off a whopping 30% of its global workforce and doubling down on sequels because that seems to be what the industry wants.
Digital Bros announced the news in a press release published earlier today. Judging from the employee reports popping up on social media, at least some of the layoffs are already in effect. It's worth reiterating the sheer, mind-boggling scope of laying off 30% of your workforce in one go. Some of the biggest and highest-profile games layoffs of the year, like those at Bungie and Epic Games, were well under 30%.
What prompted these layoffs? Digital Bros reckons "the video game market has evolved since the pandemic to be more selective in terms of new games, with consumers increasingly reverting to well established Intellectual Properties and playing these same games for longer periods.
"Digital Bros' strategy has had to adapt to this new and evolving competitive scenario and will focus its efforts moving forward on the release of sequels and new versions of previously successful and established games, with a limited number of new larger budget productions."
It's not surprising to hear a company argue that sequels, remakes, reboots, and other retreads are much safer than new IP, nor is it news for the industry. The AAA space has been singing that song for years. What's more surprising is to hear it from the owner of 505 Games, which has spent years publishing a lot of more out-there games.
It's behind Ghostrunner, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Abzu, Last Day of June, Journey to the Savage Planet, Eiyuden Chronicle, Indivisible, and plenty of other games that are decidedly not "previously successful." Granted, Digital Bros has only discussed its overall strategy, and it's not clear how hard the layoffs will hit 505 Games itself. And per today's announcement, new projects have not dried up entirely. Even so, it's hard to imagine the publisher will weather this storm with its same creative breadth in-tact.
GTA 6 publisher blames 2023's swathe of industry layoffs on "the enthusiasm of the pandemic."
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced its latest free PlayStation Plus online multiplayer weekend.
Fae Farm and Dauntless developers Phoenix Labs have cut 34 jobs following an internal review. It's a sad end to a busy year for the Canadian studio, who bought their independence back from previous owner Garena in February, and laid off 9 per cent of their workforce in May.
Phoenix Labs, the developer behind recent indie success Fae Farm, has laid off 34 staff.
Phoenix Labs this week had its second round of layoffs this year, as reported by a number of now-former employees on LinkedIn.
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There's more bad news out of struggling gaming conglomerate Embracer: The company has confirmed that approximately 50 employees are being laid off from Chorus developer Fishlabs, and is also reportedly looking at closing TimeSplitters studio Free Radical Design completely.
Only two years after acquiring part of Weta's VFX business, Unity is stepping back to focus on its core business.
German developer Fishlabs is the latest Embracer outfit to experience job cuts.
Death Stranding 2 may be releasing in 2025, according to new information that was discovered online today.
Death Stranding 2 could launch in 2025, according to one of the game's artists. This comes from the artist's online portfolio, where they list Death Stranding 2 - one of the many projects they've worked on - as a 2025 release, perhaps indicating that we'll get an official release date soon.
Death Stranding 2 was officially announced at The Game Awards in December last year, and it looks like the open world title could be gearing up to return to the stage in this year’s show.
“Why are we doing this now?” is an understandable question to have when hearing about the new Netflix anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, or even throughout most of its first episode. There are identical lines and visual jokes, and with the entire star-studded cast of the movie back in voice roles, it seems like the show is setting up to be a pretty faithful (but admittedly stylish) retread of Edgar Wright’s 2010 cult classic.