Layoffs News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Gloomhaven developer Flaming Fowl Studios has announced layoffs, and that it's putting its current project on hold.

An independent UK developer says it’s been forced to announce and postpone its game on the same day, and lay off more than half of its staff, due to the sharp downturn in investment in the games industry.

Famed mass-layoff-manufacturing corporation Embracer Group are dividing into three companies, which will be listed separately on Sweden’s stock exchange. Those companies are: Asmodee Group, which comprises Embracer’s tabletop games biz; Coffee Stain & Friends, an evolution of the existing Coffee Stain publisher, who will pursue "a dual focus on indie and A/AA premium and free-to-play games for PC/console and mobile"; and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends, “a creative powerhouse in AAA game development and publishing for PC and console, as well as the stewards of The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider intellectual properties, among many others”.

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Take-Two Interactive is embarking on another cost cutting program, and this one will see the company layoff about 5% of its employees by the end of the year.

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At the Game Developer Conference last month, Glow Up Games co-founder and CXO Latoya Peterson contributed to a series of micro-talks around sustainability, calling out the fundamental flaws of games funding.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has called for the games industry to do more to protect developer jobs and prevent further layoffs.

Possibility Space has shut down, according to former employees.

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The International Game Developers Association today released a "call to action" for studio leaders to avoid unneeded layoffs.

Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios has reportedly furloughed the majority of its staff.

The $70 release day price for standard AAA titles is both unsustainable and on the way out, claims Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch, via an interview with IGN reporter Rebekah Valentine.

GAME staff have reportedly been told to expect a wave of redundancies as employees are moved to zero hours contracts.

UK retailer Game is reportedly cutting an unspecified number of jobs.

Singularity 6 has laid off a third of its staff following Palia's release on Steam.

Relic Entertainment, the freshly-independent developers of Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Age of Empires IV, have confirmed a number of job losses. The layoffs come just a week after the studio announced their sale from former owners Sega, returning them to independence after two decades.

Former Prytania Media CEO Annie Delisi Strain has issued a statement regarding the closure of Crop Circle Games last month.

Relic Entertainment has announced redundancies following its sale from Sega last week.

Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment has said it will make further layoffs, following its sale by Sega announced last week.

A week after being sold by Sega and becoming an independent studio, Relic Entertainment has announced a round of layoffs.

Gearbox Entertainment has announced an unspecified number of redundancies following its sale from Embracer last week.

Ubisoft has announced another round of layoffs, with 45 staff affected across its global publishing and Asia-Pacific teams.

Certain Affinity has laid off 25 US-based employees working in its business operations division.

Ubisoft has confirmed plans to lay off a further 45 employees as part of an ongoing exercise to “streamline operations”.

Earlier today, megacorp Embracer announced they were selling Borderlands developer Gearbox to Take-Two. During an investor call about the divestment, CEO Lars Wingefors confirmed that this brought an end to the restructuring process Embracer announced last year. He was also asked whether this meant Embracer had plans to start acquiring other studios again.

Certain Affinity has laid off 25 of its staff, in what its CEO says is the first mass layoff in the studio’s 17-year history.

Sega Of America employees have become the first a major US video games studio to ratify a union contract. The contract covers guarantees minimum yearly pay increases for around 150 staff through 2026.

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Sega has announced plans to sell Relic Entertainment and cut 240 jobs in Europe.

Sega has sold Relic Entertainment, and will cut 240 roles across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly and Sega HARDlight

Nintendo of America is reorganizing its QA team, as Kotaku reports the company is conducting a "massive" downsizing of the contractor base at its Redmond, Washington headquarters.

Nintendo of America is reportedly cutting around 120 contractor jobs as part of a restructuring of its testing department ahead of Switch 2’s launch.

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GameStop has reportedly made another round of layoffs, with an unspecified number of jobs lost following lower fourth quarter revenue and low consumer spending.

Microsoft’s head of gaming has said the company’s decision to cut 1,900 jobs was ultimately the result of a lack of growth in the industry.

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Velan Studios has announced that it is in the early stages of reorganisation, and has confirmed that layoffs will most likely occur as a result.

The director of Baldur's Gate 3, Swen Vincke, was one of many to speak out on the recent mass layoffs within the video games industry at an industry awards show last night, blaming the job losses on corporate «greed» that had been «fucking this whole thing up for so long».

Media Molecule has set a date for the last of its staff affected by layoffs announced last October to leave the studio.

Sensor Tower has acquired mobile marketing firm Data.ai for an undisclosed sum, which will involve an unknown number of layoffs from the latter's workforce.

Originally announced back at Gamescom 2022, dark historical fantasy RPG Wyrdsong’s developer, Something Wicked Games, seems to be the most recent studio to suffer mass layoffs.

Something Wicked Games has reportedly cut an unknown number of staff.

Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has suffered a round of layoffs as part of wider cuts at parent company Electronic Arts.

Deviation Games has closed down.

New AAA game developer Deviation Games is closing, the studio announced.

Unforetold: Witchstone entered Early Access in January, and developer Spearhead Games is now ending production “indefinitely” this week on the CRPG after “difficult” financial circumstances that also see the studio laying off most of its staff.

Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down its Rooster Teeth division, according to a Variety report.

Australian studio Torus has laid off its team and will be on a hiatus for the foreseeable future.

Spearhead Games is ending production of Unforetold: Witchstone, which launched on January 4, and is laying off the majority of its staff.

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Sea of Thieves co-developer Radical Forge has laid off “a handful” of employees.

Indie studio Radical Forge has been hit with a round of layoffs, with an unspecified number of employees affected.

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In Shakespeare's Anthony And Cleopatra, said famous woman says "Give to a gracious message an host of tongues, but let ill tidings tell themselves when they be felt." I.e., when you have good news you can go round the houses, but if you have bad news - like sending an all-hands email to the staff at EA to let them know that, less than a year after the last round of layoffs, a further 5% of them are getting booted - then you should just come out and say it as quickly and simply as possible.

Electronic Arts has announced a restructuring plan that will see it lay off approximately 5% of its global workforce.

Cloud Imperium Games has reportedly laid off an unknown number of staff.

Electronic Arts today announced that it is laying off approximately 5% of its employees as it leans in on the parts of the business it feels will be the most successful in the years to come.

Life Is Strange: True Colors developer Deck Nine Games has cut 20% of its total workforce.

Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has reportedly laid off an unknown number of staff.

Guerrilla Games is reportedly cutting 10% of its workforce as part of wider layoffs announced on Tuesday by parent company Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Another day, another videogame company jettisoning a large number of people "who have contributed to our success" so as to position themselves for growth in the face of "challenging times". Today it's Sony's turn with the axe: the PlayStation publisher have announced plans to reduce their global workforce by about 8% or 900 people, so as "to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead", in the words of outgoing president and CEO Jim Ryan.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is cutting 8% of its global PlayStation workforce, including the complete closure of PlayStation London Studio.

Saltsea Chronicles studio Die Gute Fabrik has announced that it’s disbanding.

Supermassive Games have announced a period of consultation and reorganisation that will end in job losses, as the Until Dawn developers try "to ensure the continued sustainability of the company". It follows a report that studio leadership told 150 people their jobs were at risk earlier today, with around 90 staff expected to eventually leave the business following the consultation.

Die Gute Fabrik is done for now, as the studio announced today that it stopped work last week after being unable to land funding for its next project.

Supermassive Games is poised to lay off approximately 90 employees from the company.

Electronic Arts is set to lay off "a small number of staff" due to its decision to close two of its mobile titles: EA Sports MLB Tap Sports and F1 Mobile Racing.

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Everywhere developer Build A Rocket Boy has reportedly been hit with layoffs.

Build a Rocket Boy has reportedly made an unconfirmed number of layoffs.

Activision Blizzard is reportedly planning redundancies at its Irish office located in Blackpool, Cork.

Microsoft is reportedly set to slash more than a hundred jobs at Activision Blizzard's Cork office.

Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM is reportedly planning to lay off 24 employees, in addition to cancelling a project codenamed X7.

Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said that the current reduction in workforce at the company and across the industry is "something that everyone needs to get through," later adding that the group's strategy has been to cut the things that have "the lowest chance of success going forward" and to only keep "the most iconic studios."

Daybreak Game Company has confirmed earlier reports that there had been layoffs across its teams, but said the number is under 15.