Category Archives: Jobs

Job cuts at Sega’s Brisbane studio have hit 37 staffers as the studio shifts focus to the digital sphere.

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EA has confirmed a “small” round of layoffs in its Vancouver offices due to the location undergoing a “transformation” of EA Canada and Black Box studios’ home.

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Yasuhiro Wada has wandered back out of obscurity, at the head of a brand new company called ToyBox Inc.

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Activision has announced Humam Sakhnini has been promoted to the newly created position of chief strategy and talent officer.

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THQ’s set to announce it’ll layoff 170 staff today, including its VP of tech Mark DeLoura, according to industry figure Kevin Dent.

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Sony has confirmed to VentureBeat that Susan Panico, former US head of the PlayStation Network, has left Sony. Patrick Seybold confirmed the departure and wished Panico the best, but gave no indication of her reasons for departure or identity of her replacement. The executive was probably best known to PSN members for her regular contributions to the PlayStation Blog, but behind the scenes, helped steer the PSN to its current membership of over 77 million globally.

THQ Australia has confirmed the publisher’s ongoing restructuring has affected Australian staff, although the fate of its Japanese office remains unknown.

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Future US staff have been culled in a wave of lay-offs, while IGN has scrapped two entire sites.

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THQ has announced a round of lay-off today, affecting its administrative and publishing departments. The firm didn’t provide information pertaining to how many employees were let go, but said the job losses occurred outside of its five internal studios: THQ San Diego, THQ Montreal, Relic, Volition, and Vigil. THQ announced earlier this week it was exiting the kids’ licensed games category, to focus on its core game franchises and digital initiatives. Thanks, Joystiq.

Splash Damage has announced it’s appointed Griff Jenkins as its new director of production and has been given a seat on the Board of Directors. Prior to joining studio, Jenkins spent seven years at EA and was the firm’s senior development director for multiple FIFA and worked on the Need for Speed series. “Griff’s new role at Splash Damage will be to improve our games by improving the way we make them,” said Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood. “Under Griff’s leadership we’ll elevate production to a discipline on par with art, design, and programming. Prior positions held by Jenkins include stints at Criterion, Kuju, and Eidos where he worked on the Championship Manager series.

Blizzard’s next MMO – of which we know only the codename, Project Titan – just got a tiny little bit less mysterious.

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Steve Parker, senior producer on Diablo III, has announced  via Twitter he is no longer working at Blizzard. “Hey Twitter, I’m no longer working at Blizzard or on D3,” read the tweet. “I’ve had a great 5 years there and those guys are going to do an amazing job with Diablo.” Parks never said where he was going next, only that he was “looking forward to bigger and better things.” Further tweets suggest his split was amicable as it had been a “pleasure” to work on the game, he said. Parker’s just moving onto something else, basically, so best of luck to him. Meanwhile, in case you didn’t know already, Blizzard is looking for a senior producer at the grade one level for Diablo III. If you’ve got what it takes, apply. Thanks, BlizzPlanet.

TIGA has issued a report which claims 41% of UK developers laid off between 2009 and 2011 have relocated to overseas jobs.

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Ubisoft has announced it’s closed its Vancouver studio, which was previously known as Action Pants before the publisher acquire it in 2009. Under the Ubisoft umbrella, the firm works on various sports titles such as Pure Futbol, Academy of Champions: Soccer, and Motionsports Adrenaline. “We have made the difficult decision to close its studio in Vancouver [as] unfortunately, we haven’t found the right formula for success for the talented team there,” a Ubisoft spokesperson told GameInformer. “Team members will have the opportunity to consider positions in other Ubisoft studios and we will work with each of them to help find the best next step, whether it be within Ubisoft or outside.”

Trion Worlds SVP of publishing, David Reid, has left the firm to take a position with EVE Online developer CCP as the firm’s chief marketing officer. According to Reid, the opportunity to join the firm was “one of those opportunities that only comes your way once in a lifetime.” Before joining Trion, Reid was president of publishing at NCsoft West. At CCP, Reid will be in charge of marketing for EVE Online, DUST 514 and the upcoming MMO, World Of Darkness. Thanks, GI.biz.

Former Codemasters Guildford programmer, Semi Essessi, has spoken out against the firm, stating it imposed long hours without lawful breaks, and threatening former staff members “with bankruptcy” proceedings for not returning wages the firm “mistakenly” paid after shuttering the studio.

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VentureBeat has acquired Bitmob, and its founder, as well as former Ziff Davis Media editorial director, Dan “Shoe” Hsu, has been brought on as GamesBeat’s editor-in-chief. Ben Popper, one of the founding editors of The New York Observer’s Silicon Alley blog, Betabeat, was also hired on as VentureBeat’s east coast editor. VB’s goal with the acquisition and high-profile recruitment is to expand its games channel, with Hsu overseeing the changes. Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat, and Sebastian Haley, review editor and executive video producer, will report to directly to Hsu. Thanks, IndustryGamers.

MCV has released the results of it 2012 UK Games Industry Salary Survey, showing average salary is £33,123.

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Alexandre Amancio, creative director on Assassin’s Creed Revelations, has left Ubisoft to join Cossette, a marketing firm based out of Montreal.

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Bethesda has confirmed a round of lay-offs have occurred at id Software, after a tweet and NeoGAF post on the matter surfaced. Speaking with Joystiq, the firm said the lay-offs occurred through “standard business practice” as id Software “regularly evaluates staffing to ensure it has a workforce that meets the needs of the studio.” That being said, the official statement on the matter also noted id was “still recruiting and hiring qualified developers” as work on future titles at the studio “continues unabated.” [pic]