Tag Archives: layoffs

Bioshock 2 lead designer Zak McClendon has jumped ship for Harmonix as Design Director, according to his online CV. The Rock Band studio appears to be gearing up towards something massive, if recent rumours are to be believed.

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EA announced today that they’ve initiated a round of layoffs at a few of their studios.
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A now former employee at Tera publisher En Masse Entertainment has tweeted that the folks behind MMO Tera have laid off an unknown number of staff members.

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Army of Two and Skate It developer EA Montreal will let some staff go as part of “routine changes”.

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The 10,000 job cuts Sony plans to make by the end of 2012 are not expected to affect its gaming division.

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After denying rumours of mass lay-offs yesterday, EA has said it will likely have more employees than ever by the end of 2012.

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EA has denied it’s preparing for a massive rearrangement of staff, with as many as 1,000 jobs reported to be on the chopping block.

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New CEO Kazuo Hirai has revealed Sony’s strategic plans to dig back out of several successive loss years, focussing on core businesses and making significant cuts.

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Ahead of new CEO Kazuo Hirai’s first major strategy meeting, Sony is believed to be making extensive layoffs.

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It’s always sad to see our fellow members  of the press leave their respective outlets, and today is no exception. More »

Troubled Canadian developer Silicon Knights is said to have been hit by “massive layoffs”.

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As part of a “strategic realignment”, THQ has announced it will close two entire studios and let go one further dev team, as well as closing down the MX vs. ATV franchise.

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The creators of the Zoo Tycoon franchise have announced today that they’ve been hit with layoffs, and inside sources claim the layoffs are even worse.
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Disney Interactive is reported to have cut a further 80 jobs as part of its ongoing restructure.

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Ubisoft confirmed last night that 38 staff have been made redundant from Tom Clancy studio Red Storm Entertainment, as part of an effort to “focus on its core expertise” of “developing innovative multiplayer experiences.”

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God of War: Chains of Olympus developer Ready at Dawn has confirmed it’s had to lay-off some of staff.

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Looks like more than just Neversoft and Radical felt the sting of layoffs following a meeting with Activision yesterday.

According to reports, Luxoflux and Underground Development, the studio responsible for Guitar Hero: Van Halen and BMX XXX, were both closed completely.

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Square Enix has lowered its first-half profit forecast by 65 percent to ¥2.6 billion ($28.4 million) following a round of layoffs.

Blaming numerous “special factors” for the revision, the current exchange rate and premium severance packages for staff that were laid off were also to blame.

Net income for its financial year ending March 31, 2010 was lowered 33 percent, from ¥15 billion to ¥10 billion with most severance packages being absorbed during the first half.

Things are expected to look more positive once Final Fantasy XIII is released in Japan on December 17.

Via GI.biz.

Ex-id/Ion Storm man John Romero’s latest project, a development studio called Slipgate Ironworks, has seen a bit of restructuring recently. First, the bad news: layoffs. And lots of them.

According to a few former Slipgate employees who spoke with Kotaku, some 50 staff members have received pink slips over the past week.

The not-so-bad news, though? The show’s not over. Slipgate owner Gazillion confirmed that Romero and co.’s MMO is still in development, albeit in a new form.

“As part of our focus on reaching the widest possible audiences with breakthrough MMO entertainment, we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim,” said a statement from Gazillion.

“The game we’ll launch will build on the efforts to date with a smaller core team and the other Slipgate staff are already in discussions around the many open positions across our slate of projects.”

More through the link.

Just as Endrant Studios finished pushing Wolfenstein out the door, the big bad wolf that is financial troubles came and blew the developer’s house down. Or part of it, anyway.

“We have recently completed a development cycle and have regrettably been forced to make adjustments to staff and headcounts,” a company rep told GamesIndustry.biz.

“Those affected are valued members of our team who have worked incredibly hard on our latest title. We hope that they land on their feet quickly.”

Wolfenstein was the (formerly) 17-person team’s first game. We join the rest of Endrant in hoping those who now find themselves unemployed don’t stay that way for long.