As Electronic Arts’ recently announced restructuring gains momentum, even developers working on the company’s most successful games are not safe. It appears that Respawn Entertainment has been hit with layoffs.
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All information and articles about hiring new employees, retaining valuable staff, reducing attrition, layoffs, real HR cases, as well as tips to help improve workplace culture and avoid certain pitfalls.
At the end of February, Electronic Arts announced a new stage of restructuring and the decision to lay off 670 people. According to IGN, one of the "victims" of the changes in the company was the Respawn Entertainment studio.
As many game companies around the world continue to cut jobs, Capcom has announced its decision to raise salaries for its Japanese employees. The move will impact both current workers and new graduate hires.
Capcom to increase salaries for Japanese employees
· 13 days agoCapcom has announced that it will pay more to both current and new employees of Japanese divisions. Their salaries will be increased at different times.
Canadian indie studio Spearhead Games has announced that it is forced to say goodbye to a significant part of the staff. She made this decision because of financial problems.
In recent months, a significant part of the gaming agenda has been layoffs. February was no exception. According to the Game Industry Layoffs portal, over the past month, gaming companies have fired or announced layoffs of at least 2,027 people.
The Chinese 91Act has an amazing fate. A month ago, the studio was ready to close its doors: its CEO Jiang Lei announced serious financial problems and fired all employees. But then the situation suddenly improved.
Mobile developer and publisher Wildlife Studios, known primarily for Tennis Clash and Zooba games, has conducted a new round of layoffs. This time, the company cut 133 employees.
Electronic Arts (EA) continues to restructure its business. The company announced that it will reduce another 5% of its employees, which is about 670 people.
Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) might be another studio to cut jobs this year. The information came from several former employees who said they had recently been laid off.
Gaming companies continue to cut staff. Deck Nine Games studio, known for Life Is Strange: True Colors and The Expanse: A Telltale Series, has conducted mass layoffs for the second time in the last year.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has decided to lay off 900 employees. The move will affect people at various PlayStation studios and divisions.
Sony to lay off 900 employees of the gaming division
· 21 days agoThe head of Sony's gaming division, Jim Ryan, announced mass layoffs. 900 PlayStation employees will be cut, which is 8% of the staff.
A wave of layoffs has reached the authors of Until Dawn. This morning, on February 26, Supermassive Games employees learned that management plans to lay off 90 people.
The Build a Rocket Boy studio, founded by former Rockstar North president and GTA series producer Leslie Benzies, has cut some of its staff. This is reported by the PCGamesN portal with reference to its own sources.
ZA/UM has finally confirmed the layoffs and the cancellation of an unannounced expansion for Disco Elysium. And two former employees, including one of the game’s original writers, also shared more details about the current situation at the studio.
Recently, Sports Illustrated wrote that dozens of ZA/UM studio employees will soon lose their jobs. Now the dismissals have been confirmed by Argo Tuulik, the last screenwriter in the ZA/UM studio who worked on Disco Elysium.
Employees of the Polish Flying Wild Hog studio have organized a trade union that works under the auspices of Związek Pracowników Branży Gier (ZPBG), the union of Polish gaming industry workers. This is the first affiliated studio of the Embracer Group in the ranks of ZPBG.
Dozens of ZA/UM developers are at risk of losing their jobs. The Disco Elysium developer has reportedly shut down one of the unannounced projects that was a few years from shipping.
Embracer Group has released its financial report for the third quarter ended December 31, 2023. The Swedish holding company is approaching the final stage of its restructuring program, which has already resulted in nearly 1,400 job cuts, while also making adjustments to its game development strategy.
The Blackbird Interactive studio once again said goodbye to some of the employees. The layoffs became known shortly after she postponed the release of the Homeworld 3 space strategy from March 8 to May 13, 2024.
Hyper-casual developer and publisher Popcore Games has fired some employees, according to the PocketGamer portal. Among those fired are team leaders.
The 80 Level portal asked more than a thousand gaming specialists about the level of their annual salaries, and also studied the relevant data from analytical companies. He found out how much developers earn in different countries and whether they have enough money for a comfortable life.
In the second half of 2023, IT specialists in Russia earned less than at the beginning of the year. According to Habr Career estimates, the median salary fell the most among game developers — by 28% to 128 thousand rubles.
Take-Two Interactive also reported for the third fiscal quarter, which lasted from October to December 2023.
Microsoft Corporation has responded to a complaint from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about layoffs in its gaming division, a significant part of which falls on Activision Blizzard. She said that Activision Blizzard was already preparing to cut staff.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked the appeals court to look into the situation with mass layoffs at Microsoft. On January 25, the corporation announced its decision to lay off 1,900 people from Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media.
California state laws require companies to inform the authorities about layoffs that take place in local units. Thanks to this, details of the cuts in Activision Blizzard became known.
App2Top talked with Roman Gordy, co—founder of the Arbonum service, about the results of relocation in the gaming industry and the most popular geo among Russian developers.
Media: Showgunners developer studio fires most employees
· 2 months agoA wave of layoffs has covered the Polish Artificer studio. According to Kotaku sources, on January 31, Artificer fired 25 people — about half of the staff. In the coming months, she intends to cut another 10-12 employees.
Ubisoft could be the next major game publisher to be hit with mass layoffs. According to a new report, the company will be in trouble unless it changes its strategy and management approach.
The heads of the Polish studio Starward Industries at a meeting with investors announced the dismissal of 15 of the 34 employees.
An update has appeared. Eidos Montreal has confirmed the cuts.
Sources of the Kotaku portal claim that the Polish indie studio Reikon Games fired 60-70 people. This is 56% of the total number of employees of the company.
On January 25, 2024, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 1,900 employees of Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media. It is not officially reported which teams will fall under the cuts. However, some of the information was leaked online.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has announced the start of layoffs at the company. 8% of Microsoft's gaming division, which totals 22 thousand people, will be reduced.
Polish studio People Can Fly has parted ways with part of the team of the game codenamed Project Gemini, published by Square Enix. About 50 people left the team — 30 were fired, 20 were transferred to other projects.
Riot Games has announced large-scale cuts. She intends to part with 11% of the staff.
In a survey by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and Omdia, 35% of game developers said that they were affected in one way or another by the cuts actively taking place in game development in recent months.
Another news about layoffs. Now the Polish publisher CI Games has announced a significant reduction in personnel.
Netspeak Games, a small London studio that develops the multi-platform three-dimensional Sunshine Days farm, plans to cut 25 employees.
Another replenishment could occur in the list of gaming companies that have reduced employees. According to Kotaku, from January 9 to January 11, Behavior Interactive fired 45 people.
The Swedish holding company Thunderful Group, which owns many game studios, is switching to economy mode. The company said it was forced to restructure because it had spent too much on purchases and investments over the past few years.
Media: layoffs at Playtika will affect 300-400 people
· 2 months agoRecently, there were reports in the media that the Israeli company Playtika is going to lay off some of its employees and close its office in Minsk. As CTech found out, Playtika will reduce 10% of its staff in total.
Discord is going to lay off 17% of the staff
· 2 months agoDiscord is another company that will undergo large—scale layoffs. She intends to fire about 170 people from different departments, The Verge reports, citing a letter from Discord management to employees.
Unity continues to restructure, this time preparing for changes in its leadership. The founders of ironSource, an app monetization platform it acquired in 2022, will soon leave the company.
Media: Amazon to lay off 35% of Twitch staff
· 2 months agoBloomberg sources claim that the Twitch streaming service is waiting for mass layoffs. According to them, Amazon, which owns it, is preparing to cut more than a third of Twitch's employees — about 500 people.
Unity will hold the largest layoffs in its history
· 2 months agoIn a recent report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Unity announced plans to conduct a record round of layoffs. She decided to lay off a quarter of the staff, or about 1,800 people.
This year’s last episode of Games and Names, a games industry podcast launched by AppMagic in partnership with WN Media Group, wraps up 2023 for the mobile games market and the industry in general. Here is a recap of the main trends and the biggest challenges that developers and publishers have faced over the past 12 months.
Kotaku editors have studied some of the documents that got online after the hacker attack on Insomniac Games. She discovered that the studio was trying to optimize costs and was preparing for layoffs.
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House Flipper 2, the long-waited sequel for successful sim game from PlayWay, has just launched globally. Let’s take a look at its metrics and compare them to other titles in the Polish publisher’s portfolio.