HR / Company news

Another company is conducting layoffs. Crytek announced that the difficult situation in the gaming industry has forced it to part with 15% of its staff.

According to the 80 Level portal, Unity has experienced a wave of layoffs. This affected both the technical and advertising departments.

According to reports, Unity has initiated another series of layoffs

Hi-Rez Studios, the developer behind Smite, has experienced another wave of layoffs, resulting in the termination of at least 20 employees' positions

Reports indicate that 2K has dismissed Michael Condrey, the president of 31st Union.

The Australian studio Mighty Kingdom announced a restructuring. As part of this, some employees will be laid off

Mobile game developer Belka Games became the most generous employer in Lithuania among IT companies with Belarusian roots as of December 2024, according to journalists from dev.by who examined data from the Rekvizitai service.

Two weeks ago, it became known that Sony had canceled live-service games from Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. As noted by the portal Game Developer, following this, Bend Studio decided to part ways with the vast majority of its freelance staff.

On January 29, BioWare's General Manager Gary McKay announced internal changes. According to him, the studio has decided to focus on developing a single project instead of multiple ones — the next title in the Mass Effect franchise.

Capcom has announced its financial performance for the nine months concluding on December 31, 2024, showing that both net sales and operating income aligned with its fiscal strategy. This outcome comes despite a 16.3 percent decline in net sales compared to the previous year, totaling ¥88.9 billion ($572.7 million), along with a 33% decrease in net income.

Recently, it became known that in December 2024, Starbreeze conducted a small round of layoffs, parting with fewer than ten employees. According to 80 Level, this is just the tip of the iceberg — in recent months, the Swedish company has been actively reducing its staff.

Reports indicate that Moon Active has dismissed at least 20 employees, with the majority coming from its office in Lithuania. However, workers in Poland, Armenia, Ukraine, Türkiye, and Israel have also been affected.

Phoenix Labs has announced another round of layoffs—the fourth since May 2023. This time, the company has decided to part ways with the majority of its staff.

Ubisoft has announced the closure of its division in Leamington. Ubisoft Leamington was originally known as FreeStyleGames and in recent years has operated as a support studio, assisting with the development of Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Far Cry 5, and other games

As reported by the news media outlet App2Top, last week over 20 employees from Moon Active simultaneously announced they were seeking new jobs on LinkedIn

As of January 2025, the UK games industry has experienced an 8% decline in available job openings, bringing the total to 696 positions.

The Canadian studio Reflector Entertainment has acknowledged that the adventure action game Unknown 9: Awakening was a failure. They have decided to cancel the next game in this universe and downsize the staff.

Swedish gaming company Enad Global 7 (EG7) took steps last week to "wind down" Toadman Interactive and also dismissed 38 staff members from Piranha Games.

The Swedish holding company Enad Global 7 (EG7) continues to reduce its teams. The new cuts will affect two of its subsidiary studios: Toadman Interactive and Piranha Games.

As the year draws to an end, GamesIndustry.biz has been showcasing videos from the HR Summit held in London in September.

GamesIndustry.biz is highlighting key sessions from September's HR Summit as the year concludes, with a standout session featuring a panel discussion between UK studios Rare and Dlala.

If you couldn't attend the GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit in London this September, don't worry. All the top sessions are now accessible online

Three months after the successful GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit, we are now offering access to some of our standout sessions from the event for online viewing.

Three months after the GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit, we are now releasing some of the top sessions from the event

Former and current employees of the gaming platform GOG spoke to the Polish publication CD Action about the working environment in their division. They claim that CD PROJEKT regularly conducts large-scale layoffs at GOG every two to three years, with the most recent occurring two months ago

In 2024, the video game industry in Australia reported revenues amounting to $339.1 million AUD, equivalent to $211.9 million USD

The Polish company 11 bit studios has decided to cancel the game codenamed Project 8. They had warned about the likelihood of this outcome last week when they started auditing the project.

In the past year, gaming companies from California have been particularly active in conducting layoffs. Journalist Stephen Totilo, in his Game File newsletter, noted that this state was responsible for about a third of all gaming industry personnel reductions in 2024

Last month, it was revealed that Sony is in talks to acquire Kadokawa, a Japanese media conglomerate whose subsidiaries include FromSoftware. Bunshun reported that employees at Kadokawa are hopeful for a successful outcome of the deal.

The Polish game development company, People Can Fly, has revealed additional layoffs impacting over 120 employees

The Polish company People Can Fly has decided to focus more on developing games in partnership with other companies. Examples include Project Gemini, which they are working on with Square Enix, and Project Maverick, being developed with the support of Microsoft.

Enish is a Japanese mobile studio known for games like De:Lithe Last Memories and Attack on Titan: Brave Order. They decided to give employees an unpleasant New Year's surprise by reducing part of their staff

Deck Nine, the developer behind "Life is Strange: True Colors," has implemented an undisclosed number of layoffs

IllFonic has joined the long list of gaming companies that are downsizing their staff. The layoffs were announced by the studio's CEO and co-founder, Charles Brungardt, on social media

Marketing expert Raj Patel has calculated that since the beginning of the year, gaming companies have announced layoffs of nearly 17,000 people. This number significantly exceeds the figures from the past few years

Torn Banner Studios announced a restructuring. As part of this, the studio laid off an unspecified number of employees

Torn Banner Studios, a developer based in Toronto, has reduced its workforce, though the specific number of employees affected has not been disclosed.

Ubisoft revealed plans to discontinue XDefiant in 2025, leading to the shutdown of two production studios and impacting nearly 300 employees with layoffs

Ubisoft announced its decision to shut down XDefiant. The shooter has already disabled new user registrations and the ability to make in-game purchases with real money, and its servers will cease operations on June 3, 2025

Update: NetEase informed GamesIndustry.biz that employees have not been laid off but rather reassigned to different departments

NetEase has laid off part of its staff, according to Chinese media reports. The layoffs reportedly took place at the Shenzhen office and primarily affected developers working on the mobile shooter Operation Apocalypse (天启行动)

In the past six months, the creators of Star Citizen have raised an additional $50 million through a crowdfunding campaign. As a result, by the morning of November 29, the total funding for the game's development reached $751.3 million. However, it is reported that things are not going well at Cloud Imperium Games.

The unions of several Ubisoft studios in Barcelona have protested against the company management, reports GamesIndustry. They have filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft due to the partial cancellation of remote work: starting in September, all employees are required to spend at least three days a week in the office.

The American indie studio Heart Machine has conducted layoffs. The studio shared this information with the portal Game Developer

The third news of layoffs today. Next up is Reflector Entertainment, the studio that developed the action-adventure game Unknown 9: Awakening

At the end of October, it became known that AppLovin and its subsidiary game studio Machine Zone had downsized some of their staff. The number of employees who lost their jobs was not disclosed at that time, but the portal SFGATE found these figures in a statement filed by AppLovin with the California state authorities last week

British publisher Kwalee recently laid off at least ten employees, according to the MobileGamer portal. The layoffs reportedly took place primarily in the marketing department

In 2024, half of the gaming companies in the UK faced challenges in filling job vacancies because of skill shortages in the industry

Over 500 employees decided to leave NCSOFT as part of its voluntary retirement program, according to the Yonhap News, citing industry sources

The Chinese mobile development studio Lilith Games has laid off several dozen employees, according to the portal GameLook.