Layoffs at PopCap Games

PopCap Games is reorganizing, within which about 50 people will be laid off. It seems that even successful developers are sometimes forced to make, as they say, “unpopular” decisions.

Yesterday, this news was announced on the official blog of the company by one of its founders, John Vechey.  Literally immediately there were accusations against Electronic Arts that, they say, she, as the current owner of the company, does not fulfill her promises and interferes with the work of PopCap. However, Vechi himself rejected these speculations and stated that the decision was made by the founders, top managers and CEO of PopCap Games independently.

Apparently, the PopCap Games office in Dublin (Ireland), which employs 96 employees, will also close. 30-day consultations on this issue have begun, but there is practically no hope that it will continue to function.At the same time, there are still vacancies in the company and it is expected that by the end of 2012 the number of staff will return to the previous level.

According to Vechi, the current restructuring is related to a change in the approach to games. The company is shifting its focus from the concept of game as product to game as service. “The popularity of social, mobile and f2p games is growing at an explosive pace,” said John Vechi.