505 Games parent company Digital Bros to lay off 30% of employees to adapt to new market environment

Italian publisher Digital Bros, parent company of 505 Games, has announced a round of layoffs. The move will affect around 30% of its global workforce.

As part of an organizational review across its development studios and publishing units, Digital Bros expects to cut just over 130 jobs. As of September 30, it employed 442 people globally.

“In order to prioritize high-quality and long-standing successful titles, Digital Bros has reconsidered the number of projects under development and as such, will review the organization structure accordingly to align with the evolving competitive environment in the medium to long-term to ensure maximum operational efficiency,” the company said.

Digital Bros added that after the pandemic, consumers reverted to well-established IPs and became more selective in terms of new games. So the goal of this reorganization is to adapt to this new market environment.

The “predominant portion” of the 30% workforce reduction will be concentrated within its internal studios.

Right now, Digital Bros has several subsidiaries, including DR Studios, Kunos Simulazioni (the Assetto Corsa franchise), Avantgarden (Last Day of June), Infinity Plus Two (Puzzle Quest franchise), HOOK (publisher of indie titles), and 505 Games.

The latter is the company’s main asset. 505 Games is known for publishing dozens of titles of different budgets such as Control (and its upcoming sequel), Ghostrunner 1-2, Sniper Elite III, and the PC version of Death Stranding.

Digital Bros wants to focus on the “release of sequels and new versions of previously successful and established games, with a limited number of new larger budgets productions.”

The company also believes that the restructuring program won’t have an impact on its financials for FY 23-24 ending June 30, 2024. In its latest financial statement for the three-month period ended September 30, Digital Bros reported a net revenue of €20.2 million (down 9.7% year-over-year) and a net loss of €3.1 million.