The storm of employee layoffs in the gaming industry apparently will not subside in 2023. The extreme cycle is still continuing, even starting in early 2024.
Several well-known companies were forced to start the new year with bad news. Not a few of those involved in this industry have had to lay off their employment.
The number of people who have been laid off is very large. To the point that some will lay off 1,800 workers.
So what company is meant? The following is the list, as compiled by Game Station from Kotaku, Tuesday (16/1/2024).
List of Companies Carrying Out Layoffs
The following are eight gaming companies that have laid off workers. Until this news was written, at least more than 2,700 people were fired.
1. Archiact
On January 4, the first company to announce employee layoffs came from Archiact. However, they did not specify how many people had been expelled.
“We are working with these individuals to offset this difficult transition as much as possible, including through reverse recruiting,” Archiact said.
2. Bossa Studios
Actually, technically the layoffs occurred at the end of 2023, only they were only reported and confirmed on January 5 2024. Here they laid off 19 workers.
3. Unity
This game engine company just announced on January 8 that they would lay off 1,800 workers. That means Unity is cutting 25% of its staff.
It could be said that these layoffs are the largest in the company’s history. They said the employee layoffs would be completed next March.
4. Twitch
After Unity, Twitch also revealed that it was preparing to lay off 500 employees on January 9. The company will do this at the end of January.
That means they will lose about 35% of their workers. However, it turns out that Twitch previously carried out layoffs in March and October 2023.
5. Playtika
On January 11 2024, the publisher and developer of this mobile game plans to fire 400 employees. This amount is equivalent to 10% of the company’s total workforce.
Playtika previously laid off 900 employees in 2022. But after that, the company instead poured USD 300 million or around IDR 4.6 trillion to acquire Innplay Labs in 2023.
6. Discord
At the same time, Discord also reported that it would send home 17 percent of its total staff. That number is estimated to be around 170 employees.
Discord CEO Jason Citron said in an internal memo that layoffs were necessary to make Discord more efficient, after excessive hiring in 2020.
7. Lost Boys Interactive
Apart from that, Lost Boy Intractive also laid off its employees. However, they did not provide details on how many people were fired.
“It seems like most of Lost Boys Interactive was laid off today, myself included,” wrote Jared Pace, a producer at the studio on Linkedin.
8. Funselector
Canadian game studio, Funslektor, announced that three of its developers have been laid off. These three are the great people behind the creation of the Art of Rally game.
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