The online game trade’s string of layoffs continues: Digital Bros. Leisure and Kongregate have each introduced job cuts.
Digital Bros., which owns Management writer 505 Video games and different studios, is shedding 30% of its workforce — roughly 130 individuals — as a part of an “group overview,” it introduced Tuesday. The job losses will largely impression Digital Bros.’ studios, in keeping with a information launch. Past 505 Video games, Digital Bros. Leisure owns DR Studios (Terraria for cell and console), Kunos Simulazioni (Assetto Corsa), Infinity Plus Two (Puzzle Quest 3), Supernova Video games, Nesting Video games, Avantgarden (Final Day of June) and Ingame Studios (Crime Boss: Rockay Metropolis).
Kongregate, the web gaming portal and writer, has lower greater than a dozen jobs throughout a number of departments. Kongregate has not responded to Polygon’s request for remark. The layoffs span a number of departments, together with artwork, VFX, advertising, group administration, and manufacturing. It’s been a difficult few years for Kongregate, which made a reputation for itself within the early 2000s as the web portal for Flash video games. When Adobe dropped Flash assist for good in 2020, Kongregate needed to shift towards preserving its Flash video games.
In July 2020, Kongregate introduced it was now not accepting user-created video games, because it moved towards its personal inside improvement. At the moment, it laid off a number of individuals to “reshape” the corporate. One individual laid off by Kongregate advised Polygon it got here as a complete shock.
Three online game studios have laid off employees in as many days: Amazon’s gaming division introduced layoffs on Monday. Greater than 180 individuals have been lower from Amazon’s Crown Channel and Sport Development packages as the corporate “refocuses” on Prime Gaming, in keeping with a employees memo despatched by Amazon Video games vp Christoph Hartmann. Humble Video games, which publishes video video games like Coral Island and Mineko’s Night time Market, additionally laid off an unknown variety of staffers this week, it confirmed to GLHF. Over the previous yr, greater than 6,000 individuals have been laid off within the online game trade, in keeping with a layoff monitoring web site.
