Multiple game developers announce layoffs, including EA-owned Codemasters
Tinybuild and New World Interactive, a subsidiary of Embracer Group, are also reducing employee numbers.
A trio of game developers have just announced layoffs, adding to the chaos that is the tech industry in 2023. It starts with developer New World Interactive, who are behind the Insurgency series and Day of Infamy, among others. There’s no word as to how many employees were let go, but parent company Saber Interactive says work will continue on Insurgency: Sandstorm, according to The Verge.
Saber Interactive has its own parent company, Embracer Group, which has had a rough year. Embracer conducted mass layoffs back in June and canceled multiple projects. Things are so bad, as a matter of fact, that the company’s looking to sell Gearbox Software, the developer behind Borderlands.
Indie publishing stalwart Tinybuild also announced a round of layoffs, according to Game Developer. The company gives the usual reason for the layoffs, cost restructuring, though the number of impacted employees remains unknown. Some of the blame has been placed on subsidiary Versus Evil, which delayed a number of titles into 2024, thus impacting revenue. Tinybuild has published a number of notable games, like Graveyard Keeper, Party Hard, Potion Craft, Mr. Shifty and dozens more.
The EA-owned Codemasters, which is one of the world’s most renowned racing game developers, issued its own set of layoffs, as reported by IGN. Just like the aforementioned companies, EA and Codemasters are being cagey regarding the number of laid off workers. An EA spokesperson said that the layoffs are due to “small-scale organizational changes that align our teams and resources to meet evolving business needs and priorities.” Okay, cool. Thanks for that useful information. EA bought Codemasters, who are behind the racers Dirt and F1, in 2021 for a whopping $1.2 billion.
These firings are just the latest bit of bad news for the games industry. Last month, Ubisoft Montreal laid off nearly 100 people and Epic Games let go of 16 percent of its workforce in September, in addition to selling Bandcamp to a seemingly predatory music-licensing company. The first half of the year saw layoffs by CD Projekt Red, among others.
