After weeks of speculating why members of the Cryptic Studios team would all start to open their LinkedIn accounts to new work at the same time, reports have now come out that the MMORPG studio is experiencing layoffs.
Layoffs have occurred in the games industry left and right this year, with multiple studios affected since the start of 2023. While it's been a fantastic year for games themselves, with multiple high-profile releases this year, the same can't be said for the people who make the games themselves.
Worries started that Cryptic Studios might be facing layoffs as well after multiple high-profile developers at the MMO dev house list that they were open for work on their personal LinkedIn accounts, all around the same time. This signaled that many at the studio were either impacted by layoffs or could see them on the horizon. We reached out to Gearbox, Cryptic's parent company within Embracer Group, for comment at the time, which one wasn't provided.
Now, a new report from GamesIndustry.biz has surfaced, with a spokesperson now confirming that layoffs have occurred as part of "restructuring" at Embracer Group. In a statement provided to GI.Biz, the Cryptic Studios spokesperson did not specify the number of people affected by the layoffs but confirmed it was part of a broader restructure from Embracer, stating that the studio will now operate under a new part of Embracer, DECA Games.
Here is the statement in full, per the GI.biz report:
"As part of the Embracer Group’s comprehensive restructuring program, Cryptic Studios will now operate under DECA Games," they said. "In addition to this organizational change, our commitment to Embracer’s directive to reduce costs requires us to undertake difficult personnel changes, including separating from some team members.
"Cryptic Studios will provide job assistance and support those impacted to smooth this transition. Cryptic remains dedicated to supporting its cornerstone free-to-play games and the communities behind them."
We've reached out for comment to learn the extent of the layoffs and which teams at Cryptic were affected - specifically how these layoffs will impact development on their MMORPGs. We'll update this story should Cryptic respond. The layoffs come just a few days after Neverwinter announced their next module, Spelljammer, which is slated to release next week.
