The games industry is going through a time of troubles right now with multiple studios laying off their staff members recently, and it seems no one is really safe. Reports today show layoffs from Sony studio Naughty Dog, as well as at Twitch, while yesterday saw layoffs at Team17.
Naughty Dog, the developer behind The Last of Us Part I and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is reportedly laying off some contractor workers at the end of October, according to a report by Kotaku. The report states that the layoffs affect about 25 contract workers, mostly in QA, though some other departments are being hit too.
Interestingly, Kotaku is reporting that Naughty Dog isn't offering any severance to the affected workers, as well as pressuring those affected to keep the news under wraps. Kotaku is also reporting today that the future of the Last of Us-based multiplayer title is "on ice" at the moment following a Bloomberg report that it received a negative internal report.
Meanwhile, GamesIndustry.biz (via Today Off Stream's Zach Bussey) is reporting that Twitch, for the second time this year, is hit with layoffs. This time, while smaller than the earlier round of layoffs, were targeted at the customer support team. GI.biz reports that this is due to Amazon relying more on outsourcing to other vendors for this service rather than handling it in-house.
Team17, the combat behind the Worms franchise, has seen layoffs this week as well, as well as the departure of their CEO Michael Pattison. These layoffs are part of a restructure to the company, as reported by Eurogamer, with cuts being directed across the business, as well as "deep cuts to the company's QA department." This is reportedly the second time this year that Team17 has been hit with layoffs.
This all comes as companies such as Sega cutting jobs from the cancellation of multiplayer shooter Hyenas at Creative Assembly, as well as the recent layoffs of developers at Epic Games, specifically Fall Guys studio Mediatonic. This year has been defined by its layoffs, with companies such as Microsoft's Halo studio 343 Industries being hit, Embracer Group closing whole studios after acquiring them, CD Projekt Red, Amazon Studios, and many more.
