It seems Relic Entertainment will now have to focus on its “core franchises”…
Company of Heroes and Homeworld developer Relic Entertainment has laid off 121 employees. It says the layoffs are part of an effort to restructure the studio. It needs to do so to put “maximum effort” into developing “core franchises”.
Relic really only has two “core titles”: aside from a brief foray into Age of Empires 4 in 2021, the studio hasn’t released a game other than Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War or Company of Heroes in 12 years.
These games have generally been well-received critically and commercially (although both Dawn of War 3 and Company of Heroes 3 have been weaker than their predecessors.)
Company of Heroes 3 has “mixed” reviews on Steam, with “mostly negative” recent user reviews. Players are dissatisfied with everything, from the technical state of the game to the presence of microtransactions to the lack of new content. The console version of Company of Heroes 3 will be released on May 30.
Relic CEO Justin Dowdeswell and Chief Operating Officer Heidi Eaves gave insight into the layoffs’ reasoning in an email to employees (via LinkedIn). They said the past year has been “incredibly difficult” for the studio.
“The combination of significant project delays, rapidly rising costs, high inflation, and foreign exchange rate fluctuations have had a combined negative effect on our business,” they wrote.
“As a result, the measure of success for a studio of our size has grown, and it has put more pressure on our titles to succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
“All of these factors have led us to the decision with SEGA to reduce our studio size substantially and refocus our efforts. We will continue to support our core titles, including Company of Heroes 3, and our upcoming projects to ensure they’re successful for us. We believe that making this very difficult decision now will help secure a strong future for our studio and our business.”
The loss of 121 employees represents a deep layoff at Relic, with the company’s LinkedIn page listing 201-500 employees. Sega declined to comment on the layoffs.
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