Earlier this year, several tech companies made significant layoffs, and now it’s starting all over again?

Corporate restructuring. That’s the term used by Embracer Group after a $2 billion deal with Savvy Games (a Saudi Arabian state-owned company) fell through. As companies somehow fail to realize that no market is infinite, the gaming industry is going to hit a wall, and it is going to hit it with a vengeance. Nothing shows this better than the number of layoffs in the industry, and no, the companies should not be portrayed as victims. The people who worked there are.

According to Eurogamer, the publishers of Worms, Overcooked and Moving Out have called an emergency meeting to discuss the company’s plans. Team17 said here that the reorganization would see quality assurance processes outsourced to an external company, so the cuts would mostly affect the QA staff, leaving the publisher with fifty people to get rid of as it implements its plans. Most of the positions will be junior QA analysts, but the document did not clarify which other Team17 teams might be affected by the layoffs.

The consultation process for the reorganization has begun and will end in November. Meanwhile, the company’s CEO Michael Pattison is also set to step down, leaving behind the CEO of Team17’s publishing arm after two years in the role. He won’t be alone: it’s been official for some time now that Team17 Group CEO (the entire consortium) Debbie Bestwick will also be stepping down, presumably on January 1.

A few days ago, Epic Games laid off more than 800 people (selling Bandcamp and SuperAwesome), Microsoft laid off about 10,000 employees during the year (including Xbox and Bethesda), and in July CD Projekt highlighted that about 10% of its staff had been laid off in order to become a more agile and efficient company.

Nothing to add to that, unfortunately.

Source: VGC