In fact, it’s not just Gearbox that we’re hearing about layoffs, there’s another studio that has decided to do layoffs, and unfortunately we’re going to hear a lot more this year about X number of people being laid off from Y studio.

Hours after Gearbox announced that it was leaving the Embracer Group to join Take-Two for $460 million, we immediately heard about layoffs at the studio. The company is best known for its Borderlands IP, but in the 25 years since its founding, it has grown to four divisions, with not only game development and publishing, but also TV and film production, all under the leadership of Randy Pitchford.

However, Gearbox employees under the new ownership immediately started talking on social media about the unexpected layoffs of some of them. It’s not known exactly how many people were let go, but their former PR manager Jennifer Locke said that she and a number of other employees were laid off, which could have led to a lot of workers being fired. This is not the first time that layoffs have followed an acquisition, as after Activision Blizzard King was acquired by Microsoft, more than 2000 people were let go from the Redmond company (including the publisher) a few months later. This is a common scenario in the gaming industry: a game doesn’t perform as expected, and then people are immediately let go from the studio…

For the FIRST TIME in its 17-year history, Certain Affinity has resorted to layoffs! The Halo support studio, which also worked on Call of Duty and World of Tanks, has not yet resorted to layoffs. Max Hoberman, CEO of Certain Affinity, told the studio’s website that he was disappointed to have to lay off 25 people as funding for new projects has slowed down and outside investors are not interested in funding games or companies. Those laid off will receive severance pay and benefits.

And yet, with Certain Affinity, there were rumors that the studio was working on a new Halo game, which was then cancelled by Microsoft.

Source: GameRant, Certain Affinity