Owner of Payday 2 and Control publisher announces layoff plans, will focus on established games going forwards
This is as part of an “organisational review” at game company Digital Bros
Digital Bros, the company behind 505 games - which has published the likes of Control and Assetto Corsa - has announced that it expects to cut 30% of its global workforce.
The anticipated layoffs have been announced as part of an “organizational review” Digital Bros is conducting “across its development studios and publishing units”. That list would include the number of prominent studios under the 505 Games umbrella, such as Kunos Simulazioni, creators of racing sim Assetto Corsa Competizione, and Terraria mobile developer DR Studios.
“The video game market has evolved since the pandemic to be more selective in terms of new games, with consumers increasingly reverting to well established Intellectual Properties and playing these same games for longer periods,” Digital Bros wrote in a press release about the announced review.
It added that in order to “adapt to this new and evolving competitive scenario”, it “will focus its efforts moving forward on the release of sequels and new versions of previously successful and established games, with a limited number of new larger (budget) productions.”
Unfortunately, it looks like this could mean that the kind of games we’ll be getting from the publishers and studios that are under Digital Bros stewardship going forwards will be a little less fresh and interesting. Given 505 Games has previously taken a chance on plenty of titles that didn’t have a lengthy track record of success behind them when they were published, such as Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Ghostrunner, and Eiyuden Chronicle, this would really be a shame.
Though, it’s those who’ll be affected by the “expected” reduction of approximately 30% of (Digital Bros’) global workforce”, the “predominant portion” of which the company says will be “concentrated within the studios (under its umbrella)” we should be concentrating on. Especially in a year that’s seen a pretty horrific amount of layoffs be enacted by a variety of companies - including at studios affiliated with behemoths Microsoft and Sony - across the games industry.
Just last week, Unity announced plans that could see it soon join this growing list, saying that it is “likely” to lay off some of its staff in the coming months.