The latest layoff news comes from virtual reality studio nDreams, who PSVR2 players will recognize as the developer behind Synapse and the upcoming Vendetta Forever.
In a statement published to its official LinkedIn page, the UK-based studio says that employees were notified of a new strategy on Monday, one where employees could see “redundancies affecting up to 17.5% of the company.”
The same LinkedIn page identifies that at least 250 people are currently employed at nDreams. Just taking that number, which itself is an approximation, at the full 17.5% means as many as 44 people (potentially more, depending on the exact size of nDreams) could be out of work.
“Having explored multiple alternatives to avoid such action over many months in a challenging VR games market, situated within a tough gaming landscape more broadly, it’s with deep regret that we are looking at losing valued and talented members of our teams. This could impact all levels, including senior leadership,” nDreams said in its statement.
“We are working tirelessly to support our team with the respect and care they deserve throughout this challenging process, including all our efforts to comprehensively assist those whose positions may be impacted to move into new roles within nDreams or elsewhere.”
While the statement identifies that on top of the struggles VR-focused studios already face, losing talent is “the most difficult” but holds strong in its vision and belief in XR gaming.
It also says that it believes this new proposed structure will “enable us to better serve current and future audiences in creating medium-defining titles for years to come,” before confirming that it’s upcoming titles including Vendetta Forever will not be impacted by this layoff.
Once again it’s disappointing to see even more layoffs occur, and to know that there’s now an even bigger number of talented developers who are either out of work due to the poor decisions made by executives who don’t actually make the games we love, and who’ve potentially just left the industry all-together because of the instability it continues to display.
Source – [nDreams on LinkedIn]