Recently, we told you that British developer Team17 may experience job losses following the CEO leaving the company. Sadly, it looks as though this may be the case after all, with the studio possibly losing a third of its staff.
That’s according to a recent report from Eurogamer, which says that cuts to Team17 could see 91 positions being affected. Initially, it was thought that the QA department would be the main focus of the layoffs. However, it appears as though redundancies may be felt in the IT, HR, marketing, customer service, and usability departments.
Developers are said to have contacted Eurogamer with concerns that upcoming games published by Team17 may be in jeopardy. At the time of writing, the studio has not issued an official statement, nor publically given a reason behind the restructure.
A bad time to be part of a development team
This seems to be just one more example of a wider issue in the current gaming industry. Publishers and studios have been restructuring departments and teams, which has unfortunately led to staff members being let go.
Recently, it was reported that Naughty Dog had also been hit with layoffs, as had The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us studio Telltale Games. Epic Games has also cut 16% of its workforce recently, impacting around 830 employees in total.
It’s not just game developers, either. Streaming service Twitch has also been experiencing layoffs, making it feel like anyone who works in gaming in any capacity isn’t safe.
Hopefully, Team17 will issue a statement about the reported layoffs, but right now feels like a shaky time to be involved in the video game industry.
