The video game industry’s string of layoffs continues: Digital Bros. Entertainment and Kongregate have both announced job cuts.
Digital Bros., which owns Control publisher 505 Games and other studios, is laying off 30% of its workforce — roughly 130 people — as part of an “organization review,” it announced Tuesday. The job losses will largely impact Digital Bros.’ studios, according to a news release. Beyond 505 Games, Digital Bros. Entertainment owns DR Studios (Terraria for mobile and console), Kunos Simulazioni (Assetto Corsa), Infinity Plus Two (Puzzle Quest 3), Supernova Games, Nesting Games, Avantgarden (Last Day of June) and Ingame Studios (Crime Boss: Rockay City).
Kongregate, the online gaming portal and publisher, has cut more than a dozen jobs across several departments. Kongregate has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment. The layoffs span multiple departments, including art, VFX, marketing, community management, and production. It’s been a challenging few years for Kongregate, which made a name for itself in the early 2000s as the online portal for Flash games. When Adobe dropped Flash support for good in 2020, Kongregate had to shift toward preserving its Flash games.
In July 2020, Kongregate announced it was no longer accepting user-created games, as it moved toward its own internal development. At that time, it laid off several people to “reshape” the company. One person laid off by Kongregate told Polygon it came as a total surprise.
Three video game studios have laid off workers in as many days: Amazon’s gaming division announced layoffs on Monday. More than 180 people have been cut from Amazon’s Crown Channel and Game Growth programs as the company “refocuses” on Prime Gaming, according to a staff memo sent by Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann. Humble Games, which publishes video games like Coral Island and Mineko’s Night Market, also laid off an unknown number of staffers this week, it confirmed to GLHF. Over the past year, more than 6,000 people have been laid off in the video game industry, according to a layoff tracking website.
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- Source: https://www.polygon.com/23962772/kongregate-505-games-digital-bros-layoffs-2023
