Another week has gone by, and as ever, the gaming industry has done everything but stand still. This week, we’ve seen layoff roundups, final farewells from studios, and a buyout for some big names in the publishing world as well.
Here’s our roundup of what’s been happening in the world of gaming business this week.
PlayStation London’s final farewell
Back in February, it was announced that PlayStation London Studio, best known for games like SingStar, would be shut down, and this week, the studio said its final farewell before closing its doors.
In a message on X (formerly Twitter), London Studio thanked its players and colleagues, describing its time in the industry as “one wild and wonderful journey” while also looking ahead to the “new adventures” its staff will be embarking on.
Fragbite says Alara Prime developer Fall Damage Studio is bankrupt
In October last year, Fragbite purchased Alara Prime developer Fall Damage Studio for SEK 20 million (roughly $1.9 million).
This week, however, Fragbite declared that Fall Damage is bankrupt, having failed to secure a publisher for Alara Prime. The game is still in development, however, and it doesn’t seem that Fall Damage will be shut down (at least not yet).
Fragbite CEO Marcus Teilman did, however, resign from his position this week, with current chairman Stefan Tengvall taking the role of interim CEO while the search for a permanent replacement is underway.
IGN’s parent company buys the Gamer Network
The Gamer Network…uh, network, which includes publications like Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, and Rock Paper Shotgun, was bought this week by IGN Entertainment.
According to GI.biz, the buyout has led to “some redundancies” across the network. The sale doesn’t include EGX, nor does it include Comic-Con company MCM or ReedPop’s Popverse.
Industry layoff woes continue
A web archive that tracks gaming layoffs across the industry showed this week that the total number of layoffs has already reached over 10,000 for 2024 alone.
This tally includes almost 2,000 layoffs across Microsoft, as well as 1,800 layoffs at Unity, 670 Electronic Arts layoffs, and around 600 Take-Two Interactive employees being cut from the company.
Although the archive doesn’t include Modus Games’ parent company Maximum Entertainment, that studio released its Q1 2024 report this week, and it showed that Maximum has laid off almost 10% of its workforce since December last year.
That’s all for this week’s gaming business roundup, which doesn’t exactly paint the rosiest portrait of the industry, eh? Join us again next week, when things will hopefully have improved a tad.
