It’s time for another roundup of what’s been happening this week on the business side of the gaming industry.
Sadly, this week saw more studios laying off employees, including the somewhat bizarre closure of a studio purchased by its parent company just a few months ago.
We also saw a damning report regarding Warner Bros’ management of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League emerging, as well as a touching billboard message from New Blood. Let’s see what’s been happening this week!
Behaviour Interactive lays off employees, calls layoffs “strategic changes”
Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive announced this week that it would lay off “up to 95 employees”, most of whom are based in the company’s Montreal studio.
A rather ghoulishly-worded press release describes these layoffs as “strategic changes for future growth”, calling them a part of “improving the distinction between [Behaviour’s] product, production, business development, and marketing resources”.
The timing of this announcement seems a little unfortunate given that Behaviour revealed a round of new spinoff games and partnerships for Dead by Daylight just a few scant weeks ago.
Just Cause developer Avalanche closes an eight-month-old studio
Another studio hit by layoffs this week is Just Cause and Rage 2 developer Avalanche, which announced the closure of two of its locations a few days ago.
Avalanche’s New York and Montreal locations will be shut down, resulting in around 50 employees losing their jobs.
The closure of the Montreal location is particularly remarkable given that Avalanche only opened the studio in October last year after acquiring Montreal-based developer Monster Closet back in 2021.
Disney Dreamlight Valley developer’s Kharkiv studio apparently hit by layoffs
Reports emerged this week that Disney Dreamlight Valley developer Gameloft has been hit by layoffs, concentrated in its Kharkiv location.
According to Ukrainian news platform GameDev DOU, the layoffs affected more employees than were laid off at Gameloft’s Lviv location earlier this year, which means that over 38 employees were let go from the Kharkiv studio.
GameDev DOU says that affected employees weren’t compensated, and that studio manager Artem Nabatov was one of the employees let go. No official confirmation of these layoffs has been released, however.
Summer Game Fest trailers are reportedly very expensive indeed
According to an Esquire article that appeared earlier this week, if you’re a developer looking to have your trailer showcased at Summer Game Fest, you’re going to be paying a very heavy toll.
Esquire cites an “insider” who describes Summer Game Fest and Geoff Keighley’s other show, The Game Awards, as “really ***ing expensive”. Reportedly, trailers cost $250k for a single minute, with prices rising to an eye-watering $550k for two and a half minutes.
If those prices are accurate, the work of whoever’s still holding onto the summergamesfest.com domain seems even more important.
Inside the troubled development of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
This week, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier published an article detailing the fraught story of how Warner Bros’ Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League became the very expensive flop that it was.
Schreier’s report talks of a constantly-changing development focus, a culture of “toxic positivity” that discouraged honest internal criticism, and an insistence that last-minute magic would save the project. Where have we heard that one before?
That same report also claimed that Suicide Squad developer Rocksteady is helping out with a director’s cut version of Hogwarts Legacy, and that the studio is pitching a new single-player project. Here’s hoping you succeed, Rocksteady.
New Blood’s poignant billboard eulogy
We’re ending today on what I suppose cannot be called a “positive” note, but it is a rather sweet one, albeit a poignant one as well.
As spotted by reporter Stephen Totilo, Dusk and Ultrakill publisher New Blood hired an electronic billboard in downtown Los Angeles to eulogize Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and several other studios that were (in some cases allegedly) shut down this year, including Roll7 and Volition.
The billboard features the messages “gone but not forgotten”, “thank you for great games from your friends at New Blood”, and, perhaps most pointedly, “we love you, we miss you, we hate money”. Amen.
That’s it for our gaming business news roundup this week! Join us again next week, when we’ll be taking another look at the crazy world of the gaming industry.
