Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind The Outer Worlds and Grounded, has lost around 25% of its staff as a result of Microsoft’s recently-announced mass layoffs.
According to a report on Kotaku, sources have claimed that the layoffs have affected roles such as producers, artists, designers, programmers, QA testers, writers, and other positions at Obsidian. Furthermore, LinkedIn profiles for a number of the staff impacted by the job losses reveal that many of the layoffs affected senior talent, with some having more than a decade of experience at the company.
Most of the jobs that were cut happened yesterday, when Microsoft laid off some 1,600 people across its Xbox business, with others informed that they would be let go in the second wave of cuts over the next year. One staff member told Kotaku that staffers who will remain at Obsidian haven’t received formal guidance on how current projects will continue with many staff now dismissed, especially considering there’s a “huge list of projects” in the pipeline.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma announced yesterday that it was cutting 3,200 jobs as a result of what it describes as the ‘most significant restructure‘ in the company’s history. In addition to the job losses, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will become independent studios, while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold off to as-yet undisclosed buyers.
[Source – Kotaku]