VR studio nDreams has shut down two internal studios, while also opening up one new studio. In a statement sent to Game Developer, nDreams confirmed that both nDreams Studio Orbital and nDreams Studio would be shut down.
It’s a continuation of the restructuring program that nDreams first announced back in September 2024, at which point it said that as much as 17.5% of its staff were at risk of being laid off.
“As part of the strategic refocus that we announced in September, we regrettably lost talented members of our teams and also altered our multi-studio development structure,” said an nDreams spokesperson in a statement.
“This unfortunately meant closing nDreams Studio Orbital and meant that nDreams Studio could not continue in its current form. Both teams did brilliant work and many people from those affected studios have been retained within nDreams’ new look structure, with several of those forming part of the new Compass studio.”
Compass is being headed up by Callum Godfrey, who previously worked at EA, Activision, and King before joining nDreams.
PS VR2 players will be familiar with nDreams, as the studio has released some of the more notable PS VR2 games since Sony launched its next-generation headset. Synapse, Fracked, and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord were all nDreams developed titles, and last year the studio also published Vendetta Forever on PS VR2.
It’s positive that nDreams was able to retain some of its staff as it shifted things around to the newly formed Compass studio, though of course still unfortunate that layoffs were not unavoidable.
nDreams is a good example though of how quickly things can change in the games industry. Back in 2022, it had secured a massive investment from Aonic Group to the tune of $35 million. Shortly after that, nDreams spread the wealth to help its employees deal with higher living costs in the UK as energy costs began to spike.
A little more than a year later, nDreams was fully acquired by Aonic Group, and it was less than a year after that, when nDreams announced its restructuring plans.
Hopefully, now that Compass has been formed, this is the last of the restructuring nDreams undergoes, and we don’t hear about any more layoffs coming from that team.
Source – [Game Developer]