MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Update: Exient has reached out to clarify that all of the affected roles (“less than ten”) are in the UA, Design and Community teams and that the Product and Marketing teams are entirely unaffected. A spokesperson inferred that Sackboy Ultimate would be launched this year and provide “a significant new revenue stream. As a result, we do not expect to undertake any further restructuring.”
Nusrat Shah has also reached out independently, to deny raising issues in reference to over expenditure.
Original story: Exient intends to lay off a sizable portion of its staff, a source has told MCV/DEVELOP.
In an email sent to us last week, the Leamington Spa based mobile game developer is expected to see its Product & Marketing department “laid off in its entirety”, while “all remaining departments will suffer massive staff reductions in the near future.”
The anonymous source says that the company is running huge losses and is unable to finance ongoing projects, with revenue from its mobile Lemmings game unable to support work being poured into Sackboy Ultimate, which has suffered a number of delays.
CFO/COO Nusrat Shah left Exient in May after ten years at the company, having apparently raised a number of issues over recent months in relation to a downturn in revenues made worse by over expenditure.
“The staff share a grim sentiment, and a lot of distrust in the management,” said the source.
Responding to the claims regarding imminent layoffs and poor morale, an Exient spokesperson said:
“We are currently undertaking some restructuring of Exient’s operations in response to market conditions and other external factors outside of our control. As such, we have been required to make some deeply difficult decisions and, regrettably, a small number of redundancies have been unavoidable as part of this process.”
“To lose any member of the Exient team cuts particularly deep considering the creativity and resilience of everyone here has been crucial to maintaining growth and delivering projects successfully throughout the challenges presented by COVID-19, lockdowns and more. It is with heavy hearts that it has been necessary to restructure in this way.”
