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South Korean online game publisher NCSoft – best known for games like Guild Wars 2 – has reportedly laid off an "undisclosed number" of staff from its American San Mateo studio, Iron Tiger Studios.
The Californian studio has confirmed that it is "reshaping" its structure, but while it has confirmed that the unannounced project has not been explicitly cancelled as yet, it has not confirmed how many colleagues have been affected by the layoffs. Apparently, NCSoft has no plans at this time to close its San Mateo office.
"I can confirm that NCSoft is reshaping Iron Tiger Studios and is in the process of transitioning development to a third-party for a mobile title," NCSoft said in a statement to VentureBeat. "That game is not being canceled, but neither the project nor the external developer are being identified at this time."
NCSoft also recently shuttered Carbine Studios, a team formed after ex-World of Warcraft developers spun off on their own. Around 50 people were affected when the company decided to close down WildStar, the MMO Carbine was best known for.
This latest closure sadly comes on the back of several other closures and cutbacks we’ve seen in the last few months, most recently AER Memories of Old developer, Forgotten Key, Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale developer, Define Human Studios, Daybreak, Starbreeze, Bandai Namco Vancouver, and Trion Worlds, best known for its MMO games. The media too has been affected, with the shuttering of leading strategy guides publisher Prima Games and Future’s GamesMaster and games™ magazines.
Telltale Games laid off the majority of its staff in a ‘majority studio closure’ back in September. 25 employees remained at the company, though most projects have reportedly been cancelled, and subsequent reports suggest even the skeleton crew have now been let go. The layoffs were confirmed via a tweet on the official Telltale Games account, blaming a year ‘marked by insurmountable challenges’ for the decision.
