Daybreak Game Company, the developer behind free-to-play battle royale game H1Z1, has laid off an estimated 70 employees across various departments.
In a series of now-deleted tweets, former Daybreak President John Smedley wrote that he was “sorry to hear about the layoffs” and that “70 people is a lot.”
“Those are good people that would still be working there 10 years from now if things were being well run,” Smedley added, according to Variety. “Really, really, really angry right now. It’s December FFS and this is how you treat employees @DaybreakGames come on.”
Reports suggested that Daybreak’s Austin office suffered the most but the company denied that this was the case. An official statement provided to Variety reads:
Our Austin office is not closing. We are optimizing our structure to ensure we best position ourselves for continued success in the years to come. This effort has required us to make some changes within the organization and we are doing everything we can to support those impacted in this difficult time. As we look to improve efficiencies and realign resources, we remain focused on supporting our existing games and development of our future titles.
This is the second time in 2018 that Daybreak has laid a portion of its workforce off. Back in April, an undisclosed number of positions were made redundant as part of internal restructuring.
It certainly doesn’t help matters that H1Z1 has seen its player base and viewer interest shrink in recent months. The game’s pro league, which was inaugurated in early 2018, shut down in November after it failed to gain traction.
Our thoughts go out to all those who are affected.
[Source: Variety]
