Glu Mobile’s Kirkland, WA office -- home of Shinobi developer Griptonite Games -- has been hit by layoffs. News of the layoffs first appeared on Twitter via 5th Cell lead animator Tim Borrelli and has since been confirmed to IGN by Glu.
The following statement from Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo de Masi was provided to IGN by a Glu representative:
“We believe concentrating resources on fewer titles, with a greater centralized support infrastructure will accelerate revenue growth in Q4 2013 and beyond. We made over 20 new ‘games-as-a-service’ (GaaS) hires in Q1 and anticipate hiring at a similar rate throughout the year. Our goal is to shift headcount investment out of raw studio team volume and into our centralized GaaS functions. This rebalancing is expected to leave R&D costs approximately flat year over year. A reduction in force was commenced today to promote talent density throughout the studio, as well as fund over 80 new GaaS colleagues. This reduction is equivalent to circa 12% of the year’s starting headcount of 564 employees. Adding back forecast hiring we anticipate finishing 2013 with 582 Gluers worldwide.”
IGN sources suggest that all but three employees from the office were let go. Griptonite’s official site is not currently loading, and calls to the office for additional information were not answered.
In addition to Shinobi, Griptonite previously worked on portable iterations of several licensed games, including Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and many more. Griptonite was acquired by Glu Mobile in August 2011. A full list of the studio's work is available here.
IGN wishes the best of luck to anyone affected by today’s news and encourages them to check out this Google doc containing jobs currently available in the industry.
Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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