Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet reportedly prepares for mass layoffs
NCSoft CEO Songyee Yoon sent out an email to ArenaNet employees today reporting the news, according to Kotaku. “Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased.”
Plans are to restructure, Kotaku’s sources indicate, “merging ArenaNet and NCSoft’s publishing divisions in the process.” ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien is supposed to meet with employees to discuss the layoffs this afternoon. The studio has reportedly been at work on various unannounced projects, but slow progress on those projects has put financial pressure on the company.
Exactly how many employees will be affected remains unclear, but about 400 people work at ArenaNet.
A churn of layoffs in the game industry has continued throughout the past year, including the 800 people laid off at Activision-Blizzard last week. In the wake of that news, many companies in the game industry reached out to offer new game dev job opportunities to those affected. ArenaNet was one of them.
Calls for unionisation in the game industry from organisations like Game Workers Unite have gotten increasingly numerous within the past year, especially around the time of these layoff reports, which have been happening with disturbing regularity.