Embracer studio Lost Boys Interactive has undergone a second round of layoffs, saying in a message posted to LinkedIn that it "has made the very difficult decision to reduce our overall headcount."
"As a co-development partner studio, Lost Boys is directly influenced by the projects and priorities of our development clients," the studio said in the announcement. "The need to adapt to shifting market conditions within the videogame industry has required us to reassess our operations to align with the evolving needs of our business and our partners."
Lost Boys CEO Shaun Nivens said the decision to lay off employees was "difficult" and came "only after considering all other options."
The number of employees put out of work was not specified, but the studio said the layoff "impacts employees across several states." It sounds like the cuts went deep: Former LBI art director Francois Gilbert called it an "extensive layoff" on LinkedIn, while former lead character artist Daniel Zinck said his whole team were let go.
Lost Boys Interactive was founded in 2017 and has worked as a support studio on games including The Quiet Man, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Diablo 4, and Homeworld 3. It was acquired by Gearbox in 2022, thus making it a part of Embracer Group—Embracer having acquired Gearbox in 2021. When Embracer sold most of Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive earlier this year, Lost Boys didn't go with it but instead remained an Embracer studio.
These layoffs follow a previous round of cuts that occurred in January, when an unknown but seemingly significant number of people were let go in what the studio said at the time was a response to "headwinds facing the industry right now." That's a reference to the devastating contraction that's wracked the industry since the beginning of 2023, when studio executives—virtually all of whom remain employed—figured out that the spike in player counts and engagement seen during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic wasn't actually going to last forever.
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