A year after laying off an unspecified number of employees as part of a "comprehensive restructuring program" at parent company Embracer Group, Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Games appears to be cutting even more staff.
As reported by Game Developer, numerous Cryptic employees have said on LinkedIn that they will be laid off from the studio at the end of October. The number of people being put out of work isn't currently known, but it sounds like the cuts are significant.
"Unfortunately, October will be my last month at Cryptic Studios," character artist Amelia March wrote. "I and many of my talented coworkers have been impacted by the most recent layoffs at the company."
"Like many folks posting today, I now officially know my last date with Cryptic Studios," senior community manager Mike Fatum said in a separate post. Environment artist Gianna Rockwell also used the word "many" in her own post, writing, "Unfortunately at the end of the month, I will be part of the layoffs at Cryptic along with many of my other amazingly talented coworkers."
"I will be leaving Cryptic Studios at the end of this month," senior artist Mauricio Tejerina wrote. "I am part of a layoff along with other talented people who have become like family to me over the past 10 years."
Cryptic previously laid off employees in November 2023 amidst the Embracer implosion that followed the collapse of a $2 billion deal with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group. Somewhat unusually, word of those layoffs first came to light in October but weren't confirmed until the following month, and something similar may be happening this time around too: Other Cryptic employees, such as producer Julia Frederickson and QA employee Randy Habenicht, posted about being caught up in layoffs weeks ago.
It's not clear whether these are all part of the same layoffs or separate rounds of cuts, but Fatum, the senior community manager, suggested even further back that at least some of these cuts may have been in the works for some time now: In a message posted in August, he wrote, "I'm looking for a new role, with a somewhat swiftly approaching deadline."
I've reached out to Embracer for more information and will update if I receive a reply.
