Virtuos – the studio behind this year’s successful The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered and whose staff have also worked on the recently announced Cyberpunk 2077 update as well as serving as a support studio for the anticipated Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater – has reportedly been impacted by layoffs.
According to a post on BlueSky by Gauthier Andres, a reporter for the French-language publication Origami, seven percent of the company’s workforce will be subject to layoffs. That’s 300 people.
These layoffs will allegedly be across the United States, Asia, Europe, and three branches in France. Andres’ sources said the initial layoffs will affect those in China.
“Virtuos is said to have made significant efforts on Oblivion, with a policy of over-spending on quality and a royalty-free contract (without bonuses tied to the game’s success),” Andres wrote (via machine translation). “The result: teams put under severe strain for a purely showcase game, whose profitability is doomed to be questioned.”
The company reportedly put a freeze on raises and reduction on bonuses back in February of this year. This move led to questions regarding layoffs from staff to Virtuos’ management. As a result, Andres said a strike is taking place at Virtuos Lyon, which will protest the layoffs and aim to “protect the future capacity of the branch”.
According to sources, Virtuos is also making a move towards the use of generative AI. “In one year, we’ve gone from a few group-level presentations to basic but mandatory training for employees,” Andres was told.
Eurogamer has asked Virtuos for comment on the report.
Layoffs have been a depressingly regular story in the video games industry over the past few years. Earlier this month, Microsoft began another round of layoffs at the company impacting in excess of 9000 people. This saw games cancelled and studios closed.