CI Games, the Polish developer and publisher behind the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series and Lords of the Fallen, faces new layoffs affecting approximately 10% of its employees.
The layoffs were first reported by GamesIndustryBiz, who also received a clarifying statement from CI Games’ CEO Marek Tymiński.
They said the layoffs are meant to “preserve business strength and stability”. Tymiński also added that “further business optimisations are being made to the organisation’s pipelines and processes”.
The layoffs were first noticed after some of CI Games’ staff on the marketing team posted about it on LinkedIn. Based on these posts, the layoffs also seemed to hit developers Hexworks and Underdog.
Lords of the Fallen is a Soulsborne-style action RPG, and a reboot of the 2014 game, which shares the same name.
The reboot mostly received positive reviews from critics, including Insider Gaming’s own preview. But there were some mixed responses from players.
However, Lords of the Fallen also sold 1 million copies within the first ten days of release. In November 2023, it even established a roadmap for weekly free content through the end of the year.
So, Lords of the Fallen has been relatively successful, and
CI Games’ statement about “further business optimizations” implies the layoffs could be part of a broader shakeup. But it might also suggest that even more layoffs could be on the horizon.
2024 has already been a devastating year for layoffs. Lost Boys Interactive, the developer behind Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, faced new layoffs last week.
Layoffs even hit Discord the same week, affecting 17 percent of its staff.
2023 was a rough year for a variety of studios, so hopefully these layoffs begin to slow down sometime soon.
For more of the latest gaming news, you can read about the founders of Rocksteady opening a new AAA studio in London.
