Layoffs hit WWE, Lego 2K Drive studio Visual Concepts Austin
"The games industry bloodletting continues."
Visual Concepts Austin - known for its work on WWE 2K23, NBA 2K24, and Lego 2K Drive - is the latest studio to be affected by layoffs across the video games industry.
While the exact number of those impacted by these recent layoffs remains unclear, the studio's former art manager Brad Bowling said he and a "group of very talented developers" were affected. "The games industry bloodletting continues," Bowling wrote on LinkedIn.
Software engineer Sydney F. is another known to be laid off from Visual Concepts Austin this month. "It's definitely rough," she wrote, stating she is one of "several other amazing colleagues" to have been affected by the studio cuts. "I will miss all of those that I worked with greatly."
Visual Concepts Austin is sadly one of already many studios to be impacted by job cuts this year. Others affected include the likes of League of Legends developer Riot Games. Last month, the company revealed it was laying off 530 employees, equating to roughly 11 percent of its total global workforce. Meanwhile, Black Forest Games, Unity, Behaviour Interactive and Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games have all announced layoffs this year.
Also in January, Microsoft announced it was laying off 1900 employees across its video game teams. In an email sent around the company, Microsoft's gaming head Phil Spencer called this a "painful decision".
A few short days after, Eidos Montreal's new Deus Ex game was cancelled by Embracer Group, prompting a number of layoffs at the studio.