When 30m users is not enough: Layoffs at Oberon

New York based Oberon Media has made an unknown number of its staff redundant, as the group ceases internal development on casual games.

"After a deep examination and careful assessment of every aspect of Oberon Media’s business, the company’s management team has made the decision to no longer pursue internal, first-party game production," read a company statement sent to Gamasutra.

The firm is thought to house about 400 staff before the layoffs began.

Oberon will now work primarily as a game distribution business.

It is not known how many have been made redundant, though the shift away from all internal development is likely a transformative one.

Oberon said that a “core of our extremely talented game production team members will remain on board to develop new content with external developers”.

The company says it has an audience of 30 million players across its 3,000 games.

That number represents a fall from a 50 million user-base last July.

It has been reported that the firm laid off some 100 employees in 2009 amid the departure of its COO Don Ryan.