Disney axes staff at social games division

Disney has made “around thirty” staff redundant at one of its social games studios, according to reports.

The media conglomerate says it made “targeted layoffs” across its games division “to best position the Disney Interactive Media Group for success in digital media”.

The result is around thirty redundancies at Argentina studio, Three Melons, according to sources speaking to Gamasutra.

Three Melons was bought by social games giant Playdom in March 2010 – months before Disney spent as much as $763 million for Playdom itself.

Staff cuts at the South American studio represents one of the first downsize operations at a major social games company.

Disney is edging away from the core games business, closing down studios such as Black Rock and Propaganda Games. Yesterday it offered $454 million to own UTV Software, the Indian parent company of struggling dev group Ignition.