‘Deep staff cuts’ at Toronto studio Bedlam Games

Bedlam Games, the Ontario studio perhaps most famous for its unfinished Scratch DJ project, is thought to be nearly emptied of nearly its entire workforce.

An alleged insider from within the studio has said that some 90 per cent of Bedlam employees are officially on "temporary layoffs", according to a Joystiq report, though legal specifics were not disclosed.

The anonymous source claimed that staff “received no severance pay”, with many having already moved to other jobs.

Bedlam has not returned Develop’s calls for comment at time of going to press.

The group, based in the Toronto Historic Distillery District, lies close to the Ubisoft Toronto megastudio which continues to seek staff to fill capacity.

The Ontario development cluster boasts studios such as Silicon Knights, Digital Extremes, Artech Studios, March Entertainment and Magmic Games. Some of these studios, who have spoken to Develop under terms of anonymity, hold a long-running anxiety that Ubisoft Toronto will eventually absorb all the talent in the region.

The area offers studios world-leading tax break support.

Since forming in 2006, Bedlam’s only released project was Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale, which holds a Metacritic score of 47.