Exient cuts 60% of workforce

Royal Leamington Spa based developer Exient has made cuts to its workforce, laying off 60% of its staff last month.

GamesIndustry.biz broke the news, initially suggesting initial sources saying as much as 80% of the outfit’s employees had been cut, while a following official statement suggested the number to be 60%.

Exient is a mobile developer best known for working with Rovio on several Angry Birds titles, in addition to producing a Strictly Come Dancing game for the BBC. However, Exient is now dedicated itself entirely to servicing these games, and as a result it has ditched many of its development staff.

"The reason is simple: we were overstaffed for the work that we had on the books, so an adjustment in staffing levels was required to correct the operation," CEO Dave Hawkins told GamesIndustry.biz.

"Today, the Leamington studio develops and services Strictly Come Dancing [released as Dancing with the Stars in the US], Angry Birds Transformers and Angry Birds Go."

The positive upshot is that 10 of the dismissed employees have come together to form Well Played Games, which is also based in Leamington Spa and reportedly has two projects in the works already.