Firaxis hit by layoffs

Publishing brand 2K has axed some 20 staff from Civilisation studio Firaxis, citing the need to cut costs.

“Firaxis has realigned its development resources in order to streamline its development process, reduce costs and maximize the overall performance the studio," read a 2K statement sent out to news group Kotaku.

2K assures that the reductions “will not impact Firaxis’ ability to create and deliver AAA titles, including its forthcoming Sid Meier’s Civilization V and Sid Meier’s Civilization Network for Facebook."

The civilisation project itself is set for a September release, and was built from an entirely new game engine. Though 2K failed to specify which roles were made redundant, Kotaku sources suggest the layoff operation covered a wide number of job positions – from QA to UI to animators, programmers and, bizarrely, designers.