‘NetDevil on the brink’ say laid-off staff

US studio NetDevil is thought to have axed a significant portion of its staff, while many connected to the matter are claiming the company is to close.

Management at the Colorado-based studio made calls to staff overnight to inform them of their redundancy, according to a blog post from animator Toby Cochran.

Numerous affected workers have posted an image of tombstones on their personal Facebook pages, etched with “NetDevil RIP”.

“Unfortunately a lot of talented folks lost their jobs as we have found out on Facebook,” said Cochran.

“I personally think it’s pretty terrible to find news out that way and not to be correctly notified. We all were receiving phone calls tonight and I just got mine about 2 hrs ago.”

Cochran claimed that “a handful of artists will be kept on board”, for now, to continue work on the studio’s key project, Lego Universe.

But he added, “at the moment that will be a very, VERY small team. As the count continues to rise on FB, they’ve cut over 20 people.”

Neither NetDevil nor Gazillion have confirmed the accounts. Develop is contacting both groups for comment.