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Techland is shutting its publishing and distribution division by the end of the year.
Polish site Graczpospolita (thanks, GI.biz) reported that the Polish developer and publisher had recently let go a number of staff and is expected to make more cuts by the end of the year. CEO Paweł Marchewka confirmed that while 13 people are expected to be made redundant by 2020, Techland still employs 400+ people and has more than 50 vacant posts in active recruitment.
"After months’ worth of market analysis, we have started the process of shutting down the Polish publishing and distribution department," Marchewka said in a statement to GI.biz. "The process will last until the end of 2019. This only applies to third party boxed goods on the Polish market. For several years physical distribution has not been the core of our strategy, which is to develop the best AAA action open-world games.
"These changes have no impact on our global publishing plans and the development of two AAA games we are currently working on, one of them being Dying Light 2. Our company is constantly growing and developing great games. The sales of the original Dying Light are not only not decreasing, but actually continuing to grow year-on-year. Dying Light constantly reaches new audiences and this makes us happy and shows us we have chosen the right direction. It also motivates us to work hard on making Dying Light 2 our best game yet.
"I have personally made sure to take care of the affairs and future careers of the members of our Polish distribution department who will be leaving Techland. Severance packages they will receive are both above the industry and the Polish employment legislation standards. I would like to thank the whole team for the many years of great work together."
These latest layoffs sadly come on the back of several other closures and cutbacks we’ve seen across studios and media in recent months. Just last week, Brighton-based That’s You! developer Wish Studios closed. Digital retailer GOG laid off "a dozen" positions, purported to be around 10 per cent of its workforce and only a month after reportedly laying off an "undisclosed number" of staff from its American San Mateo studio, Iron Tiger Studios, South Korean online game publisherNCSoft has announced it will be making "staff reductions" at Guild Wars 2 developer, ArenaNet, too. Finnish studio Next Games recently announced it is laying off 26 staff after it reviewed "the cost structure of the company’s operations", and Activision recently laid off 8 per cent of its staff – 775 people.
Other closures include AER Memories of Old developer, Forgotten Key, Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale developer, Define Human Studios, Daybreak, Starbreeze, Bandai Namco Vancouver, and Trion Worlds, best known for its MMO games. Telltale Games laid off the majority of its staff in a ‘majority studio closure’ back in September. The media too has been affected, with the shuttering of leading strategy guides publisher Prima Games and Future’s GamesMaster and games™ magazines.
