2K Games’ Visual Concepts Austin Studio Hit with Layoffs 

Visual Concepts Austin, the studio under 2K Games and primarily known for sports games, has been affected by layoffs.

As reported by Game Developer, 2K Games has laid off a group of developers at Visual Concepts Austin, with employees impacted sharing the news on LinkedIn and indicated that a “group of very talented developers” have their jobs cut.

“The games industry bloodletting continues. Today, Visual Concepts Austin laid off myself and a group of very talented developers,” said the studio’s former art manager Brad Bowling on LinkedIn.  

“I have had a great time over the past couple of years working with some of the finest Game Devs in the industry.”

“Over the past 23 years of making game art, I have seen some downturns but nothing like this.”

The layoff news was further corroborated by Sydney F, former associate software engineer at the studio.

“Well, after a great year of working at Visual Concepts Austin, it’s sad to say I’ve been laid off as of today, along with several other amazing colleagues.”

“I will miss all of those that I worked with greatly. It’s definitely rough as it’s only been a year and a half since I was previously laid off as well.”

“Even in this tough market I found a job once, I can hopefully do it again.”

The Austin studio is primarily known for working on a range of Visual Concepts sports titles, including the NBA 2K series and the WWE 2K series.

Yesterday, Visual Concepts dropped a new trailer for the upcoming WWE 2K24, unveiling many gameplay features along with a surprise appearance of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.

Widespread layoffs have been happening across the games industry since 2023, with an estimated number of 10,000 people losing their jobs.

Things do not appear to be slowing down this year as nearly 6,000 developers have been let go in the first month alone, with Microsoft laying off 1,900 employees across its game divisions, Riot Games letting go about 11% of its workforce, game development software company Unity cutting off 25% of its staff being some of the notable ones.

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