Destroy All Humans! Remake Studio Black Forest Games Reportedly Laid Off 50% of its Workforce

Black Forest Games, the studio best known for developing the Destroy All Humans! remake has reportedly been hit with layoffs, with around 50% of its staff being let go.

In an extensive games industry layoffs report by Kotaku, Black Forest Games, a subsidiary of THQ Nordic has apparently laid off 50% of its workforce with the company having around 110 staff last year.

The layoffs were reportedly announced on January 24th, however, the reason behind the layoffs has not been provided yet as management stated that “more information would be provided next week”.

Kotaku also reported that sources familiar with the situation noted that the creative directors and most, or potentially all, managers will keep their jobs.

Currently, Black Forest Games is developing a game adaptation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin five-issue comic miniseries, as announced in March last year.

Embracer Group, the parent company of THQ Nordic and its subsidiaries, had a number of aggressive acquisitions in recent years, but in 2022, the company announced that it would undergo a restructuring that saw many studios under them shutting doors or hit with mass layoffs.

Sadly, this news continues the wave of devastating job losses in the video game industry, with studios of all sizes being affected and the first 25 days of 2024 already reported more than 5,500 developers being laid off.

Today, we learned that Microsoft is laying off 1,900 staff across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams, while League of Legends and Valorant company Riot Games let go 11% of its workforce this week.

Outriders studio People Can Fly was also reportedly hit with layoffs today, while last week, we saw Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games and Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive faced mass layoffs.

Earlier this month, livestreaming platform Twitch and game engine software company Unity were also hit with devastating mass layoffs.

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