Embracer-owned Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms reportedly hit with layoffs, employees reveal
Embracer hasn’t commented on the situation
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A number of employees at Embracer-owned developer Slipgate Ironworks and publisher 3D Realms have reported on social media that they’ve been impacted by layoffs. However, it’s not currently clear how many people have been affected, and there’s been no official confirmation or messaging yet.
Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms are both subsidiaries of Saber Interactive, which was acquired by Embracer in August 2020. The two developed and published the recently released action gameKingpin: Reloaded- a remastered version of Xatrix Interactive’s 1999 game,Kingpin: Life of Crime- and before that helped develop and produceGhostrunner.
As Eurogamerreports, several employees have now stated that they’re looking for new work and opportunities, including lead composer Michael Markie,who tweetedyesterday (December 14): “For Christmas this year, I got laid off! If anyone is looking for a level designer or audio please hit me up!”
A few hours later, graphics programmer Ziyad Barakatposted: “Last night I was laid off from 3D Realms / Slipgate Ironworks and now I must undertake the journey of looking for new opportunities.”
Similar messages were posted today (December 15) by 3D artistPatrick Hewittand character artist Lars Bundvad-Åmodt, the latter of whomnotedthat “like many others I have been affected by the layoffs [at] Slipgate Ironworks / 3D Realms.”
At the time of writing, the situation hasn’t been officially acknowledged publicly by Slipgate Ironworks, 3D Realms, Saber Interactive, or Embracer Group. It’s worth noting, however, that Embracer has been carrying out a large-scale restructuring program this year, which - as of the end of September - had resulted inover 900 people(or around five percent of the workforce) being laid off. This number has since risen - just this week, it was confirmed thatTimeSplittersstudio Free Radical Design has been closed.
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Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
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