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During a full month of massive layoffs in the video game industry, the GOG Digital Store has quietly dropped what it said was a dozen employees last week . GOG, which belongs to The witcher 3 CD Projekt, did not explain why the layoffs took place, but a laid-off staff member Kotaku that the store had financial problems.
In an official statement to Kotaku this afternoon, a GOG representative confirmed the layoffs but did not provide much more details. "Letting people go is never easy," they said. "We have reorganized some teams since October 2018 and closed about a dozen positions last week. At the same time, since the beginning of the process, we have welcomed almost twice as many new members of the team and currently have 20 vacancies. "
A person who was fired from GOG last week presented a different point of view, claiming that the laid-off staff had been informed that it was a decision made by a company in A desperate situation. This person estimated that the layoffs had affected 10% of GOG staff.
"We were told it was a financial decision," I said this person in an online message. "GOG's revenue could not keep up with growth, the fact that we are about to be dangerously in the red has appeared in recent months, and the market trend is rising [developer] the revenue share has or will affect the results. I mean, it's a strange situation, as if the situation was getting really desperate, very fast. I know that February was a very bad month, but January was excellent. We were in the middle of restructuring, moving teams, not without precedent. But such large layoffs have never happened before.
Epic Store, launched in December, offers developers an 88% reduction in revenue, as opposed to the 70% reduction that was previously the norm on stores like Steam and GOG – a decision that will likely have a significant impact on everyone. computer landscape. .
This news comes at a difficult time for the video game industry. Earlier this month, Activision Blizzard fired 800 people and the ArenaNet studio informed employees last week that it was going to proceed with massive layoffs, as these employees are learning their fate nowadays.
The last Projekt Red CD game, Gwent was a financial disappointment, according to two people working for the studio. Last fall, the company pointed out that the small scope of GOG was one of the reasons for the lack of success of this game. Thronebreaker campaign on Steam after first declaring that it would be a GOG exclusive.
Correction (17:03): A previous version of this article indicated that GOG was the property of The witcher 3 Projekt Red CD developer – it is actually owned by the publisher, CD Projekt's parent company.
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