Starbreeze to layoff 25 percent of workforce amid financial troubles

Starbeeze has been having a rough time lately, with financial issues creeping in and the studio shutting down Overkill's The Walking Dead after losing the license from Skybound Entertainment. The publisher is still staying afloat for the time being but in an effort to get back on track, further cost cutting measures are now coming in to play, which unfortunately means layoffs.

Starbreeze found plenty of success thanks to Overkill's Payday series but over time, Payday 2 sales slowed down and the studio's Walking Dead title didn't sell particularly well either. The publisher has had to cut costs in the past. In 2017, Starbreeze dropped its investment in StarVR, leaving Acer as the majority shareholder, the publisher also hired a new CFO late last year to try and get things back on track.

Now, Starbreeze CEO, Mikael Nermark has confirmed some additional measures coming in to place. For starters, the publishing rights for System Shock 3 and 10 Crowns have been sold off and Starbreeze has sold Dhruva Interactive. In addition to that, around 25 percent of the publisher's workforce will be let go between now and November 2019, which will reduce the publisher's costs by around $318,000 per month.

This will shrink the team down in an effort to boost efficiency but still, without some external funding, we could be looking at another Telltale situation.

KitGuru Says: It was such a shame to see Telltale go down last year and it sounds like Starbreeze might be in similar trouble this year. Perhaps some external funding will come in down the line but for now, the situation looks very rocky. 

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