Thursday, March 15, 2012

Layoffs hit Obsidian, next-gen project canceled

It was a tough week for some at Obsidian Entertainment, according to a report at Joystiq. A tipster told the site today that a round of layoffs hit the developer this week, leaving as many as 30 out of work.

Layoffs at Obsidian impacted the South Park team, according to the source.The source said an unannounced next-generation project at Obsidian was canceled this week, with layoffs impacting that team. In addition, the cuts reportedly impacted staffers who were at work on the South Park role-playing game to be published by THQ. All told, the source said 20 to 30 staffers were let go.

Writing on Twitter, an Obsidian animator acknowledged the layoffs, offering his support for those impacted by the action. Additionally, as pointed out by members of the Obsidian forums, several studio employees have updated their LinkedIn pages to reflect they are no longer employed at the company.

Game Banshee says a tipster also noted that "the owners weren't paid for 6-7 months" and that "401k matching was halted" for employees.

Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told GameSpot, "We are always happy to talk about our announced projects, gaming, and the industry as a whole. However, it is our policy to not comment on stories regarding our staff."

Obsidian is presently known to be developing two games: the South Park RPG and a game based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time novels. On top of those endeavors, last month, the developer said it was eyeing crowd-funding service Kickstarter for a potential future project.

[source gamespot.com ]

No comments:

Post a Comment