XR Video games, the Leeds, UK-based studio identified for Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded (2024) and Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever (2021), have laid off a reported 86 % of its employees.
The knowledge was shared by María Fernanda Díez Huerta by way of LinkedIn, who was Head of Manufacturing at XR Video games from 2021 – 2023. Huerta reported on Tuesday the studio has now laid off 72 staff, retaining solely 12 out of round 84, one thing she notes “goes past restructuring.”
This contains a variety of positions in artwork, programming, QA, manufacturing, recreation design and IT.
Neither XR Video games nor its CEO Bobby Thandi have made a public announcement addressing layoffs but, nonetheless it’s exhausting to think about it doesn’t have one thing to do with the commonly unfavorable reception of Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded, a Quest-exclusive port of the stealth-action title that proved to be a visible and mechanical mess at launch.
The layoff spherical comes amid two high-profile initiatives presently in manufacturing by the studio: Zombie Military VR, a VR shooter based mostly on the favored franchise from Rebel, and Starship Troopers: Continuum, a web based co-cop shooter created in partnership with Sony—introduced only a day earlier than information of the layoffs first broke.
XR Video games isn’t the one one who’s tightened its belt although. VR veteran studio nDreams introduced in mid-September it was shedding round 17 % of the studio. This comes amid the backdrop of a variety of high publishers and studios decreasing headcounts, comparable to Embracer Group, Unity, Microsoft, EA, Sony, Epic Video games, Take-Two Interactive and Riot Video games.
Different VR studios affected this 12 months additionally embody Meta’s Prepared at Daybreak (Lone Echo, Echo VR), Sony’s London Studio (PlayStation Worlds, Blood & Reality (2019), and indie developer Archiact (Doom 3 VR Version).
