Digital Bros Group, perhaps best-known in the video game industry as the owner of publisher 505 Games, which is behind the likes of Control: Ultimate Edition and Death Stranding PC, is laying off a whopping 30% of its global workforce and doubling down on sequels because that seems to be what the industry wants.
Digital Bros announced the news in a press release published earlier today. Judging from the employee reports popping up on social media, at least some of the layoffs are already in effect. It's worth reiterating the sheer, mind-boggling scope of laying off 30% of your workforce in one go. Some of the biggest and highest-profile games layoffs of the year, like those at Bungie and Epic Games, were well under 30%.
What prompted these layoffs? Digital Bros reckons "the video game market has evolved since the pandemic to be more selective in terms of new games, with consumers increasingly reverting to well established Intellectual Properties and playing these same games for longer periods.
"Digital Bros' strategy has had to adapt to this new and evolving competitive scenario and will focus its efforts moving forward on the release of sequels and new versions of previously successful and established games, with a limited number of new larger budget productions."
It's not surprising to hear a company argue that sequels, remakes, reboots, and other retreads are much safer than new IP, nor is it news for the industry. The AAA space has been singing that song for years. What's more surprising is to hear it from the owner of 505 Games, which has spent years publishing a lot of more out-there games.
It's behind Ghostrunner, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Abzu, Last Day of June, Journey to the Savage Planet, Eiyuden Chronicle, Indivisible, and plenty of other games that are decidedly not "previously successful." Granted, Digital Bros has only discussed its overall strategy, and it's not clear how hard the layoffs will hit 505 Games itself. And per today's announcement, new projects have not dried up entirely. Even so, it's hard to imagine the publisher will weather this storm with its same creative breadth in-tact.
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