Visual Concepts Austin, renowned for its contributions to games like WWE 2K23, NBA 2K24, and Lego 2K Drive, finds itself amidst the unfortunate trend of layoffs sweeping through the video game industry.
While the precise count of those affected by these recent layoffs remains elusive, Brad Bowling, former art manager at the studio, acknowledged that he and a “group of very talented developers” were among those impacted. Expressing his sentiments on LinkedIn, Bowling lamented, “The games industry bloodletting continues.”
Sydney F., a software engineer, is another individual confirmed to have been laid off from Visual Concepts Austin this month. Reflecting on the situation, she remarked, “It’s definitely rough,” acknowledging the loss of “several other amazing colleagues” due to the studio’s cuts. “I will miss all of those that I worked with greatly,” she added.
Regrettably, Visual Concepts Austin joins the ranks of numerous studios affected by job cuts this year. Among them is Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends, which disclosed last month its decision to lay off 530 employees, constituting approximately 11 percent of its global workforce. Similarly, Black Forest Games, Unity, Behaviour Interactive, and Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games have all announced layoffs in recent times.
January witnessed Microsoft’s announcement of layoffs affecting 1900 employees across its video game teams. Phil Spencer, the head of gaming at Microsoft, characterized this as a “painful decision” in an internal email circulated within the company.
Shortly thereafter, Embracer Group canceled the new Deus Ex game being developed by Eidos Montreal, resulting in a wave of layoffs at the studio.
