Firaxis Games – the developer behind the likes of XCOM, Civilization 6, and last year’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns – has laid off around 30 developers.
The layoffs occurred yesterday according to a report by Axios, with a representative for Firaxis publisher 2K Games telling the website the cuts were made due to a “sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities”.
These latest job cuts mark the second round of layoffs at the publisher this year. Back in March, Take-Two confirmed it was cutting jobs at Private Division – the publishing label behind OlliOlli World and Kerbal Space Program – alongside other unspecified parts of the company.
At the time, Take-Two called the layoffs “necessary steps” as it sought to “position the company for another extended period success.” The publisher first hinted it was preparing to cut jobs during its third quarter fiscal report last year, when it announced a $50m “cost reduction program” that would impact “personnel, processes, infrastructure, and other areas…primarily focus on corporate and publishing functions.”
That followed a string of high-profile flops for the publisher, including Firaxis’ excellent but overlooked Marvel’s Midnight Suns, PGA Tour 2K23, and New Tales of the Borderlands.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns and XCOM director Jake Solomon announced his departure from Firaxis in February, after 23 years with the studio. As part of the same announcement, 2K confirmed the developer had begun work on the “next iteration of the legendary Civilization” series, with Civilization 6 designer Ed Beach at the helm.
Today’s news marks the latest in a wave of job cuts across the games industry, with Unity, Microsoft, Take-Two, Riot Games, EA, Twitch, Meta, CD Projekt, Sega, and Ubisoft all having announced layoffs in the last few months.
