Up to 100 jobs are to be lost after Galway based developer Romero Games lost funding for a major project.
The news is widely reported to be linked to cuts this week at Microsoft which this week announced some 9,000 job losses worldwide, a move that is understood to have had significant repercussions for its Xbox operation and the funding of a number of its projects.
Company filings indicate Romero Games, which was founded in 2014 by award winning developer John Romero and Brenda Romero, employed 42 people, including its directors, at the end of last year but the company website suggests it has over 100 developers on its books.
Various postings on LinkedIn on Friday suggested all had been let go while the company told The Irish Times said it was “evaluating a number of alternative options for the game” at the heart of the funding cut.
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In a social media post on Thursday morning, Brenda Romero said the company had learned on Wednesday evening that “our publisher has cancelled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios”.
“This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the studio, well above our visibility or control. We deeply wish there had been something, anything, we could have done to prevent the outcome.”
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She said the decision had been made despite the company meeting all of its targets and “consistently received high praise” for the work completed on the project.
She said the founders were “heartbroken” by the news and said they were supporting employees trying to find new jobs.
Though the company, which is known for its highly successful first person shooter (FPS) games, suggested it was not in a position to name the funder which had withdrawn support due to a confidentiality agreement, it was reported by industry figures writing on social media and trade press to be Xbox.
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Not all of the jobs being lost appeared to be based in Ireland, the company indicates on its website that it is open to employees working remotely and some of those posting on LinkedIn about having been let go, appeared to be based abroad but some of the redundancies do appear to be local.
The company did not clarify the precise number of roles involved when asked but the Financial Services Union (FSU), which has members in the sector through its Game Workers Unite Ireland branch, put the figure at up to 100 when subcontractors were included.
Justin O’Connor, chair of the board and industry grouping Imirt, said he would still be hopeful company can find another publisher for the game and work could retsart on the project.
“John’s name and that of the company would carry a fair bit of weight internationally and so I think that’s a realistic prospect, I would certainly hope it happens,” he said.
The game development sector has grown hugely over the past decade but the FSU said earlier this week that lay-offs were becoming an increasingly regular feature although the scale of scale of the cuts at Xbox, which had purchased a number of major developers in recent years, seemed to come as a surprise for of those impacted this week.
