SCi plans radical restructuring with mass layoffs and project cancellations

18 Comments by Scott Jon Siegel Feb 29th 2008 8:30AM
Filed under: Business

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Eidos parent company SCi plans to radically restructure its business, canceling 14 active projects, as well as laying off 25% of its work force.

The restructuring is the result of a six-week business review, following the company's stock plummet and subsequent resignation of several key board members. The 14 projects were canceled after the board evaluated them as being of a low quality, or being unable to generate a satisfactory return on investment. After the restructuring, SCi will operate with a maximum of 800 employees, and will focus on publishing core franchises like Tomb Raider, Deux Ex, and Hitman.

With these sizable shifts in business strategy, along with staff relocation, SCi hopes to cut £14 million GBP in annual operating costs by April 2008.

Tags: eidos, sci

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Dave: Feb 29th 2008; 8:43AM

I really hope they don't cancel the next Tomb Raider or my wife will freak.

baby sea tuna: Feb 29th 2008; 8:44AM

If they'd made better games, this might not have been an issue.

eugene: Feb 29th 2008; 8:56AM

I wonder how bad those games were that even SCi/Eidos would acknowledge them to be of "low quality"?

samfish: Feb 29th 2008; 9:02AM

Shit. I can't believe they canceled 14 Wii games.

baby sea tuna: Feb 29th 2008; 9:05AM

Yeah, now we'll only have 986 other shitty Wii games to choose from in 2008 (SSMB and MK notwithstanding.)

t_m: Feb 29th 2008; 9:16AM

so they canceled all the NEW ideas and decided to stick with rehashing the same three franchises over and over? Yay!

Hope they get what they deserve!

JayVe: Feb 29th 2008; 10:40AM

I agree wholeheartedly. Game development has gotten so expensive that the creative ideas are too risky to turn into games. The only things people are willing to fund the big budgets for are the tried-and-true moneymakers.

This not only makes me a sad panda, but also is bad for the industry as a whole.

xAnarChisTx: Feb 29th 2008; 9:20AM

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *sob* *sniff* *sob*

...I want my Carmageddon...

Organic_Shadow: Feb 29th 2008; 9:55AM

Someone please buy them for the DeusEx IP and dissolve the company afterward.

Bethesda, Take-Two, or Crytek(i dunno, just throwin' it out there) deserve to be doing DeusEx 3, not Eidos.

daedalus: Feb 29th 2008; 10:04AM

JC Denton would look awful in a Hawaiian shirt

mattclarkie: Feb 29th 2008; 10:22AM

They have gone from being a great publisher, to a great publisher of shite.

I remember playing TimeSplitters 1 and 2, that was the prime of the company.

I though TRLegend was good, but TRA was a let-down.

mattclarkie: Feb 29th 2008; 10:24AM

They will use the development budget from the cancelled games to improve the physics of Lara's Breasts.

ssuk: Feb 29th 2008; 11:19AM

Well, it's nice to see that those projects were canned because of quality...
No, no, I joke, I rarely believe news like this. It's just a factor of "we're not profiting enough" which usually translates to "we want more money to line our pockets, fuck our workforce who makes us rich" followed by layoffs. They got themselves into the shit with everyone over the whole Gertsmann issue and the fact they make a load of shit because of executive decisions to cut corners and stick to small budgets to increase profit margins.

Fuck Eidos.

seishino: Feb 29th 2008; 1:16PM

Their current strategy of milking key franchises until they bleed hasn't panned out. So they decide to milk harder?

giantenemycrab: Feb 29th 2008; 2:16PM

Die, Eidos.

cxm: Feb 29th 2008; 2:47PM

Have to wonder how much of this Eidos hate is a hold-over from the whole Gerstmann business. I mean, all parties involved have said that the whole thing was a massive case of bad timing and straws that broke the wrong camel's backs. The interweb...where you're guilty until proven innocent....and probably still guilty after that.

thewill: Feb 29th 2008; 6:50PM

oh please people. Gerstmann-gate actually probably helped them as Kane and Lynch sold like 1.4 million copies. If you look closely at the history, the problem was management. A few games were delayed and the stocks tanked. The upper management was forced out by shareholders and a new CEO restructed the company. They are trying to slim the company and make better games. Stop with the Gerstmann shite already, the only person it affected was Gerstmann himself. CNET is still alive and well. Eidos is still in business. Internet conspiracies are meh.

Batzarro: Feb 29th 2008; 7:15PM

Will EA buy it?

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