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Warner Bros. makes cuts across Seattle studios

by Ben Gilbert on Nov 4th 2011 9:30PM

A WB Games representative this evening confirmed to Joystiq that the publisher has "had to make reductions" across its Seattle-based studios this week. The layoffs were apparently a result of the publisher's "continual review of our business operations and fluctuating market conditions," and no specific studios were named in the comment.

We first heard of potential firings at the company from 3D Realms co-founder George Broussard's Twitter account, which puts the cuts at "60ish" folks in the studio's Seattle studios (which includes Monolith Productions, Snowblind Studios and Surreal Software). The latest release from WB Games Seattle was this week's Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

More coverage: @GeorgeB3DR

Tags: layoffs, Lord-of-the-Rings-War-in-the-North, monolith-productions, snowblind-studios, surreal-software, warner-bros, warner-bros-interactive, warner-brothers-interactive, warner-brothers-interactive-entertainment, wbie

Reader Comments (10)

"continual review of our business operations and fluctuating market conditions,"

I really hate this kind of talk. Why can't these people spell it out like this. "Due to tough times and unsuccessful projects, we are unfortunately force to make cuts to our studio(s)."

You'd think the industry would be tired of this by now. Is it so hard to keep a steady team flow than to constantly displace workers as projects go up and down. It's almost like holiday season hiring at department stores.

@Lerkero It's not uncommon for lay offs to happen after summer / Christmas titles are over.

@thechaos
I believe that was his point.

Staff cuts all around. This sort of news really makes me sad, especially with some of my best friends studying game design.

@blueskyv201 Yeah, this reminds me of when I was 3 months into school and the Health Care bill was passed. Been out of school for 4 months and no one is hiring.

The game has barely been out. What if the sales pick up afterwords? They're treating Snowblind pretty badly.

I wish big companies like this (Disney for example too) would stop buying up and investing into game development.

This isn't the type of business to invest in and see quick returns, it a costly investment that takes time and effort to pay-off.

If they're not aware of the economic conditions and costly games investments, they should be more careful of who they hire in the first place, and not cutting jobs left and right.

I'm glad they gave the MK developers a second chance, but over-expanding it's games division in the earlier years created this downside.

War in the North is fantastic. I feel bad for Snowblind. :(

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!

Breaking News

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

Warner Bros. makes cuts across Seattle studios

Reader Comments (10)

Posted: Nov 4th 2011 9:34PM neojames82 said

Posted: Nov 4th 2011 10:04PM Lerkero said

Posted: Nov 4th 2011 10:37PM thechaos said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 5:34AM Epsilon said

Posted: Nov 4th 2011 10:46PM blueskyv201 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:59AM HobbitGamer said

Posted: Nov 4th 2011 10:46PM Tommy758 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:39AM Bigduo209 said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:11PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 6:13PM Exu said

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