Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery and Disney Emoji Blitz developer Jam City has announced the layoffs of approximately 17 per cent of its workforce, or somewhere in the region of 150-200 employees.
This round of layoffs comes in the wake of the company raising $350 million and acquiring Montreal-based Ludia Studios for $350 million. In addition to this Jam City has multiple studios in the Americas, including Los Angeles, Toronto, and Buenos Ares.
At this time, it seems that the layoffs are mostly affecting staff at the San Diego office, as well as those at Ludia.
“In light of the challenging global economy and its impact on the gaming industry, Jam City has made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by about 17%. In recent years, we have made a number of strategic acquisitions, and this move represents a right sizing of our work force to address redundancies associated with those transactions,” said a Jam City spokesperson in a statement to Venturebeat.
“While Jam City remains profitable, we believe that in the current operating environment, this is a necessary move to enhance our financial flexibility and increase operating efficiencies, better positioning Jam City for long-term growth. This also follows a broader restructuring we recently completed to realign our development teams under genre divisions focused on subject-matter expertise to optimize performance. We thank those who are leaving us for their many contributions and are providing severance packages and benefits to help with the transition.”
Last year, Jam City scrapped plans to go public at a valuation of $1.2 billion through a merger with DPCM Capital Inc.
In June, we wrote that Lisa Anderson was newly appointed to the position of executive vice president of Jam City. Last year, Jam City came in at rank 15 in our list of the Top 50 mobile game makers 2021.
Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the world's biggest entertainment, home and tech media brands. He's reviewed all the greats, interviewed countless big names, and reported on thousands of releases in the fields of video games, music, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors, garden design and more. He’s the ex-Editor of PSM3, GamesMaster, Future Music and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Computer Music and more. He renovates property and writes fun things for great websites.
