Forte shuts down Rumble Entertainment, its second studio closure in two months
Forte has reportedly shut down mobile developer, Rumble Entertainment.
According to a LinkedIn post from former senior web architect, David Bethune, Rumble – also known as R Studios – staff were recently "laid off with one month of pay in a Zoom meeting that lasted five minutes".
"I'm sad to be the first to share that R Studios, formerly Rumble was shutdown today by our new owner, Forte. This is their second recent studio axing after Phoenix Labs got this treatment a few weeks ago."
In a candid, passionate post, Bethune said that Rumble's last two owners, Forte and Aristocrat, were "ruthless about pursuing mythical future profits while they can the teams that actually make things."
Employees were particularly shocked at the closure given Rumble's former CEO, Mark Spenner, had only "recently passed away".
"Mark kept the studio running and fostered a healthy productive work environment. I will miss Mark and the studio," said former lead VFX artist, John Beebe.
Rumble was established in 2011 and went on to design a number of free-to-play mobile titles, including Towers & Titans.
The layoffs at Rumble follow another devastating round of redundancies at another of Forte's studios, Phoenix Labs. After a round of layoffs last December, which affected 34 employees across Phoenix Labs' publishing, HR, IT, and shared services divisions, 140 more jobs were cut in May.
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