Ghostrunner 2 publisher 505 Games closes offices in Germany, Spain and France

eurogamer.net:

Ghostrunner 2 publisher 505 Games has shut down offices in Germany, Spain and France.

The office closures were first reported today by Gamereactor, though 505 told Eurogamer this is part of a previously announced review.

«Today's news regarding our European offices is a part of our original announcement from November regarding 505's business review,» 505 told Eurogamer.

As Eurogamer reported at the time, 505's parent company Digital Bros announced an «organisational review» last year, which would see it lay off around 30 percent of its workforce.

«The video game market has evolved since the pandemic to be more selective in terms of new games, with consumers increasingly reverting to well established Intellectual Properties and playing these same games for longer periods,» the company said in November.

Just yesterday, it was announced that Remedy Entertainment — the developer behind Alan Wake and its sequel — had acquired the full rights to its Control series from 505 Games for a cool €17m.

The video game industry has seen a flood of studio restructuring and layoffs over the past 12 months. This year alone, an estimated 7800 people have been impacted by layoffs within the sector.

Last night, EA announced another round of layoffs, which will affect five percent of staff (around 670 employees). Earlier this week, meanwhile, Sony announced it was laying off 900 employees globally. This news followed word that Until Dawn developer Supermassive had cut 90 jobs, while Life is Strange: True Colors studio Deck Nine confirmed it will be laying off approximately 20 percent of its total workforce. Additionally, job cuts have been reported at Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games.

As for 505, and in more positive news, it recently published the Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake. 505 acquired the Brothers IP back in 2015.