Tencent Announces 15% Staff Reduction at UK-Based Sackboy Maker Sumo Group | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

Parent company Tencent has announced a round of layoffs at the UK-based Sumo Group, which includes international studios worldwide, as well as Sackboy and Texas Chain Saw Massacre developer Sumo Digital.

A press release announced the news, revealing that the reduction would affect employees based in Canada, the UK, Poland, the Czech Republic, and India. Sumo Group explained the sorry state of affairs: «Whilst Sumo has been able to manage through many of the recent difficulties the games industry has faced, we have not been immune and reshaping operations across the business to better navigate the upcoming challenges expected in the coming months is a path we must now take to ensure the security of the business going forward.»

Noting that «every alternate route to limit the impact to our people is being considered, but sadly, this process of transformation will affect up to 15% of our people,» the layoffs are just a microcosm of the industry's overall shrinkage. In 2023, the Group employed more than 1,100 staff across 16 studios. Sumo Group was acquired by Tencent in 2021 for a reported $1.27 billion.

Coming soon

As always, our best wishes to all those affected. We hope that stories like this one become less frequent in the future, but sadly, it seems like the industry won't return to normalcy anytime soon.

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

Welp it looks like it isn't stopping anytime soon

Poor Tencent...they're not making enough multibillions...