Gameloft has closed another studio. This time — the British Gameloft UK.
According to Pocket Gamer, the studio stopped working last week, its entire staff was fired. This was announced by Managing Director John-Paul Burke (John-Paul Burke) on LinkedIn.
This is the second branch of Gameloft, where cuts have been made recently. A few weeks ago, 15 people from Gameloft Brisbane (Australia) lost their jobs. Before that, its staff was 58 people.
In addition, the Minsk office of Gameloft was closed on February 1. Then the staff of 50 people was dissolved. And last year, branches in New Orleans and Madrid were liquidated.
Gameloft has been declining rapidly since it was absorbed by Vivendi. The Guillemot brothers, who were at the origins of Gameloft and Ubisoft, called this deal an “unfriendly takeover.” They also claimed that Vivendi has a “hostile approach” to Gameloft’s business. As a result, the head of the latter, Michel Guillemot, left the post.
And indeed: the company, which was actively growing in 2011-2013, has decreased the pace of releases, branches are being liquidated, earnings are falling. In the 1st quarter of 2018, its revenues fell by 13.4% due to the lack of new games. In the first six months of 2018, she earned $ 156 million, and in the same period of 2019 – 5.2% less, $ 147 million.
Currently, the latest released Gameloft title is Ballistic Baseball. It was released in Apple Arcade and was developed by Gameloft Brisbane. The company also has successes: the Switch version of Asphalt 9: Legends generated 1 million downloads in a week.
Nevertheless, the situation with branches and cuts shows that Vivendi may not know what to do with Gameloft. Note that the first one also wanted to buy Ubisoft, gradually acquiring its shares. But this deal did not take place through the efforts of the same Guillemot brothers.
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