A set of GOG layoffs has seen at least a dozen employees let go from the CD Projekt-owned digital distribution platform. The layoffs follow a string of dismissals from other video game companies over the last several weeks: Activision Blizzard recently confirmed plans to let 800 employees go from the company, while ArenaNet announced it would also be laying off staff.
A representative of GOG made an official statement to Kotaku: “Letting people go is never easy. We have been rearranging certain teams since October 2018, affecting in closing around a dozen positions last week.” They added, “at the same time, since the process started we have welcomed nearly twice as many new team members, and currently hold 20 open positions.”
The outlet also spoke to an employee who was let go in GOG layoffs. Despite the representative highlighting the company’s new hires, the employee says “We were told it’s a financial decision. GOG’s revenue couldn’t keep up with growth, the fact that we’re dangerously close to being in the red has come up in the past few months, and the market’s move towards higher [developer] revenue shares has, or will, affect the bottom line as well.”
GOG recently gained competition in the digital distribution space with the launch of the Epic Games Store. Epic Games platform offers a more favorable cut of the revenue to developers than GOG, offering 88% rather than 70%.
GOG came under fire last year for its social media presence. The platform’s Twitter account utilized a transgender awareness hashtag in the promoting of Cyberpunk 2077. The platform did apologize for the tweet stating it “should focus only on games.” However, the incident wasn’t the first time CD Projekt’s subsidiaries had attracted criticism for its social media activity as well as its attitude towards transgender issues. Following these events, we took a look at how CD Projekt was damaging its public image.
With regard to CD Projekt Red’s next big title, Cyberpunk 2077’s release is still unconfirmed. The Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account did recently confirm the game won’t be an Epic Games Store exclusive. In other CD Projekt Red news, the developer recently lost their longtime creative director Sebastian Stepien to Activision Blizzard.
