Civilization VII developer Firaxis has laid off an unknown variety of people at present, regardless of the insistance of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick that the sport’s gross sales are in line with expectations.
At this time, quite a lot of Firaxis staff introduced throughout social media that they’d been let go, together with members of production, narrative, and art. Civilization VII writer 2K confirmed the layoffs to Game Developer, saying the studio was restructuring and optimizing its improvement course of for “adaptability, collaboration, and creativity.” The corporate didn’t verify the variety of people impacted.
Firaxis launched Civilization VII earlier this 12 months, and the sport has since acquired a combined reception on Steam amid participant complaints in regards to the sport’s consumer interface, lack of map selection, and that it was lacking anticipated options. Since then, Firaxis has launched quite a lot of updates to the sport to enhance it in these areas.
Within the meantime, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of 2K father or mother Take-Two, has mentioned that whereas Civilization VII did get off to a “gradual begin”, the corporate’s inner projections for the “lifetime worth” of the sport nonetheless match preliminary expectations.
“I feel the important thing factor is that Civ has all the time been a gradual burn. It is all the time been a title that had — I am not likely a giant believer within the lengthy tail idea of the leisure enterprise — however Civ is an instance of that idea. And proper now our projections for the lifetime worth of the title are very in line with our preliminary expectations for the title.
“So whereas we have been off to a gradual begin and whereas we now have needed to make modifications — and there are extra modifications coming — I really feel like client uptake is healthier and higher and we really feel actually good in regards to the title. I feel over time it should take its place in its civilization pantheon in a really profitable, credible means.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You’ll find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Received a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.