Tencent-owned studio Sharkmob has confirmed deliberate job losses at its Malmo studio, which is at the moment engaged on sci-fi extraction shooter Exoborne. The corporate’s London studio was successfully closed in 2024, in any case native workers have been made redundant following the cancellation of an unannounced sport.
In an announcement, Sharkmob stated that “deliberate modifications to its organizational construction” have been happening in opposition to the backdrop of “a difficult setting for video games builders”.
The modifications have been described as “troublesome but crucial steps” which might allow the corporate to “sharpen our focus and align our efforts on the continued growth of Exoborne and place us for sustainable progress.”
Exoborn, the corporate’s second launch, accomplished its second public playtest in October. The sport at the moment has no launch date.
The corporate didn’t present additional particulars, citing an ongoing worker session course of. Beneath Swedish employment legislation, proposed redundancies are topic to inside session and negotiation with union representatives the place required, and affected workers are required to keep up confidentiality concerning the course of.
Sharkmob is owned by Chinese language behemoth Tencent, which laid off workers at its Funcom studio final month following the well-received launch of Dune: Awakening. As half of that course of, Steel: Hellsinger studio The Outsiders was closed.
In September, Tencent VP Yong-yi Zhu instructed GamesIndustry.biz that Tencent had “no plans at the second to tug out” of the Western market, but stated it “might even see a discount in funding in sure locations, and I feel half of that’s simply the realities of the trade and the dynamics of the trade.” The studio invested closely in Western studios lately, buying Sumo Digital and taking a majority stake in Fatshark.
The information follows a sequence of cutbacks at fellow Chinese language writer NetEase, which has resulted within the current closure of a number of studios it based or funded together with Improbable Pixel Fortress, T-Minus Zero Studios and Dangerous Mind Video games.