Mafia 3 developer, Hangar 13, has been hit by yet another round of staff layoffs this week. Kotaku reports that developers across all three of Hangar 13's studios were let go today. The studio located in Novato, California saw nearly 50 developers lose their jobs today. For a location that previously had 87 employees prior to today's layoffs, that is a substantial number.
Hangar 13 also saw a significant number of layoffs in 2017 and 2018. The studio was hit particularly hard after Take-Two cancelled a project that was codenamed Volt. This cancellation left about 200 people without a project to work on.
Nick Baynes, head of the Brighton, UK office, says that the plan is for the remaining developers to focus on the Mafia prequel along with Project Hammer, another mystery project currently in development. Baynes told those at Novato that he knows this entire situation sucks.
"I know it sucks. I’m sorry I’m not over there to deliver this message. I will be coming over soon. I know you need some local leadership and structure and we’re working on it.
"I hope that as many of you as possible hopefully all of you but hopefully as many of you as possible stick with us and give us some time to make things right and better in the future. But I do understand it has been probably a bit of rough time recently culminating in some of the news yesterday."
"I hope that as many of you as possible hopefully all of you but hopefully as many of you as possible stick with us and give us some time to make things right and better in the future. But I do understand it has been probably a bit of rough time recently culminating in some of the news yesterday."
2K did share a statement today about these layoffs.
2K is fully committed to the future of Hangar 13 as the studio navigates a challenging but ultimately promising transition period. As part of our ongoing evaluations to ensure our resources are aligned with our goals, we have made some changes that have resulted in a reduction of positions and parting ways with some colleagues. These decisions are always difficult. We are doing all we can to work with the impacted employees to find them new roles on other projects and teams at 2K, and are providing full support to those who cannot be redeployed, connecting them with industry networks and resources to find new opportunities outside of 2K.
