Firaxis, the development studio behind the Civilization games, has been hit with an undisclosed number of layoffs today. This comes almost exactly a month after Strauss Zelnick, CEO of 2K parent company Take-Two, said that sales of the recently released Civilization 7 started off slow but are now "very consistent with our initial expectations for the title."
Here is Zelnick's full statement from August.
I think the key thing is that Civ has always been a slow burn. It's always been a title that had — I'm not really a big believer in the long tail theory of the entertainment business — but Civ is an example of that theory. And right now our projections for the lifetime value of the title are very consistent with our initial expectations for the title.
So while we were off to a slow start and while we have had to make changes — and there are more changes coming — I feel like consumer uptake is better and better and we feel really good about the title. I think over time it's going to take its place in its civilization pantheon in a very successful, credible way.
So while we were off to a slow start and while we have had to make changes — and there are more changes coming — I feel like consumer uptake is better and better and we feel really good about the title. I think over time it's going to take its place in its civilization pantheon in a very successful, credible way.
While we don't know an exact number of layoffs today, we can tell you that multiple divisions within Firaxis were impacted. Staff that were part of production, writing/narrative, and art took to social media to say that they are now searching for new jobs.
