Another day in the gaming industry.
A buff shirtless man and a woman in a silver armor crop top staring at something off screen.

Layoffs have started at the Hellblade development studio, Ninja Theory. This sad but inevitable situation comes just a couple of weeks after leadership at Ninja Theory and XBOX failed to reach an agreement that would either let Ninja Theory continue operations or go independent.

Last month, XBOX COO Matt Booty said that they were still trying to look at a couple of last-minute options before the closure was fully set in stone.

Unfortunately, two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through. We will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward.
Chris Kerr first noticed these initial layoffs as those who have been laid off began sharing the news on social media, including LinkedIn. According to findings by VGC, several senior developers have already been laid off.

Alessio Mellina (technical sound designer), Katrin Mair (gameplay programmer), Xoe Subari (PCap tech staff), Loong-Wei Ding (technical director), Matteo Tummino (sound designer), Matt Le-Fevre (senior technical artist), Pietro Berto (character artist), Justin Pedersen (technical artist) and Daniele Galante (principal sound designer) are among those who have confirmed their jobs are at risk or have ended.
It is not yet clear just how many employees have already been laid off from Ninja Theory. Given that the studio is being shuttered by XBOX, it's just a matter of time before all of the roughly 130 employees are either laid off or moved to other studios within XBOX.

Ninja Theory is perhaps best known for their work on titles such as Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, DmC: Devil May Cry, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and Heavenly Sword. The studio promoted a new Senua title at the XBOX Summer Showcase with hopes of finding an interested publisher or buyer in order to keep them afloat.

Sadly, there is word of mass layoffs happening elsewhere in the gaming industry today. Supermassive Games, the studio behind Until Dawn, has reportedly let go of more than 70 members across various departments. One staff member claims that the layoffs include developers, artists, producers, and even some members of the senior leadership team.

These layoffs were also not completely unexpected as Supermassive announced in August that they planned to cut upwards of 75 "redundant" positions.

Word of the layoffs at Supermassive Games first came from Supermassive's former IT and facilities director Frank Tindle.

A few weeks ago I posted that my role at Supermassive Games was at risk.

Today it's official. My last day. Sixteen years.(...)

And it isn't just me leaving today.

More than 70 brilliant people are leaving Supermassive: developers, artists, producers, QA, operations and more. Any studio would be lucky to have them.
After finding a hit on their hands with 2015's horror game Until Dawn, the studio began to run with a similar formula across several other titles. The studio released several entries in their Dark Pictures Anthology from 2019 to 2022. The studio also developed other horror titles such as The Quarry, The Casting of Frank Stone, Little Nightmares 3, and Directive 8020.