I heard Virtuos is letting folks go. Yeah, the big co-development group. Gauthier Andres, that French journalist, broke the news on BlueSky. Honestly, I still find it funny saying “BlueSky” instead of something else. Anyway, he mentioned they’re axing about 7% of their crew. That’s, like, 300 people if you’re counting.
So, Virtuos confirmed it. Big surprise there, right? They’re saying 200 folks in Asia are out, plus 70 across Europe. Oh, and “less than ten” in France. I wonder what that even means. Makes you think about what those people are gonna do next, y’know?
Virtuos said something about needing to adjust to what their partners want now, and how the industry’s shifting. Something about getting better at co-development things like game engineering and art. Big words, I guess.
They’re offering the folks who are leaving some support, like help getting new gigs or even moving somewhere else within their global setup. Sort of nice, but still kind of rough.
If you’ve ever played The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered this year, or are waiting for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, that’s Virtuos. They’ve had their hands in stuff like Dune: Awakening, Cyberpunk 2077, and Sea of Thieves too. Surprising, right?
And it’s not just Virtuos. Microsoft’s been trimming their team too, for the fourth time in 18 months. What’s up with that? Feels like a trend nobody asked for.
