Hangar 13, the studio behind Mafia III, is facing yet another round of layoffs.
According to a report by Kotaku, developers at all three of the studio’s worldwide locations were let go today. The layoffs have hit the Novato, California office particularly hard — nearly 50 developers at this office alone lost their jobs, drastically shrinking the size of the office’s staff, which had just 87 employees before today.
“I know it sucks,” Brighton, UK office head Nick Baynes told Novato staffers today, according to Kotaku. “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.”
This isn’t the first time Hangar 13 has laid off large numbers of staffers — the studio fired significant numbers of employees in both 2017 and 2018. The studio was also drastically affected by the cancellation of the Take-Two project titled Volt, which was scrapped despite a $53 million investment and left around 200 developers without a project.
According to Kotaku, Baynes said the plan is for remaining developers at Hangar 13 to focus on the Mafia prequel and Project Hammer, another project currently in the works.
The studio’s founder and head, Haden Blackman, stepped down earlier this month, and has coincided with a number of other voluntary departures alongside the layoffs.
2K shared the following statement with Kotaku:
"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."
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
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