With GOG having such huge backing behind it, some may be surprised to learn that the digital storefront has been experiencing financial difficulties. According to insiders, “GOG’s revenue couldn’t keep up with growth.” For that reason, CD Projekt is laying off around a dozen GOG staff (approximately 10% of the digital storefront’s workforce).
A representative for GOG confirmed the layoffs and stated that it has been “rearranging certain teams since October 2018.” The representative also pointed out that GOG is currently hiring for more than 20 positions including software engineers and marketing managers. These open job positions are part of a wider plan to expand the GOG Galaxy platform and help to connect players across platforms. There is even speculation that, as part of this expansion and interest in cross-platform play, GOG will bring The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to Nintendo Switch.
GOG faces increased competition from the likes of the Epic Games Store which has found early success by offering free games to players and a more favorable revenue split to developers. Several studios have also made their games Epic Games Store exclusives, including Ubisoft, which made The Division 2 exclusive to the storefront. More exclusivity deals or calls for PC game storefronts to offer better revenue splits to developers are going to put a greater strain on GOG’s revenue.
While layoffs of 12 people may not seem like a great deal, the GOG insider also reveals that layoffs of this size have never happened at the company before. The news also follows other, larger rounds of layoffs at other companies in the industry. Call of Duty publisher Activision laid-off 800 employees, Blizzard Entertainment was offering to pay employees to leave the company, Australian EA studio FireMonkeys was hit with layoffs, as was Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet.
The games industry makes a massive amount of money each year. However, some are beginning to ask how employees can find security even as unsatisfying numbers on a spreadsheet leave their jobs at risk and what companies can do to better ensure that layoffs aren’t deemed necessary.
Source: Kotaku
