The games industry has cut an estimated 6000-ish jobs so far this year
The studio behindHomeworld 3, Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak, andHardspace: Shipbreakerhave cut a number of jobs, explaining this is “part of a realignment plan that’s necessary because of new projects that were shelved by some of our partners”. Blackbird Interactive haven’t confirmed the number of people who lost their jobs, nor have they said what the mystery projects were. It’s been a grim year for people working in the video games industry, with thousands losing their jobs, and we’re only halfway through February.
“Due to economic pressures outside of our control, we had to take the unfortunate step of separating from some friends. This is part of a realignment plan that’s necessary because of new projects that were shelved by some of our partners,” the company confirmed in a statement toGame Developer.
“We looked at multiple ways of avoiding this and regretfully other options weren’t viable. Because the affected team members are our BBI family, we want to help position them well for this next stage of their careers. We’re offering a suite of extended benefits and severance to help ease this transition.”
Best of luck to everyone at Blackbird, and everywhere else.
Back before he became our Edwin, Edwin Evans-Thirlwell wrote for us aboutthe union politics of Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Unionisation is one hope employees have for a better chance of a fairer shake in this nightmare industry, and it has seemed to help protect union members at some companies,like Microsoft—though not at others,like Sega.
Blackbird and Homeworld 3 publisher Gearbox recentlydelayedthe long-awaited spaceship strategy sequel following feedback from playtesters and the publicWar Games mode demo(which is no longer available). Previously due on March 8th, it’s now expected on May 13th.
