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Report: Fruit Ninja developer Halfbrick lays off half its team

The number of employees laid off could push past 30 before the end of the week

Report: Fruit Ninja developer Halfbrick lays off half its team

Australia-based games developer Halfbrick Studios has laid off up to 30 employees and could potentially add more to the list by the end of the week, according to a report.

CNET claims the redundancies are a part of a plan to boost financial performance by moving away from creating new IP to maximise resources in its existing portfolio of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride.

New focus

The company has been looking to extend those IPs for a while, having last year partnered with Indian developer Mech Mocha to bring Jetpack Joyride to the local market.

Halfbrick’s 30-person studio has now been tasked with primarily focussing on live ops for both Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride.

The news comes years after Halfbrick made all of its design staff redundant back in 2015. It later closed its Sydney office in July 2016.

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Staff Writer

Iain is a freelance writer based in Scotland with a penchant for indies and all things Nintendo. Alongside PocketGamer.Biz, he has also appeared in Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, PCGamesN and VG24/7.