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Kabam lays off 8 percent of staff in multiplayer refocus

Exact numbers still vague

Kabam lays off 8 percent of staff in multiplayer refocus

San Francisco-based developer Kabam has announced that it will be cutting 8% of its development workforce as it moves to "fewer, bigger, bolder" projects.

It's difficult to extrapolate from this percentage exactly how many employees will be laid off, but with offices in 5 countries and 3 continents, it's likely to be a three figure number.

In an interview, CEO Kevin Chou states that the firm's vision is to double down on multiplayer experiences like Marvel: Contest of Champions and to cut back on single player experiences such as Fast & Furious - fewer releases meaning fewer developers.

Also underpinning the move is the failure of recent high profile titles such as Star Wars: Uprising.

Playing together

“Our view is that the players are at the heart of the game, and massively multiplayer games are our core business,” said Chou.

“This is what we are focusing on something very specific that feels like a Kabam game. You play with other people synchronously and asynchronously. You collaborate with other players.”

With fewer games on the slate, Kabam is freed up to spend more time on each one. Chou has also revealed that the intention is to invest more then $100 million in seven unannounced Kabam games - an average of $14 million per title.

“We are looking at 2017 and 2018, and are being very purposeful. One thing that is kind of crazy is that, at $14 million per title, we are getting close to how much it costs to make mobile games,” he adds.

As for the layoffs, and the people affected by them, Chou is sympathetic.

“It is never easy to say goodbye, and we are deeply grateful to the contributions these people have made,” Chou wrote in a blog post.

“Wherever possible, we are moving talent directly into the studios to fortify our game teams that work on making and operating games.”

[Source: Venturebeat]


Features Editor

Matt is really bad at playing games, but hopefully a little better at writing about them. He's Features Editor for PocketGamer.biz, and has also written for lesser publications such as IGN, VICE, and Paste Magazine.