Kwalee has reportedly laid off approximately 10% of its staff, or up to 40 people, as part of a restructuring effort to maximise growth opportunities.
This rumour comes from a source familiar with the matter who spoke with mobilegamer.biz, though Kwalee told the news outlet that the total was actually "fewer than 40" but did not provide an official number.
The restructure includes new hires as well, with 20 new staff members joining the Kwalee team and more job adverts having been posted in the past 24 hours - from a senior finance executive/chartered accountant role to an API and component testing engineer.
Despite having been posted so recently, both these job adverts are "no longer accepting applications".
The wider industry
The layoff trend snowballed in 2023 after the games industry’s post-pandemic performance dipped, affecting staff everywhere from Ubisoft to Amazon. The streamlining of workforces has continued in abundance into 2024 with big numbers impacted from the get-go: 1,800 Unity employees included.
This week, the International Game Developers Association has called for "sustainable measures" to combat the continuation of such large-scale layoffs, stating that 8,700 people have lost their games industry jobs in 2024 so far.
Up to 40 staff from Kwalee will now be joining that total, believed to come predominantly from the company’s London headquarters. Key staff are said to have lost their jobs in India too, where the senior finance executive/chartered accountant and API and component testing engineer jobs were briefly advertised.
Layoffs have reportedly impacted recruitment and QA teams, plus some developers and artists.
"We are reshaping our business and our team to best capture the significant growth opportunities that currently exist in the sector, including hiring for 20 new roles," Kwalee told mobilegamer.biz. "Kwalee has the global scale, management expertise and security of funding, combined with a differentiated strategy to take advantage of organic and acquisitive growth opportunities."
Though layoffs have impacted the UK too, the region's games industry valuation actually increased in 2023, up to £7.82 billion.
