Vancouver-based mobile games developer A Thinking Ape has laid off an undisclosed number of employees across a range of departments as restructuring efforts get underway.
While the exact scale of the layoffs is unknown, departments affected include community management, software engineering, game design, product analysis, and 2D and 3D art. A senior recruiter has also been impacted.
The broader picture
While Vancouver serves as one of the world’s major hubs for mobile games development, even its big players haven’t been spared from the mass industry layoffs observed over the past year - Kabam among them.
A Thinking Ape is just the latest among many companies cutting back as the industry continues to recalibrate through a post-pandemic slump in revenue and an unprecedented drop in downloads.
Across its own catalogue, A Thinking Ape has accrued over 50 million downloads to date, with its portfolio comprising strategy games like Kingdoms of Heckfire, Kingdoms at War, and Witch Arcana.
However, while strategy games as a whole were the fourth-biggest mobile revenue generator of 2023, operational changes on Apple devices have dealt something of a blow to the genre and caused its revenue to fall year-on-year.
As a strategy games developer, A Thinking Ape’s cutbacks, at the very least, follow a trend. They also follow its parent company Embracer Group laying off 1,400 employees, and Embracer’s plan to split into three separate entities to pay off debts.
"Unfortunately, this week, ATA had to restructure leading to the departure of some incredibly talented people. A Thinking Ape is known for making massively popular mobile strategy games that requires a high talent bar to achieve. Everyone we've had to say goodbye to has been instrumental in building our successful games," A Thinking Ape posted on LinkedIn.
"We are gathering a list of affected people who are comfortable with us sharing their names. We’d appreciate any help our game industry community can provide in finding new opportunities for these amazing people."
Earlier this month, GTA publisher Take-Two revealed plans to cut 5% of staff and cancel new games.
