Dozens of developers reportedly impacted by another round of cuts at Hi-Rez Studios - Related to games, stormteller, another, protect, developers

Dozens of developers reportedly impacted by another round of cuts at Hi-Rez Studios

At least 20 staff have lost their jobs following another round of cuts at Smite developer Hi-Rez Studios.

Whilst the layoffs have not been formally showcased by the studio at the time of writing, members of the Smite subreddit (thanks, GameDeveloper), have collated statements from dozens of developers that say they were let go earlier today.

The layoffs - thought to be "massive" - come on the heels of the launch of Smite 2, which switched to a free-to-play model last month several months after its debut as a premium early access title.

"I'm heartbroken to announce that I was affected by the layoffs at Hi-Rez Studios today," stated broadcast producer, William Stonier.

"After [website] years working on a live broadcast production line, from graphics operator to technical director, and assisting throughout the studio, I am ready to take my next step forward."

These cuts follow another swathe of layoffs back in October, when, as part of an "internal reorganisation and reprioritisation," Hi-Rez Studios expressed it was "laying off some team members across Hi-Rez".

"A little less" than 30 employees were also laid off as a result of Hi-Rez's restructuring back in June 2023.

In January 2025 alone, over 750 developers have lost their jobs, with cuts and closures at Freejam, Splash Damage, Piranha Games, Jar of Sparks, as well as 185 jobs cut by Ubisoft.

This week alone, we've reported that ProbablyMonsters has initiated another round of layoffs, as well as job cuts at Iron Galaxy and Sumo Group.

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Iron Galaxy lays off 66 to protect "long-term survival"

In a statement posted to LinkedIn, the studio mentioned that although it had made "sacrifices to keep teams intact", it had "run out of room to manoeuvre amidst this slow recovery".

"Today, Iron Galaxy is parting ways with some of our developers and support staff. In total, we have reduced our employee base by 66 people. This was a means of last resort for us," the statement mentioned.

"It’s a measure we do not take lightly to enable our long-term survival."

The team mentioned it was still committed to "serving our partners in the creation of games" and will "continue to explore new ways to support an industry we love and keep working towards its ongoing recovery".

"At this moment, our focus is on our teammates who have begun a journey toward their next role. We thank them for working with us. We’ll be doing everything we can to support them in the search for the next phase of their careers. Keep an eye out for them if you need good people. We are sorry to see them go," the statement concluded.

CEO Adam Boyes left Iron Galaxy in August after eight years with the developer.

Boyes became CEO of the studio in June 2016 having previously held leadership roles at PlayStation, Capcom, Midway Games, and Electronic Arts.

The swath of job cuts from last year continue in 2025. In January alone, over 700 developers have lost their jobs, with cuts and closures at Freejam, Splash Damage, Piranha Games, Jar of Sparks, as well as 185 jobs cut by Ubisoft.

Earlier today, we reported that ProbablyMonsters had initiated another round of layoffs.

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Thunderful Gothenberg rebrands as Stormteller Games

Thunderful Gothenberg has now rebranded as Stormteller Games.

Thunderful Gothenburg was formed when Image & Form and Zoink! Games merged in 2017, but has now been renamed to "make sure it represents everyone in the studio."

The first on the new brand's slate is Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, which is due to release later this year.

“One thing we’ve done that has been quite great over the past year - and it’s basically taken a year to get to this point - is that we involved everybody, to make sure it represents everyone in the studio," studio head Johan Petersson told GamesBeat.

"We started back last spring, just brainstorming with everybody who wanted to be part of this. And it was clear pretty early that they wanted to tie it back to Gothenburg.

“Our approach now is we try to take the best parts of both studios as we move forward. One of the things I’ve always been really adamant about is making sure we have a sustainable approach to making games, so making sure we don’t end up with crunch in the end… We also approach games gameplay first, so kind of iterating until we find the fun in the games we’re making."

The news comes on the heels of Jumpship co-founder Dino Patti reacquiring the studio following layoffs at Thunderful last November, in addition to obtaining shares in Viewfinder developer Sad Owl Studios.

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