Firaxis Games has laid off around 30 developers, the second round of layoffs at the publisher this year. This happened yesterday according to a report by Axios, and 2K Games said, “The cuts were made due to a “sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities”. Firaxis Games is known for games like XCOM, Civilization 6, and last year’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns.
Take-Two confirmed that it was cutting jobs at Private Division along with other unspecified parts of the company. As per the company, the layoffs are “necessary steps” to position the company for another extended period of success. This is due to multiple high-profile flops for the publisher, including Firaxis’ Marvel’s Midnight Suns, PGA Tour 2K23, and New Tales of the Borderlands.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns and XCOM director Jake Solomon left Firaxis in February, after 23 years with the studio. According to the announcement made by 2K, the developer had begun work on the “next iteration of the legendary Civilization” series, with Civilization 6 designer Ed Beach at the helm.
Today’s news marks the latest in a wave of job cuts across the games industry, with Unity, Microsoft, Take-Two, Riot Games, EA, Twitch, Meta, CD Projekt, Sega, and Ubisoft all having announced layoffs in the last few months.