Update: A Wildlife Studios spokesperson has told Game Developer the studio has laid off 21 percent of its workforce.
“Today, Wildlife Studios made the difficult decision of parting ways with 21 percent (133 people) of our employees amidst an organization-wide restructure,” reads the statement. “We thank those leaving for their contributions and we will be providing them assistance during this period of change. While we are focused on creating a smaller and more agile company, our investment in new games remains unaffected.”
Original story: Wildlife Studios has laid off an unknown number of employees, marking the third round of layoffs at the mobile studio in three years.
Multiple current and former Wildlife staffers broke the news on Linkedin and described the latest round of layoffs as “huge.”
“Sadly there was a huge layoff in Wildlife Studios today and I was in the cut. I would like to thank all my incredible coworkers that made my experience there so amazing. Now it is time to move forward,” said former Wildlife artist Juliano Verissimo Alves da Rocha on Linkedin.
The news was corroborated by other workers impacted by the layoffs. “Hi everyone, I was affected by the new Wildlife Studios layoff and now I am looking for a new role and would appreciate your support,” said former software engineer Louise Leal.
It’s unclear how many departments have been impacted, but former Wildlife 3D artist Igor Mello Pontes said “most of the organic growth” team have been made redundant. “I would like to thank all my colleagues, including those that I made outside my team/department. I have learned a lot, had great years, and we did amazing work. I’m happy to have worked with such incredible people and to have met so many fantastic artists,” he added.
A quick search for ‘Wildlife Studios’ on Linkedin surfaces a number of similar testimonies, with many employees announcing their own layoffs alongside others.
At the time of writing, Wildlife has around 800 employees spread across eight offices. The company has released 60 titles to-date and generated over 3 billion downloads. Wildlife describes itself as the “biggest talent hub in game production” and has worked on mobile titles such as Tennis Clash, Midas Merge, and Zooba.
The company previously laid off around 300 staff in 2022, before making another 13 percent workforce reduction in 2023 (thanks Bloomberg Linea). Game Developer has reached out to Wildlife for more information on the redundancies.