Thief Developer Eidos Montreal Hit By Layoffs

Eidos Montreal has laid off a substantial number of its staff, according to Jason Schreier of Kotaku.com.

It seems that the start of every year is filled with job cuts in the video game industry and this year is unfortunately no different. The news comes merely one week after the much-anticipated Thief reboot was released to mixed reviews. Square Enix, the studio’s parent company, has confirmed in an official statement to Kotaku that nearly 30 employees have been laid off.

“Yes it is true we’ve let 27 people go today, unfortunately it’s something that every major studio has to do sometimes in order to ensure you have the right set up for current and future projects.

“We’re trying to re-locate as many people as possible into other roles here or at our other studios and we’ve been in touch [with] several studios in Montreal to arrange a career day for those affected by this,” the statement continues. In addition to Eidos Montreal, Square Enix owns multiple subsidiaries and studios including Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics and Hitman developer IO Interactive.

The move is similar to what Irrational Games did in the last few weeks. The studio behind the critically acclaimed BioShock series also recently underwent its own bout of layoffs and, in order to aid those who were affected, hosted a career day to help find work for the newly unemployed. As reported by Polygon, that recruitment day managed to lure an astounding 57 studios to attend.

Hopefully, in all cases, those who were laid off can find new work without too much difficulty.