IO Interactive redundancies affect ‘around 70’

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“Around 70” IO Interactive employees have been made redundant today, it’s been confirmed.

The news follows last week’s report that the studio was to cut almost half of its workforce and realign its focus to work solely on Hitman products.

“IO-Interactive will host a job fair to help the around 70 IO colleagues that have been made redundant today,” reads a note posted on Danish games industry website Computerspilzonen, which describes the IO layoffs as an “extraordinary situation”.

“In Computerspilzonen we want as much talent as possible kept in Denmark, and we want you to know that you can attend the job fair to recruit these highly skilled games people.”

“We are making significant changes at IO Interactive as we align our business against a changing and challenging market,” said a Square Enix spokesperson last week.

“The studio will focus resolutely on the future vision for the Hitman franchise and is in pre-production on a new AAA Hitman project. However we have taken the difficult decision to cancel other studio projects and initiatives at IO and reduce the workforce in this studio, which will impact almost half of the employees currently at IO, as we make internal adjustments to face the challenges of today’s market.”

One of the cancelled titles is thought to have been a Kane & Lynch title. IO has yet to announce any of its future projects.

Source: Computerspilzonen (via Twitter)

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