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Striking Distance, the studio behind survival horror game The Callisto Protocol, has laid of 32 employees as part of an internal restructure. Early reports spotted several employees who mentioned on LinkedIn that they were no longer working at the company, and Striking Distance has since confirmed to GamesBeat that those employees are no longer with the studio.
At least six former staff members noted within a short period of time that they were no longer working at the studio. These include several members of development staff, including a VFX artist, level designers and an environment artist. Chris Scullion from VGC noted the employee announcements and it appears it was originally collected by X (Twitter) user @Taleboules.
Striking Distance said in a statement to GamesBeat, “Striking Distance Studios and Krafton have implemented strategic changes that realign the studio’s priorities to better position its current and future projects for success. Unfortunately, these changes have impacted 32 employees. Honoring the invaluable contributions of each departing team member with material support in the form of outplacement services and meaningful severance packages is our top priority during this difficult moment.”
The studio’s employees would not be alone in being affected by recent restructures. CD Projekt Red announced last week that it was laying off 100 employees over the next several months, and Niantic announced last month that it was closing its LA-based studio and losing 230 employees. Reports from Yonhap and similar sites suggest that Krafton, which published Callisto Protocol, was disappointed with the sales figures of the game.
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