Another round of layoffs has hit embattled Mafia 3 studio Hangar 13, with around 50 people affected.
It follows an earlier round of job losses last November, when 200 positions were at risk, and the departure of the studio’s head Haden Blackman earlier this month.
These latest job losses will affect Hangar 13’s main location in California, Kotaku reported. Staff were informed remotely by Hangar 13’s new boss Nick Baynes, who ran the company’s Brighton location before succeeding Blackman as overall company head.
The losses will reduce Hangar 13’s headcount to around 40, it’s expected. Those remaining will continue work on the studio’s next project, which was previously reported to be a prequel to the Mafia series, as well as a revival of publisher 2K’s Top Spin tennis series.
“2K is fully committed to the future of Hangar 13 as the studio navigates a challenging but ultimately promising transition period,” 2K said in a statement on Hangar 13’s latest job losses.
“As part of our ongoing evaluations to ensure our resources are aligned with our goals, we have made some changes that have resulted in a reduction of positions and parting ways with some colleagues. These decisions are always difficult. We are doing all we can to work with the impacted employees to find them new roles on other projects and teams at 2K, and are providing full support to those who cannot be redeployed, connecting them with industry networks and resources to find new opportunities outside of 2K.”
Last November, 2K parent company Take-Two ditched a major project from Hangar 13, which had been in the works since 2017. Known internally as Volt, it was set to be a three-player co-operative live service game rival to Destiny. The game’s name was apparently short for Voltron, and one key mechanic would have seen enemies fusing together.
More than $53m had been spent on Volt’s ultimately-canned development.
Earlier this week, Take-Two completed its $12.7bn takeover of Farmville app maker Zynga.
