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SteamWorld owners Thunderful to fire 20% of staff due to “over-investments made in the last few years"“These investments have proven unsustainable given the current industry climate.”
“These investments have proven unsustainable given the current industry climate.”
Image credit:Thunderful Publishing
Image credit:Thunderful Publishing
A round of videogame company layoffs following a period of “unsustainable” spending? It must be a Wednesday. Swedish conglomerate Thunderful Group AB - whose corporate possessions includeSomervilledeveloper Jumpship and several teams working on theSteamWorldgames - have announced that they will lay off around 20 percent of their staff as part of a restructuring program that “stems primarily from over-investments made in the last few years”.
“The program aims at lowering costs and increasing focus on areas with the best future growth and profitability prospects,” readsa press release(viaGame Developer). “Actions will include both significant staff reductions and evaluation of divestment of non-strategic assets.
Thunderful’s bosses are hoping to make annual cost reductions of between 90 million to 100 million SEK (up to $7.5 million). The company will spend 30 to 40 million SEK (up to $3 million) on the restructuring, and expect the impact to become apparent in the second half of 2024.
There’s some accompanying comment from CEO Martin Walfisz, who assumed the role late last year. Thunderful’s last non-acting CEO, Brjann Sigurgeirsson,stepped down in August 2022to focus on game development after the group posted a net loss of SEK 21.8 million ($2.1 million) for the second quarter of 2022, and a net loss of SEK 20.7 million ($2 million) for the first half of the year.
Thunderful Group AB began life as Thunderful AB, founded in December 2017, which merged with Bergsala Holding in December 2019. In the years since, the company have acquired Guru Games (Magnetic: Case Closed), Coatsink (Astronimo), Station Interactive (SteamWorld Build), Headup Games (Bridge Constructor), new indie To The Sky, Stage Clear Studios (The LastKidsOn Earth And The Staff Of Doom), Early Morning Studio (Vampire’s Fall: Origins), and finally Jumpship in November 2022. Following Jumpship’s acquisition, Thunderfulhad around 480 people on the books.
Should you wish to hear more, Thunderful will hold a live webcast later today (January 17, 2024), at 3.30pm CET and 2.30pm UK. Here’s thelink.
Best of luck to everybody affected.
