Some Gearbox employees posted on LinkedIn this week to announce they have been let go by the company as a part of layoffs that seem to stem from restructuring that the publisher’s parent company, Embracer Group, announced a couple of months ago.
A business development manager and translator who previously worked for the company revealed they had been laid off.
“Unfortunately, no one saw it coming, but my contract and those of my colleagues who started in June had to be terminated on the last day of our probation month,” translator Allan Jacquemart said. “We were simply victims of the group’s restructuring.”
The layoffs appear to be a part of a larger restructuring process at Embracer after what CEO Lars Wingefors characterized as a “challenging year” for the company following a Q4 report in May. According to the report, the company had a substantial strategic partnership fall through that could have been worth around $2 billion over the course of six years.
“It has been a challenging year, adversely impacted by game delays, weaker consumer demand and lackluster reception for certain notable releases,” Wingefors wrote. “Late last night, we were informed that one major strategic partnership that has been negotiated for seven months will not materialize.”
It is unclear exactly how many employees were laid off at Gearbox. Embracer released its Interim Report for Q1 2023 earlier this month, and last week, the company posted that its annual general meeting will take place on Thursday, Sept. 21.
