Marvel’s Midnight Suns developer Firaxis hit by layoffs in ‘sharpening of focus’

Around 30 employees reportedly affected by cuts

Firaxis Games, the studio behind strategy titles such as Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and XCOM, has laid off employees in the latest in a series of cuts made at Take-Two subsidiaries.

A report by Axios claims that around 30 employees were affected but the cuts, which the developer’s publisher, 2K Games has said were made due to a “sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities […] The studio remains focused on developing critically acclaimed video games.”

Firaxis’ most recent release was the strategic comic-book title Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which launched on PC and Gen9 console platforms in December of last year. While the release was praised for its quality gameplay and usage of the Marvel license, this, unfortunately, did not equate to sales, with the game being considered an unsuccessful commercial release by parent company Take-Two Interactive. Much like another comic-book release, Marvel’s Avengers, Midnight Suns was a title that was designed to have a relatively long life in the gaming market.

The layoffs at Firaxis continue a miserable trend of cuts across the entire industry. Since January, roles have been lost at various high-profile developers and publishers including Microsoft, Riot Games, Sega, Twitch, and Ubisoft. Just last month, it was announced that Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED had also laid off members of studio The Molasses Flood, following a restart of the upcoming Witcher spin-off Project Sirius.

Firaxis is latest video game studio hit by layoffs [Axios Gaming]

Chris Moyse

Senior Editor – Chris has been playing video games since the 1980s and writing about them since the 1880s. Graduated from Galaxy High with honors. Twitter: @ChrisxMoyse

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