It looks like the Disney Interactive Studios layoffs are not done yet, with the publisher slashing a considerable amount of employees at Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios. An anonymous source has told Eurogamer that almost 100 jobs at the studio are at risk. Disney later confirmed the redundancies, but did not clarify the number of employees being laid off.
“It's rumoured at Black Rock that there will be voluntary redundancies tomorrow - roughly 40, with the aim of reducing the studio to a single game team,” said the source. "It seems Disney have been unable to provide us with a project to work on, and our concept pitches clearly haven't gone down well (despite there being many of them)."
The source revealed that two titles have been cancelled: a follow-up to Pure and a sequel to Split/Second. The source also confirmed that Disney is focusing on more social and mobile-focused projects, something that’s become relatively clear to outside viewers.
"After SS wrapped, we started work on SS2 pre-prod which was cancelled last December due to DIS's new management and their changing priorities (the push towards freemium etc) - SS2 didn't really fit in with that (despite some efforts to shoehorn it in),” the source added.
"We had a concept week (everyone in the studio working on small teams) to try to come up with new ideas, but nothing really stuck. We had a freemium week sometime later with similar goals too.”
"The inactive portion of the studio has been expecting redundancies for months, so this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. It's sad that it's come to this of course, but for many people they'll be quite happy to take the money and go, as they've been sitting around doing nothing for months,” said the source.
Finally, the source revealed that a “good proportion” of the studio is still working on a “promising” unannounced title. He said that the title is "new and risky, so I imagine [Disney] don't want to risk putting two teams on it."
Disney later confirmed the layoffs with a statement.
"Disney Interactive Studios confirms a reduction of its workforce from its Brighton-based internal game development studio, Black Rock Studios. The studio will continue its work on its current project," said the publisher.
