UK developer and publisher Kwalee has made staff cuts in an effort to “reshape” its business around “significant growth opportunities”.
A source familiar with the cuts suggested that the number of staff affected could total around 40, up to 10% of its workforce. Kwalee told us it is fewer than 40, but would not specify the exact number of roles at risk.
The job losses have mostly affected staff at its UK HQ in Leamington Spa, but key staff have also been let go at its Bangalore, India office too, we’re told. Most of the layoffs to date have been in QA and recruitment, with some developers and artists also affected.
The cuts have been made in small numbers over the course of the last few months, our source said.
Kwalee confirmed to us that there have been some redundancies in the last few months, but also stressed that it expects to grow its headcount from around 400 today to around 410-420, up from a headcount of 346 a year ago.
“We are reshaping our business and our team to best capture the significant growth opportunities that currently exist in the sector, including hiring for 20 new roles,” the company told us. “Kwalee has the global scale, management expertise and security of funding, combined with a differentiated strategy to take advantage of organic and acquisitive growth opportunities.”
It also said that it expects to make more investments in the coming months like the €1.5m stake in French hybridcasual outfit 8SEC it announced in January 2024.
The UK-based firm launched its new publishing portal Hitseeker in February, which it described as “a suite of features designed to streamline the development process, access expert feedback and optimise game metrics.”
It also hired Unity/IronSource veteran John Wright late last year to head up its mobile efforts. Wright told us in October 2023 that Kwalee wanted to be “the nice guy of publishing”.
