Bad times for the studio behind Big Farm and Goodgame Empire.
The Hamburg-based Goodgame Studios are once again making headlines. After many employees were laid off at the end of 2015 and mid-2016, another 200 employees are now out of work.
The bad news from Goodgame Studios just keeps rolling in. At the end of 2015, the company made headlines because employees were allegedly laid off for wanting to establish a works council. This was followed by a major restructuring in mid-2016 with many layoffs. They wanted to focus on their core business, with which they had previously been successful. The company founders Kai and Christian Wawrzinek stepped back from management to focus on developing new games.
More layoffs and the return of the CEOs
As the company itself confirmed, another 200 employees are now losing their jobs.
Of the 550 employees remaining after the restructuring in mid-2016, only 350 are expected to continue working at Goodgame Studios after the layoffs. Additionally, the current management of the company will be replaced. Kai and Christian Wawrzinek are now returning to the top. Maximilian Scheider, who has been leading the company since mid-2016, must leave.
The Free2Play market is highly competitive
The reason for these further layoffs and new restructuring is reportedly the difficult situation in the Free2Play market. It has become hard for the company to survive. New games can only be very hard to establish in the market as it is too competitive.
Therefore, they now want to focus more on better marketing their existing and successful games like Goodgame Empire and Big Farm. Additionally, an investment in transitioning from Flash to HTML5 is planned.
The Goodgame Studios hope to position themselves well and securely for the future with this step.
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Goodgame Studios deny layoffs due to works council establishment
