Ready at Dawn reportedly heavily impacted by latest Meta layoffs
Downpour Interactive also affected.
Lone Echo developer Ready at Dawn has reportedly been heavily affected by the latest round of job cuts at Meta Quest and VR owner Meta, with one employee claiming a third of the studio has been laid off, including the studio head.
As originally reported by The Washington Post, today's layoffs could affect as many as 4,000 employees at Meta, and are part of the company's stated goal of cutting a further 10,000 jobs in 2023 following the 11,000 job losses announced last year.
The Washington Post claims Meta has targeted "highly skilled staff" - including engineers and other technical workers - in its latest round of layoffs, and, since its report, employees have said both Ready at Dawn and fellow Meta acquisition Downpour Interactive have been impacted.
"My choice words are that I cannot disparage M*ta so let me just say that Ready at Dawn was a wonderful studio full of incredible people," now-former technical designer Colin McInerney tweeted, adding, "I have a thing lined up so I will be OK. Many of my coworkers will not."
Ready at Dawn senior engine/graphics programmer Thomas Griebel also took to Twitter, shedding some light on the scale of the job losses at the developer, writing that "1/3 of the studio was laid off today including the studio head".
As for Downpour Interactive, which created VR tactical shooter Onward and was acquired by Meta in 2021, senior designer Michael Tsarouhas tweeted, "I just got laid off by Meta and no longer work on Onward", while studio level designer Daan van Zelst wrote, "Today is a dark and tough day at work. I can't believe what's happening right now."
Today's news marks the latest in a wave of job cuts across the games industry, with Microsoft, Take-Two, Riot Games, EA, Twitch, and Hasbro all announcing layoffs in the last few months.