XR Games Face 72 Layoffs With Large-Scale Restructuring

UK developer XR Games is undergoing a large-scale restructuring with 72 employees facing redundancy.

Founded in 2017, the Leeds-based XR Games is best known for its work on last month’s Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded, Zombieland: Headshot Fever, and the upcoming Zombie Army VR. Less than 24 hours after XR Games and Sony Pictures Virtual Reality revealed Starship Troopers: Continuum, multiple employees now face imminent redundancies.

While XR Games or CEO Bobby Thandi have yet to make a public statement, multiple employees confirmed news that 72 people are being made redundant across various departments, including the entire IT team. Prior to the restructuring, the studio stated on its official website that it employs “over 100 members of staff.”

UploadVR has contacted XR Games for an official statement and we will update this article if we learn more.

The layoffs follow a particularly rough launch for Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded on Quest 3, which faced criticism in our own review for visual issues and flatscreen-derivative gameplay. XR Games later released a statement admitting the game “has not met our own high expectations” and sought to address this with a major “day four” patch.

Today’s news follows last month’s announcement that another UK-based VR developer, nDreams, will undergo layoffs affecting 17.5% of staff right before the launch of two upcoming games; Vendetta Forever and Frenzies. At the time, CEO Patrick O’Luanaigh informed Game Developer that the layoffs could affect all levels, including “senior leadership.”