Games developer Behaviour Interactive has announced intentions to lay off up to 95 employees as “strategic changes” get underway.
The move is an overly familiar one for the games industry in the post-pandemic landscape, a result of “unprecedented competition” and following a huge increase in headcount over recent years – from 575 employees in 2019 to 1,300 today.
These layoffs therefore represent roughly 7% of Behaviour’s workforce, with the majority of those impacted based in Montreal. 70 employees have been laid off from Montreal, in fact, though Behaviour has assured development of Dead by Daylight is unaffected.
However, since releasing a statement on the matter yesterday, Behaviour has taken the post back down and – at the time of writing – are yet to publish a revised statement.
A change in Behaviour
Behaviour’s future “clear ambitions”, laid out in the original statement, are to lead in horror, services, and explore location-based entertainment. However, the studio’s latest cutbacks are already the second this year, following 45 prior layoffs in January. Those staff were all based in Montreal, bringing Behaviour’s total redundancies in the region to 115 so far in 2024.
The earlier layoffs were attributed to “adjusting the scope” of several projects, gamesindustry.biz reported. The latest, meanwhile, are a result of these ambitions focusing on Behaviour’s “historical strengths”.
Yet, despite cutting back on its headcount this year, Behaviour acquired mixed media production house Fly Studio in March, known to create content for movies, museums, venues and more.
“I would like to express my deep personal appreciation for any employee affected by today’s changes. While changes to our structure and strategic vision have led to challenging decisions, we are confident that these decisions will position us for continued success,” wrote Behaviour Interactive co-founder and CEO Rémi Racine.
“As we begin the next phase of Behaviour’s growth, our commitment to excellence in our products and workplace culture remains steadfast.”
We’ll update this story with the latest release when it’s published.
Last December, Montreal also took a hit in the form of layoffs at Rovio, though key staff in the region remained unaffected, as did Studio Six.
