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Mobile games firm Storm8 lays off 130

More than half the studio's team has gone

The team behind Bubble Mania and Restaurant Story has cut around 130 jobs from it 240-person team.

Storm8 released a number of popular games that have generated significant download numbers. It boasts of more than 1bn downloads and in 2015 claimed to have 50m monthly active users. It is best known for publishing a series of casuals games that appear very similar to the Match-3 and casual strategy titles of its rivals at King and Zynga.

Its big selling point was a deal it had signed with Hasbro that allowed it to create titles based on Monopoly, Bingo and Clue. However, the market for casual mobile games is notoriously competitive and fickle, and this has taken its toll on the business.

"The mobile gaming industry has continued to rapidly evolve," founder Perry Tam told Gamesbeat

"We believe having a leaner organisation with sharper focus is essential to win in the growing $40-plus billion mobile games market. As such, we've made the very difficult decision to realign resources and part ways with approximately 130 talented colleagues. We truly appreciate everyone's hard work and dedication to Storm8 over the years. Moving forward, a more streamlined Storm8 will build off a strong foundation, be better positioned to support our existing games and successfully bring new games to market. We remain very excited for the future of mobile games and being well-positioned for sustained profitable growth."

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Christopher Dring avatar

Christopher Dring

Head of Games B2B

Chris is a 17-year media veteran specialising in the business of video games. And, erm, Doctor Who