UTV Ignition makes layoffs at Austin office
Numbers of staff losses unconfirmed but PC team unscathed
UTV Ignition has reportedly laid off an entire console team at its offices in Austin, Texas. The number of staff losing their jobs is unconfirmed officially but sources put the number at 15.
In January, the publisher consolidated its Florida, East and West Coast US offices into the Austin outfit to improve efficiency, but announced the opening of a new studio in Marina Del Rey in California on Friday.
"We can confirm that a small console team, which was working on pre-production of an unannounced title, was laid off," read an official statement sent to Gamasutra. "The PC team was unaffected."
The Austin studio was known to be working on FPS title Reich, which it inherited from the closed Florida studio.
Rumours are also circulating that the company's Japanese offices could well have been shuttered, which has just completed work on El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, with the potential loss of the team there.
Unrest and uncertainty have plagued the publisher since acquisition by Indian media conglomerate UTV. Last September, UTV said that it would cease development at the company's London studio, but a temporary reprieve was granted to finish a project which was already nearing completion.