Angry Birds studio Rovio has laid off 36 employees in the latest wave of redundancies.
As reported by MobileGamer.Biz, a Rovio spokesperson outlined a number of structural changes within the company, citing them as the reason for the layoffs. “These changes resulted in changes in some roles, the creation of several new roles, and a total of 36 employees being made redundant,” the spokesperson said.
According to the company, Angry Birds Dream Blast has “unfortunately not been performing as expected.” While the spokesperson says no games have been canceled, Rovio has been renewing its organization this autumn in reaction to Dream Blast underperforming. The aim is to “better respond to the market” and move towards a “more game-centric approach,” which in theory will allow the company to “be able to iterate fast on new game ideas.”
Moreover, the spokesperson added that Rovio is creating new business units, in addition to reorganizing some of its game studios and reallocating some of the games developed in them.
“For example, Rovio’s Puzzle Studio in Finland will be focusing on fewer games as some of their games become an independent business unit and our Barcelona office will cater to more games than it has done, so far.”
Rovio is “tightening” relations with parent company Sega
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Notably, Rovio is also making some changes in its management structure to reflect its role as a “non-listed company,” as well as “tightening” relations with Sega. Rovio officially became a part of Sega back in August 2023, following a €706 million (or $775 million) acquisition. As the spokesperson explained, Rovio’s CEO is “spending more time around our different Rovio locations and at the Sega of Europe office.”
It’s worth recalling that, months following the acquisition, Rovio closed down Montreal dev Studio Lumi, which affected 16 employees, and resulted in the cancelation of an unannounced project in development.