Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 developer The Chinese Room appears to have been hit by layoffs less than four months before the game is due to release in October. Despite the concerning timeline, publisher Paradox Interactive claims the cuts will not impact the game’s intended release.
Game Developer first reported that UK studio The Chinese Room, known for its unique original titles like Dear Esther and Still Wakes The Deep, has suffered a wave of layoffs. While not publicly announced, at least nine now-former employees of the company posted to LinkedIn about losing their jobs, with the posts’ wording implying they were far from the only ones impacted.
When reaching out to The Chinese Room’s parent company Sumo Digital about the cuts, Game Developer also discovered that a number of employees have been cut from Sumo’s communications team. Sumo Digital announced it would be restructuring earlier this year, as part of a plan to pivot away from original projects entirely to focus on co-development work. Sumo also cut 15% of its total global workforce in an earlier round of layoffs this time last year.