The world of videogame development can often be a turbulent one, with studios hiring and firing staff when big projects begin then end. This week Rock Band VR developer Harmonix has announced its had to reduce its staff, laying off 17 employees.
In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz the studio said: “Today we made the difficult decision to say goodbye to 17 talented people as we restructured to align with our current and anticipated development needs. These people all played a role in making Harmonix and its games what they are today and we are more than grateful for their contributions. We are working to ensure that they are taken care of as we make this change.”
While there was no confirmation if these redundancies were related to the studio’s VR project’s, recent months have seen other developers reduce their team size or close completely. In September last year Sony London Studio, which created The London Heist for PlayStation VR, announced ‘a number of compulsory redundancies‘. Then in January, Guerrilla Cambridge which had been in operation for 19 years and most recently released RIGS: Mechanised Combat League for PlayStation VR announced its closure.
Harmonix released Rock Band VR last week for Oculus Rift and Touch. Its currently in the process of developing SingSpace for Samsung Gear VR which VRFocus demoed at the recent Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Harmonix, reporting back with any further updates.