Mac, iOS game dev Freeverse gutted by layoffs

Just two years after acquiring the studio, DeNA/Ngmoco has laid off nearly all of its employees at New York City-based iOS game developer Freeverse (WingNuts, Field of Glory). Founded nearly 20 years ago as a shareware developer, Freeverse was best known for being one of the few developers to specialize in releasing Mac games, some of which were even bundled with Apple's PCs. The studio also won multiple Apple Design Awards. The developer eventually transitioned into making Xbox Live Arcade titles and iOS games, but its output slowed after Freeverse was purchased in February 2010 by Ngmoco (which was then acquired by Japanese social game network operator and developer DeNA later that year). A number of veteran Freeverse workers have left since Ngmoco bought the studio, and just last week co-founders Colin and Ian Lynch Smith resigned. Freeverse once had more than 30 employees, and Toucharcade reports that the team now has as few as seven employees. Nathan Camarillo, who was previously an executive producer at Crytek before joining Freeverse in May 2011, is now leading the group. The remaining employees will continue to work on two Ngmoco projects: Quests & Sorcery and Monster Tracker. In a statement provided to Gamasutra, Ngmoco studios VP Clive Downie said, "Today we have organized Freeverse into a focused team, building on a foundation of talent from the studio in NY. Unfortunately this means we have had to say goodbye to some people. We thank everyone who has contributed to DeNA and Freeverse over the years and wish those moving on the very best."