Nearly three months after laying off a quarter of its staff, Payload Studios has eliminated more roles. Last week, at least two (now-former) staffers revealed they were let go on social media.
Sources speaking to GamesIndustry claimed eight workers were impacted in the latest round of reductions. Those laid off were reportedly informed a month in advance and will not receive redundancy pay.
Payload CEO and co-founder Russell Clarke told GamesIndustry that layoffs did happen but didn't reveal specific numbers. In his statement, he said the cuts came "out of the blue after a project that we were relying on did not materialize." In August, Clarke cited the wider industry tumult as reason for those reductions, and said they were made despite the studio's best efforts to avoid them.
Layoffs have been a constant throughout the industry in the past two years. Every month has seen heavy losses to studios' workforce, often by the dozens and occasionally the hundreds, depending on the developer.
According to Clarke, the number of impacted Payload devs and other details such as "the handling of the notice period and redundancy payments" are still being finalised. "We had to notify staff last week, to give as much warning as possible to all those who might be affected. [...] We are a small studio fighting to survive in very challenging times, but as always, our people are our highest priority," he added.
Clarke also confirmed one of the impacted developers was an unnamed Payload co-founder and said the studio must become "very lean" moving forward.
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