Wooga hit with layoffs as it reshuffles for the casual market

German mobile studio Wooga has laid of 40 employees, just over 10 percent of its approximately 400-strong workforce, as it looks to streamline and refocus after a number of projects failed to meet internal expectations.

Wooga's remaining staffers will be split into three studios focused on creating casual games in the puzzle, hidden object, and casual simulation genres. 

The puzzle studio will be led by Matt Roberts, who joined from Microsoft in early 2015, and is currently working on a sequel to bubble shooter, Bubble Island. 

Wooga veteran Sebastian Nußbaum will continue to lead the studio that's focused on the development of hidden object games, and will look to build on the success of hidden object game, Pearl’s Peril.

Paul Virapen will take over the studio in charge of casual simulation games, having previously founded and led games companies WearGa and Big Pixel Studios prior to joining Wooga last year.

Wooga CEO Jens Begemann described the situation as "unfortunate" but hopes the studio's renewed focus on casual games will provide stability in the long-term. 

"In order to maintain our competitiveness within the maturing mobile games industry we have decided to focus on casual genres exclusively going forward and to streamline our organization accordingly," said the CEO.

"As part of this re-focus we unfortunately have to separate from a number of employees. This has been a very difficult decision for us to make. I am convinced however that our new organizational structure enables us to set us up for sustainable success with a leading portfolio of casual mobile games."