Another Dundee-Based Studio Sees Major Cutbacks

Cohort Studios, a Dundee, UK based developer, announced that it has cut 27 members from its staff, cutting the total number of employees at the studio in half. The studio's most recent project is the upcoming Move-compatible and Sony-published The Shoot for PlayStation 3. This news follows in the wake of Realtime Worlds, another Dundee-based studio, laying off 60 workers last week. Unlike Realtime Worlds, which went into administration last week, Cohort plans to continue business as usual. "With The Shoot nearing completion we’re taking steps to move back to our core business model, which is lighter and leaner in the interim periods between large publisher-led projects," explained Cohort founder Lol Scragg said. "We are entering advanced stages of discussion with some big partners that should see us ramp up again towards the end of Q4. In the meantime, we’ll be scaling our staffing levels back in order to concentrate on some in-house projects, and focus on strengthening and improving our proprietary technologies," he added. Cohort is a member of the UK government's Investor in People program, which focuses on maintaining healthy employee relations, and the studio says it hopes to find "ways to ensure that staff affected by the changes are treated in the appropriate way."