Report: Realtime Worlds Sees Layoffs

In the midst of restructuring following weak reception for All Points Bulletin, developer Realtime Worlds will lay off a reported 60 workers, as it hasn't yet found a publisher for its in-development social virtual world Project: My World. Although the studio has confirmed it's had to release staff, it hasn't reported a number; the 60 figure comes from UK site GamesIndustry.biz, who cites anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation, and reports that the majority of the team remaining is working on supporting APB, challenging resources for the ambitious Project: MyWorld. In July when it announced its restructuring, Realtime Worlds said it planned only a "small number" of layoffs to keep step with APB "evolving development cycle". It would then downscale a second development project, presumably Project MyWorld, to allocate 100 percent of its resources to running the open-world crime MMO, which struggled for positive reception at launch and has received little media attention since. But following media reports of the wider layoffs, Realtime Worlds issued a statement indicating that the "30-day consultation period" for staff since the restructuring announcement has ended. Says the studio: "The supporting infrastructure for a game inevitably changes once released, and those staff that couldn't be redeployed to new projects in the Art, Audio, Coding, Design, Production, and QA departments have regrettably been made redundant." "APB continues to be our primary development focus, and we remain fully committed to the game and its players," the statement concludes. APB, published under Electronic Arts' EA Partners label, is the second title from the Dundee, Scotland-based company, whose open-world game Crackdown attracted a cult following when it launched on Xbox 360 in 2007.