Warner Studios Monolith, Snowblind, Surreal See Layoffs

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertaiment has made job cuts at three of its Seattle-area studios as part of a move to consolidate positions, the publisher confirmed to Gamasutra today. News of the unspecified number of cuts at Kirkland-based Monolith Productions, Seattle-based Surreal Software, and Bothell-based Snowblind Studios first came via industry sources, as well as Twitter posts. Gamasutra subsequently obtained a statement from Warner Bros., which explained that the three studios had "a few too many resources in certain functions," and that "some positions were eliminated in this process." Warner says it "will be retaining robust teams in our Seattle studios" and does "expect to see the studios grow" in the long term. Warner has recently been making a bigger push into the game development and publishing arena. Last year it acquired Snowblind, and bought both Surreal and Midway Games Chicago (now WB Games Chicago) from bankrupt publisher Midway Games. The company's full statement on the matter is as follows: "We are committed to growing Warner Bros. in the game space and will be retaining robust teams in our Seattle studios. We have been moving towards sharing certain resources across the studios and have also been reallocating resources to align talent with our development needs. Unfortunately, we had a few too many resources in certain functions and some positions were eliminated in this process. Our plan is to continually review staffing needs and as future projects evolve we would expect to see the studios grow."