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Fresh off the acquisition of two games, casual game publisher Jam City laid off a number of employees on Friday.
It isn’t clear yet how many lost their jobs, but one source, who asked not to be identified, said a large number of employees were laid off.
In a statement, Jam City said, “Jam City rolled out organizational changes today that altered some teams and staff positions. We are re-allocating resources to support the goals of our global business. This is an extremely difficult decision, and Jam City is making these changes with the utmost respect for every person affected. We are providing exit packages and other types of transition assistance to impacted employees.”
The company declined to say how many people were laid off.
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On November 14, Jam City announced a long-term partnership with Disney and said it was acquiring the Glendale, California-based team that made the successful mobile game Disney’s Emoji Blitz.
In an interview with GamesBeat a couple of weeks ago, Chris DeWolfe, CEO of Jam City, declined to say how many employees were being offered jobs at the Glendale location. But DeWolfe said that Jam City had grown to more than 650 employees.
Above: Rachel DiPaola’s post on LinkedIn about Jam City layoff.
This week, Jam City acquired the Bingo Pop game and its team from Uken Games in Toronto. Jam City president Josh Yguado said in an interview that all of Jam City had more than 500 employees, and he declined to say how many were added with the acquisition of Uken’s team. But Chris Ye, CEO of Uken Games, said in an email that 42 Uken people would join Jam City’s Toronto team, and 68 would stay with Uken.
The layoffs reportedly affected teams across all departments in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.
In the meantime, former Jam City executive producer Rachel DiPaola said on LinkedIn that she had been laid off. She wrote, “Hey peeps — Sad to say that I was part of a layoff at Jam City today. Ironically, it’s my one year anniversary of working there! So — on to the next adventure. Please let me know if you have any leads for me. And I’m OK — it’s just biz.”
Others tweeted sympathetic remarks about the layoffs and said they were hiring.
Back it May, Jam City also had a layoff, but the overall headcount is still a lot more than it was in previous years. If anything, it tells you how topsy turvy the game business is.
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