A month after Paramount acquired Warner Bros. Discovery, its merged game division is laying people off

Just over a month after Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the newly formed Skydance announced that its game division has initiated a series of layoffs. Multiple employees took to LinkedIn to report their severance, with lead engineer David Vera stating that the studio had lost "a ton of great talent."

Principal environment artist Dana Klaren also confirmed that over 25 people had been let go, including himself. Senior gameplay and game AI programmer Rebecca Vessal reported that most of her team had been terminated. Prior to the merger, Paramount had two game divisions: Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media, which were combined into Skydance Games Studio earlier this year.

Skydance is set to publish PlatinumGames' upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, while Skydance New Media is working on Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, though the current status of that project remains uncertain. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Games has struggled to follow up on the successful 2023 releases Legacy of Hogwarts and Mortal Kombat 1.

Netflix, which was initially interested in the Warner deal, deemed the division of relatively minor value. Skydance has confirmed to Variety that the company is implementing reorganization and operational shifts in several areas of its business, leading to a difficult decision to scale down some projects. The company assured that the layoffs were not reflective of the talent, dedication, or creativity of those affected, and expressed gratitude for their contributions.