Sumo Group, the parent company of Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Texas Chain Saw Massacre developer Sumo Digital, has announced plans to reduce its workforce by up to 15 percent, putting nearly 270 employees across the UK, Canada, Poland, Czech Republic, and India at risk.
“Whilst Sumo has been able to manage through many of the recent difficulties the games industry has faced,” the company wrote, “we have not been immune and reshaping operations across the business to better navigate the upcoming challenges expected in the coming months is a path we must now take to ensure the security of the business going forward.”
To that end, Sumo has made “the difficult decision to reduce our costs across the business in a number of ways”, which “unfortunately will include a reduction in the number of people the business can support”. While Sumo says it has considered “every alternate route to limit the impact to our people”, it confirms up to 15 percent of employees in the UK, Canada, Poland, Czech Republic, and India (from a workforce of 1,790 according to its website) will be affected.
“This is an incredibly challenging process to go through for everyone at Sumo,” it continued, “and our focus is now on supporting our people and working with our partners on their games as we move forward to ensure we emerge from this difficult time, ready for the future.”
Sumo, which was acquired by Chinese media conglomerate Tencent in 2021 for £919m, has developed high-profile titles including Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Crackdown 3. It’s also served as a support studio on numerous major releases, from Forza Horizon and Hogwarts Legacy to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Sumo Group also owns publisher Secret Mode and UK studio The Chinese Room – which is set to release its oil rig horror Still Wakes The Deep on 18th June, and is currently developing Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2.
