In the wake of the recent Zynga layoffs, Bigpoint has announced that it has laid off more than 120 of its developers, over a third of whom were based in San Francisco. The studio was opened less than three years ago as a part of Bigpoint’s entry into the United States game development scene. Of the 40 developers laid off in San Francisco, 80 more were based in the company’s Hamburg studio.
The studio was responsible for the development of Battlestar Galactica Online, a free-to-play browser game.
The CEO of the German company Heiko Hubertz said that the cuts were done because the company does not see developing games in the US as a cost-efficient strategy.
"The games that we have developed in the last two years haven't been that successful, and the San Francisco area and Bay Area is quite a competitive market," said Hubertz in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. "San Francisco is, after New York, one of the most expensive cities you can live in in the US, so the people are quite expensive."
Hubertz also announced that he will be resigning as the company’s CEO to serve as its executive chairman at the end of the year.
