Sumo Group Lays off 15 Percent of Its Employees

Sumo Group is preparing to lay off over 250 people from among its 19 different studios. The company, based in the UK, was acquired by Tencent in 2022 and counts The Chinese Room and Sumo Digital, known for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, respectively, among its popular studios.

“Whilst Sumo has been able to manage through many of the recent difficulties the games industry has faced, 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,” the company said in a statement.

“The difficult decision to reduce our costs across the business in a number of ways is a direct result of these challenges, and unfortunately will include a reduction in the number of people the business can support.”

About 10,500 games industry employees were laid off in 2023, with the number looking to be comparable this year.

“Every alternate route to limit the impact to our people is being considered but sadly this process of transformation will affect up to 15% of our people across the Group in Canada, UK, Poland, Czech Republic and India,” the statement from Sumo Group continues.

“This is an incredibly challenging process to go through for everyone at Sumo 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.”