The wave of layoffs that has hit the video game industry has now hit a company that doesn’t make video games.
As reported by Insider Gaming, Axis Studios, based in Scotland, has gone into administration, with 162 jobs made immediately redundant. BBC quotes Alistair McAlinden, who heads the administrator company in charge of the process, with this statement:
“Axis has more recently been impacted by a decline in customer projects, as well as increases in labour costs which have resulted in severe cash flow problems.
The directors worked tirelessly to explore alternative solutions, but ultimately had to take the difficult decision to seek the appointment of administrators.”
Axis is an animation and VFX company, who has worked across the board for animation, film, TV, video games, and even theme parks. The greatest recognition they had received was an Emmy for “Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Supporting Role – 2019”, for the show Chernobyl.
Axis did more than video games, but they were also a major part of their business. Insider Gaming notes their work on trailers for titles like Dead Island, Destiny, Halo, and League of Legends.
Truth be told, this can be seen as not just a consequence of the poor business in the video game industry, but also the animation industry. Both industries share that unfortunate quality, wherein their business picked up during the quarantine and lockdown period of the pandemic, but now that business has shrunk back, because those far-reaching quarantines and lockdowns ended.
Arkane Lyon studio director Dinga Bakaba had some things to say about Axis Studios’ closure on Twitter:
“Saddened by the shutdown of Axis Studios. They were amazing partners making both “DEATHLOOP” and Marvel’s Blade reveal trailers authentic vision pieces that @mitmitman, the team and myself are very proud of. Thank you so much to everyone at Axis for these unforgettable moments..”
@mitmitman is Sebastien Mitton, who is art director of Arkane Lyon. Both Bakaba and Mitton are creative directors of Arkane Lyon as well.
Bakaba also revealed that Axis Studios made both the initial Deathloop reveal trailer, and last year’s Marvel’s Blade reveal trailer.
It’s an unfortunate fact we have to accept that the shrinking business in these industries is something we can decry about, but consumers can’t really directly affect anymore. Nearly every video game company based in the US or Europe has been forced to do layoffs as a result of this, even as the industry boasts of revenue. And as we now know, PlayStation 5’s high console sales don’t lead to sufficient software sales to address the problem either.
We wish Axis Studios’ former employees the best in their immediate and long term futures.
