In the last 24 hours, 2K Games subsidiary Hangar 13 has laid off dozens of employees across its global offices, with reportedly up to 50 employees dismissed from the Novato, CA office that created Mafia III.
With only 87 employees at the studio before the layoff, that means the number of workers at the Novato office has been cut in half.
According to Kotaku (which confirmed the layoffs with a 2K spokesperson), the announcement came with a message from Nick Baynes, head of Hangar 13’s Brighton, U.K. office. Baynes apologized to the remaining developers at Hangar 13, and promised that the team is working to deliver “local leadership and structure” before Novato staffers.
The Novato office has apparently been in a holding pattern since the departure of Haden Blackman earlier this month. It also has been in a longer holding pattern since the cancellation of a project code-named “Volt,” which was supposed to be a new property for the Mafia III studio.
Employees were initially told that there would be no immediate layoffs following Volt’s cancellation. It appears that in the months since then, the studio was not able to adequately find new roles for its employees.
Since that cancellation, employees in Novato have apparently been assisting with the development of other 2K-published games like Marvel’s Midnight Suns and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Hangar 13 is reportedly being restructured to focus on more Mafia games, with some employees reportedly working on new versions of theTop Spin tennis series.
Calling the decision to lay off employees “always difficult,” a 2K spokesperson did tell Kotaku that the company is looking to find some laid off employees position at other 2K developers, and that the publisher is “committed to the future of Hangar 13.”
This is the latest brutal round of layoffs for Hangar 13, which was previously battered with intense layoffs in 2017 and 2018. Mafia III, the last game the studio shipped, was released five years ago.