The latest video game company to be hit by layoffs is Visual Concepts. An unspecified number of employees have been let go from the company. The studio has been successful in making 2K sports sims including NBA 2K, Lego 2K, and WWE 2K series. Visual Concept executives are yet to comment on the matter.
What GameBaba Universe found most fascinating about the layoffs at Visual Concepts is that as early as January 9 this year, the studio was still hiring for the roles of Unreal Engine software engineer and Senior UI artists.
“Is there a better way to start 2024 than by joining Visual Concepts, meeting great people, and helping to make our games even better and more fun?” read one of the job adverts shared on X.
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However, a similar job advert shared on December 7 specifically mentioned that the hiring was to “make the next iteration of WWE 2K better than ever”. Besides the number of employees impacted by the layoff in the studio, the motive for the layoff was also not clear.
According to their LinkedIn profile, the Novato, California-based company has between 501 and 1,000 employees. Founded in 1988, Visual Concepts has continued to push the boundaries on sports sims and has achieved tremendous success—especially in the NBA 2K franchise.
“The Visual Concepts team is devoted and ambitious, never content to stop searching for new ways to improve the gaming experience and to develop advanced techniques and methods of producing cutting-edge entertainment,” read the company’s overview on LinkedIn.
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“Through this determination and love of both sports and video games, Visual Concepts has fostered NBA 2K from its creation in 2000 to the present day, ensuring each annual release is innovative and improved.”
Former Visual Concepts employees confirm the layoffs
The layoffs at Visual Concepts happened on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, according to posts from some of the studio’s former employees. GameBaba Universe spotted several posts made by former employees of the company. Other former employees updated their profiles with the #OpenToWork green badge but made no mention of the layoffs.
Kendall Robinson, a former Environment Artist at Visual Concepts who is now looking for work was one of the first to post about the layoffs on LinkedIn. Robinson has been with Visual Concepts since 2021.
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“Well, myself and a bunch of other great people have just been laid off from Visual Concepts. It was an awesome time and I got to work with so many great and talented people,” Robinson wrote.
Brad Bowling, a former Art Manager at Visual Concepts also announced that he was impacted by the layoff saying this one hit the hardest out of all his previous downturns.
“Well…the games industry bloodletting continues. Today Visual Concepts Austin laid off myself and a group of very talented developers,” Bowling wrote.
“I have had a great time over the past couple of years working with some of the finest Game Devs in the industry. Over the past 23 years of making game art, I have seen some downturns but nothing like this.”
“Well the days of basketball are now behind me,” wrote Lennon Lange who worked in the studio as a senior producer. “I was part of the most recent round of layoffs at Visual Concepts today. If anyone has any leads on Sr. Producer positions that is remote please reach out. I really loved my job, but all things must come to an end. I’ll miss my coworkers most of all. 💜”
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GameBaba Universe has included the links to the profiles of all the people mentioned in this post to make it easy for anyone who may have open opportunities for them to easily contact them.
Visual Concepts layoffs continue a growing string of redundancies that have plagued the gaming industry since last year. An estimated 10,000 people lost their jobs in the gaming industry last year alone. However, at the end of January, over 6,000 people have already lost their jobs. At this rate, 2024 is on track to double the number of layoffs made last year.
