UK Studio Kwalee Announces Layoffs to Make Room for New Hires

UK studio and publisher Kwalee has revealed recent staff cuts were made to “reshape” the company’s business around “significant growth opportunities.” The company has layed off approximately 10% of its workforce, around 40 people, in recent months. Despite that, Kwalee stressed it expects to grow its headcount (currently about 400) to somewhere between 410 and 420.

Word comes to us by way of Game Developer, which cites MobileGamer.biz’s (sister-site to GamesIndustry.biz) sources. The cuts have been made in small numbers over the course of several months, with the majority taking place at the studio’s UK HQ in Leamington Spa. A Kwalee spokesperson provided MobileGamer.biz with a statement that reads:

“We are reshaping our business and our team to best capture the significant growth opportunities that currently exist in the sector, including hiring for 20 new roles. Kwalee has the global scale, management expertise and security of funding, combined with a differentiated strategy to take advantage of organic and acquisitive growth opportunities.”

Kwalee’s CEO is David Darling, one of two brothers who founded the legendary UK studio Codemasters in 1986, for which he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for “services to the computer games industry.” Kwalee has primarily focused on developing mobile games, but publishing console games is a sizeable part of its portfolio. Its most recent release on PS5 was The Precinct.