ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PC GAMES

News

VR specialist nDreams to lay off 17.5% of staff

VR specialist nDreams to lay off 17.5% of staff

Virtual reality firm nDreams is making layoffs. 

GamesIndustry.biz reports that the company is planning to let go 17.5 per cent of its staff. LinkedIn has 253 profiles that are listed as currently working at nDreams, meaning that around 45 employees are set to lose their jobs if that's an accurate figure. 

“Today, all of our nDreams colleagues were informed of a renewed strategic focus that could result in redundancies affecting up to 17.5% of the company," CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh said 

"Having explored multiple alternatives to avoid such action over many months in a challenging VR games market, situated within a tough gaming landscape more broadly, it’s with deep regret that we are looking at losing valued and talented members of our teams. This could impact all levels, including senior leadership.

"We are working tirelessly to support our team with the respect and care they deserve throughout this challenging process, including all our efforts to comprehensively assist those whose positions may be impacted to move into new roles within nDreams or elsewhere.

"Having been fully-focused on VR development since 2013, we have inevitably faced many challenges in building a modest independent studio into a world-leading VR game developer working to push both the technology and the market forward. These necessary considerations of losing valued team members are the most difficult yet, but our belief in XR gaming is undimmed. We firmly believe that our proposed new structure will enable us to better serve current and future audiences in creating medium-defining titles for years to come.

"For now, our priority is to support our people in this process as we work through reshaping for the future." 

This comes ten months after nDreams was acquired by Aonic for $100m. 


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.