Sumo Group, the British video game collective which owns developers Sumo Digital, publishers Secret Mode and more – including Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture devs The Chinese Room – is laying off hundreds of staff, cutting 15% of their workforce “to better navigate the upcoming challenges expected in the coming months”.
The news came just a couple of days after Secret Mode showed off upcoming PC releases Critter Café, freerunning Mario Kart-but-deadly-a-like Deathsprint 66 and The Chinese Room’s next moody title Still Wakes the Deep during Summer Games Fest over the weekend, with Sumo Digital chirpily celebrating the “busy weekend” on Monday. The very next day, Sumo Group – which owns the various Sumo Digital studios – released a separate announcement of layoffs, stating that they would be “reshaping operations” to “to ensure the security of the business going forward”.
The layoffs will hit up to 15% of the entire group’s workforce across its 19 UK, Canadian, Polish, Czech and Indian offices – meaning up to 270 people may be affected, going by the latest headcount of 1,790 on the company’s website.
As well as leading development on games such as multiplayer horror game The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, LittleBigPlanet spin-off Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Crackdown 3, Sumo are known for their work as co-developers of games including Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Hogwarts Legacy and Forza Horizon 5. In 2021, the group was acquired by Chinese megacorp Tencent, with its own acquisitions including the likes of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun devs Auroch Digital and, most recently, mobile studio Midoki.
“This is an incredibly challenging process to go through for everyone at Sumo and our focus is now on supporting our people and working with our partners on their games as we move forward to ensure we emerge from this difficult time, ready for the future,” Sumo wrote. Good luck to all those affected.