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Big Fish Games lays off 15% of staff in a pivot to casual and social casino games

The industry continues to be rather unkind this week.

Brittany Vincent

September 25, 2018 4:50 PM

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Big Fish Games has reportedly laid off 15% of its staff, according to a recent memo shared by GeekWire. The memo, from president Jeff Karp, states that Big Fish will take 15 percent of its "premium business" as it moves to free-to-play games found in the "casual" and "social casino" realm.

"We are sharpening our focus to only develop social casino and casual games — genres where we have earned the right to lead the market," Karp states. "While our journey is not always an easy one — and today was certainly among the most difficult — I’m confident we are starting tomorrow in a position of strength and with a clear path forward to greater success."

It's unclear whether this is a concrete shift or not, as the Big Fish team have not stepped forward to confirm this, but it does add to the bleak industry news that has poured out over the past few days, with Capcom Vancouver and Telltale Games having been shuttered.

It's a frustrating scene and a scary time to be in game development, so if this memo is indeed correct and a real message sent out internally, we hope that the folks affected at Big Fish games end up finding some alternative work soon.

Brittany Vincent

Senior Editor

Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, Brittany is a Senior Editor at Shacknews who thrives on surrealism and ultraviolence. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake and check out her portfolio for more. Like a fabulous shooter once said, get psyched!