Layoffs, Canceled Projects and Lack of Purpose; Problems at Mafia Devs
Hangar 13 has more problems. The makers of Mafia 3 are facing a wave of layoffs and a painful restructuring.
- Hangar 13 is experiencing extensive restructuring;
- A number of employees have been fired from the studio, and a new person has taken over as head;
- The company is now fully focused on two upcoming projects.
Hangar 13 has had problems almost since the release of its debut game. Mafia 3 has sold below expectations, which led to the first layoffs in the company.
In subsequent years this trend only intensified. Developers were dismissed or left on their own, and more projects were thrown in the trash. We are dealing with the same process now, but it is even more radical.
A studio without a purpose
As reported by Kotaku, Hangar 13 had a problem with keeping its employees for a long time. Developers regularly left the company, which was due to many factors.
The studio did not have any project on which the developers could focus for a longer period of time. Within a few years many games were canceled, although $50 million had been invested in one of them (with the working title Volt) .
Hangar 13 was also treated by Take-Two as a good source of additional manpower. Studio employees were regularly diverted elsewhere to help work on games such as Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Kerbal Space Program 2 or Marvel's Midnight Suns.
Such organization of work caused that many developers decided to leave the ranks of the studio and seek employment elsewhere. Of course, this did not have a positive impact on the performance of the already weakened team.
Painful restructuring
2K apparently recognized that the studio could not be saved without taking radical steps. So the company decided to embark on an extensive restructuring.
The first step was to accelerate the process of reducing the number of employees. Particular departments of Hangar 13 suffered a wave of layoffs.
The most severe of these has hit Hangar 13 Novato, with nearly 50 developers saying goodbye to the company. This is a really big staff reduction considering that the division employed a total of 87 people.
The company also got a new boss - Nick Baynes. He replaced Haden Blackman, who resigned from his position.
The new leader assured that the studio will not experience further layoffs, and all who remained in their positions are welcome members of the team.
Hangar 13 also finally has projects to focus on. After all, the company is working on two new games and will give them its full attention, according to Baynes.
The first of these is a Mafia prequel, which will take players to Italy and use the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5. The second is Project Hammer, which according to Kotaku's sources will be the next installment of the tennis series Top Spin.
We can only hope that this time Hangar 13 will manage to bring the aforementioned projects to completion and the studio's employees will not have to worry about further layoffs.
