Several friends of mine used to fantasize about working in the video game industry. Some abandoned the idea eventually, others unsuccessfully pursued it for a while, but they all continue to agree that working for a game developer would be their dream job. Somehow they fail to notice that developers are just like any other company — when times are hard, they’re plagued by layoffs.
Polygon reports that Capcom has recently let go of several US staff, including Senior VP Christian Svensson, a former game journalist who’d been with the company for eight years. He posted the news on his Facebook page, where he wrote:
“I’ve had the opportunity to interface with the best fans any company could ever hope to have, I know that I wasn’t always able to deliver what they wanted, but I promise that I did my best to champion their needs and wants. So thank you to the fans who made my job rewarding, challenging, and, if nothing else, interesting. While I wish the company the best of luck, Capcom is going in a different direction and the need for people at my level, relative to other areas, is lacking. Those who know me well, know that I’ve been ready to go for quite some time. We tried some things that worked. We tried others that didn’t. We fought fights that were worth fighting and even won a few. I’m proud of what we accomplished.”
Harsh, eh? Capcom subsequently provided Polygon with a statement — they said:
“Capcom today laid off several employees from the U.S. office as part of an overall organizational restructure of the company. The transition to the new generation of hardware and changing industry landscape have required us to adapt our business to best meet our new goals. We sincerely thank each individual for their contributions and wish them well.”
Capcom still hasn’t revealed how many employees were fired, nor have they announced Svensson’s replacement.