By Virtuos, a prominent global gaming development entity renowned as a support, outsourcing, and remaster authority responsible for titles like The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, is reportedly the most recent game studio to undergo significant layoffs.
French journalist Gauthier Andres from Origami claims that Virtuos is dismissing about 300 employees, which constitutes 7% of its overall workforce, in a downsizing initiative that will affect locations across various regions. The firm’s website currently indicates that it has over 4,200 employees worldwide, meaning 7% corresponds to roughly 294 layoffs, aligning quite well.
Origami suggests that these job cuts will primarily occur in China, but will ultimately have repercussions on other studios, including Virtuos’ French establishments, which were notably linked to Oblivion Remastered. In recent years, Virtuos has launched new studios in several nations, including Japan, Ukraine, and Malaysia.
As a support studio, Virtuos has contributed to a significant number of games rather than solely developing them, including high-profile titles like Horizon Forbidden West (character and environment art), Dark Souls (the Nintendo Switch edition of the remaster), and, per its website, forthcoming games like Judas from BioShock creator Ken Levine.
Today, concurrent with this layoff announcement, Virtuos’ lead game designer Adrien Jouannet participated in a Cyberpunk 2077 stream demonstrating update 2.3 alongside several CD Projekt Red developers to talk about its continuous collaboration with the studio. Virtuos has stepped in as a patch co-developer as the CDPR main studio pivots to other projects yet cannot seem to leave Cyberpunk unattended.
You can find support companies like Virtuos credited in nearly every major title, as well as many smaller titles, but the studio has recently gained recognition for larger projects such as Oblivion Remastered and Metal Gear Solid Delta, where it has assumed a more substantial role in production, still as a co-developer. Virtuos is explicitly identified as a developer in the Steam listing for Oblivion Remastered, for example, while Konami is solely attributed for the Metal Gear remake.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is still unreleased, but it has consistently captivated audiences visually and is associated with a major intellectual property. Oblivion Remastered achieved massive success, and Bethesda praised Virtuos as a valuable partner, yet this seemingly hasn’t shielded it from the ongoing layoffs affecting the industry. Creating an exceptional game often doesn’t.
In fact, Origami mentions that Oblivion Remastered was an especially monumental endeavor for Virtuos, yet a deficiency of proportional royalties from the project meant the game’s success did not necessarily enhance the studio’s financial condition. Raise freezes and reductions in executive bonuses are said to have impacted the company earlier this year, causing many to be anxious about impending layoffs.
Last month, Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux informed Inverse that the company’s co-developer model is increasingly essential in an industry hesitant to take risks and steadily falling into predictable patterns as AAA development budgets swell.
“One of the traditional entry points to co-development was art outsourcing. How can we produce large volumes of art cost-effectively off-site? That has constraints as you still need to return the art, integrate it, and finalize it,” Langourieux stated. “Therefore, there has been a shift towards a more integrated model, where more sophisticated providers, like Virtuos, can be incorporated into the development pipeline, and as a result, they can also contribute design, engineering, and additional skills.”
“If, every time you create your product, you have to risk $100 million, you’re not likely to take many chances,” he continued, emphasizing the economic benefit of outsourced game development. “If you can deliver a great product with a reduced investment, you might be more inclined to take risks. That’s where I believe we have a significant role to fulfill.”
We have contacted Virtuos for remarks regarding the reported layoffs.