Splash Damage at risk of layoffs

Splash Damage Ltd, a development team based in London, unfortunately appears to be facing a new round of cuts and layoffs. The pre-announcement came from the team's LinkedIn page, although it is not yet known when the letters will reach employees' desks – likely at the end of the year.

"This is a difficult step to take – the team wrote on LinkedIn – but we believe it is necessary for Splash Damage to remain agile and adaptable in what has become a very competitive market. We know that these kinds of changes are emotionally difficult, and we will do what we can to guide our people through this process with honesty and care. We are committed to exploring every option to retain talent and ensure that affected individuals have the right support."

Splash Damage: Its History

Splash Damage Ltd. was founded in 2001 and originally started as a MODding team for Quake 3 Arena. It later came under the aegis of Game Domain and, on behalf of Activision, developed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the multiplayer component of DOOM3, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

Its "leap in quality" was supposed to come in 2011 with the creation of Brink for Bethesda studios, an FPS that, however, received mixed reviews and acclaim. Other original works included RAD Soldier and Dirty Bomb before joining Xbox Game Studios, where it was involved in various conversions and multiplayer curation for titles in the Gears of War series, leading up to the development of Gears Tactics, the last game published for Microsoft.

Since 2022, Splash Damage has changed hands three times: first from Microsoft to Bulkhead, then last January to Tencent, which then sold it in September to an anonymous group. Meanwhile, its projects Transformers: Reactivate and Project Astrid were canceled or forgotten online.

What does the future hold for it?