Sumo Group is laying off 15% of its employees

Sumo Group has announced plans to lay off 15% off its employees.

The Sheffield, UK-based company employs over 1,650 people across 19 studios, according to its website, meaning the cuts could impact approximately 250 team members.

Sumo Group, which was wholly acquired the by Chinese tech giant Tencent in January 2022, counts Sumo Digital (Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Team Sonic Racing) and The Chinese Room (Dear Esther, Little Orpheus) among its studios.

“Whilst Sumo has been able to manage through many of the recent difficulties the games industry has faced, we have not been immune and reshaping operations across the business to better navigate the upcoming challenges expected in the coming months is a path we must now take to ensure the security of the business going forward,” the company said.

“The difficult decision to reduce our costs across the business in a number of ways is a direct result of these challenges, and unfortunately will include a reduction in the number of people the business can support.

“Every alternate route to limit the impact to our people is being considered but sadly this process of transformation will affect up to 15% of our people across the Group in Canada, UK, Poland, Czech Republic and India.

“This is an incredibly challenging process to go through for everyone at Sumo and our focus is now on supporting our people and working with our partners on their games as we move forward to ensure we emerge from this difficult time, ready for the future.”

Game developer Farhan Noor, who has been tracking job cuts dating back to the start of 2022 on videogameslayoffs.com, estimates that around 10,500 games industry employees were laid off last year.

Less than halfway through 2024, some 10,200 planned job cuts were already thought to have been confirmed before Sumo’s announcement, which would bring the number of industry layoffs this year roughly in line with the total amount from last year.