Meta Layoffs Begin and Even the Game Developers Aren’t Safe

The Other members of the Downpour team also hinted that Wednesday is the toughest day of their careers. Daan Van Zelst, a level designer at the game studio Downpour, hinted that there were major cuts happening at the studio. Colin McInerney, a designer at Ready at Dawn, tweeted that he and many others received the boot at the game studio. Meta, which owns separate game studios, is in the midst of reducing headcounts. Meta also hinted that Dawn at Ready and Interactive Downpour, where Colin McInerney is a designer, are affected. Meta acquired four separate game studios last year, bringing their total to nine.

Reports on Tuesday hinted that Meta’s target of going wasn’t achieved by Studios game. Although evidence suggests that the now-fired staff was the cause, layoffs were not aimed at Meta’s target of going for game studios. The cuts were supposed to affect other working teams on Facebook and in the RL division, while the game studios remained “safe.” Previously, the gaming section of Reality Labs at Meta was receiving more resources and attention, as reported by Business Insider.

According to sources from Insider, the next round of job cuts might occur on May 22. As stated in Zuckerberg’s previous announcement regarding the layoffs, reductions were anticipated in both April and May. In November of last year, Zuckerberg assured that the company would not require further cuts following the initial elimination of 11,000 positions. Based on an internal memo, Bloomberg reported that this initial set of 4,000 cuts is just the beginning of Meta’s second phase of significant layoffs since last year. The reductions are expected to affect not only its social media applications but also Reality Labs.

The British government will be engaged in consultation until the company allegedly relocates entirely. Adam Mosseri, the chief of Instagram who relocated to the United Kingdom last year, will take all the employees who were not laid off on Wednesday back to the United States. As per Bloomberg’s report, which cites an unidentified source, Meta is also purportedly considering moving all its London-based Instagram employees as part of these workforce reductions.

Meta refused to provide any comments regarding the ongoing staff reductions.

Andrew Bosworth, the Chief Technology Officer of Meta, mentioned that player numbers are decreasing and the servers for VR’s Echo will be shut down in August. The studio, Ready at Dawn, has been developing a sports arena game called VR Echo. In February, Meta announced the release of update 1.10 for Onward. The studio, Downpour, which was acquired by Facebook (now Meta) in 2021, is currently working on a military first-person VR simulator called Onward.

According to Bosworth’s recent statement to Nikkei Asia, the company is placing more emphasis on the “commercialization” of AI this year. The Reality Labs division has assigned a significant responsibility to Meta as a result of its recent shift from prioritizing “metaverse” projects to artificial intelligence. This shift has placed a great burden on the Reality Labs division, although Meta is not the only major tech company to significantly downsize its workforce in recent months. The memo mentioned by Bloomberg states that the remaining members of these severely impacted teams will be reassigned.

The Instagram team based in London was planning to relocate and provide additional details about their decision. However, Meta declined to comment on the updated post at 1:25 p.M. On 04/19/23.

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