Dying Light 2 developer Techlandhas recently announced the closure of its Polish publishing and distribution division. Polish site Graczpospolita first reported the news and revealed that several employees had been let go, or had left voluntarily. The company plans to shutter the division by 2019 end with 13 employees in total affected.
Speaking to GamesIndustry, Techland CEO Paweł Marchewka provided more information on the closure. “After months’ worth of market analysis, we have started the process of shutting down the Polish publishing and distribution department,” he said. “The process will last until the end of 2019. This only applies to third party boxed goods on the Polish market. For several years physical distribution has not been the core of our strategy, which is to develop the best AAA action open-world games.”
Marchewka noted that these lay-offs will not have an impact on the development of Dying Light 2, while stating that global business is also pretty good for the company. “These changes have no impact on our global publishing plans and the development of two AAA games we are currently working on, one of them being Dying Light 2,” he said. “Our company is constantly growing and developing great games. The sales of the original Dying Light are not only not decreasing, but actually continuing to grow year-on-year. Dying Light constantly reaches new audiences and this makes us happy and shows us we have chosen the right direction. It also motivates us to work hard on making Dying Light 2 our best game yet.”
Marchewka also oversaw the affairs of those being laid off and thanked them for their hard work. “I have personally made sure to take care of the affairs and future careers of the members of our Polish distribution department who will be leaving Techland. Severance packages they will receive are both above the industry and the Polish employment legislation standards. I would like to thank the whole team for the many years of great work together.”
Techland continues to employ over 400 employees and is currently recruiting over 50 more. It announced Dying Light 2 at Microsoft’s E3 2018 presser and confirmed the involvement of Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity writer Chris Avellone for the narrative design. The project currently has no release date, but is confirmed to be in development for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
