Rare has suffered many a setback according to Eurogamer. The studio’s latest Kinect-based project for the Xbox One, Kinect Sports Rivals, failed at the sales counter and has led to numerous layoffs with 16 design and project managers apparently getting the boot.

A spokesperson of Microsoft stated that, “At Xbox, our goal is to constantly create new fun, social and interactive entertainment experiences. As part of Rare’s commitment to this goal, we have made a decision to change our development process and methodology at Rare to best support our future projects, this has led to us reviewing the skills and the makeup of our development teams in our business. Rare continues to invest in our people and future projects.”

Though it confirmed the layoffs, Microsoft failed to mention exactly how many people were let go (sources indicate around 16 employees) and sales of Kinect Sports Rivals seems to be the cause. It also seems to have incurred significant loss for Rare in general.

Rare doesn’t seem to be collapsing (yet), but there’s no denying that its focus on Kinect games will lead to further criticism. Stay tuned for more information.

he developer behind the recently released free-to-play MMO Action-RPG Defiance has been hit with layoffs. Trion Worlds are responsible for their successful previous MMORPG that was released back in 2011 Rift. They have recently announced that Rift is going free-to-play on June 12th and will still continue to create fresh content for the players. Meanwhile, Defiance has been receiving mixed reviews. While the game has significant potential, it also has a fair share of issues that need to be addressed. You can take a look at our Defiance review right here for yourself if you’re interested.

Here is the full statement from Trion Worlds regarding the layoffs:

“To best position Trion in a rapidly changing industry, we have reorganized our teams and are expanding our free to play offering. With Defiance, we delivered a great game that more than one million gamers registered to play and continue to enjoy. As we progress from launch to ongoing development of the game, we are adjusting our staffing levels to deliver new content and improved features. RIFT, and our other titles in development, were unaffected by these changes. We are very much looking forward to the free to play release of RIFT and are excited by the other new titles currently in development.”

IGN has also reported that the company has laid off about 80% of their staff. However, a studio representative has stated that those numbers are “exaggerated”.

Trion Worlds delivered one of my favorite MMORPGs which was Rift, and it would be sad to see them go. Hopefully, things are not as severe as they seem to be and only time will indicate what will happen in the future.

Lets us know what you think about this situation in the comments below.

Check back on GamingBolt for future updates as this story develops.

5th Cell lead animator Tim Borrelli has tweeted that the layoffs are happening at Shinobi developer Griptonite Games.

Here is the official statement from Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo de Masi:

“We believe concentrating resources on fewer titles, with a greater centralized support infrastructure will accelerate revenue growth in Q4 2013 and beyond. We made over 20 new ‘games-as-a-service’ (GaaS) hires in Q1 and anticipate hiring at a similar rate throughout the year. Our goal is to shift headcount investment out of raw studio team volume and into our centralized GaaS functions.

This rebalancing is expected to leave R&D costs approximately flat year over year. A reduction in force was commenced today to promote talent density throughout the studio, as well as fund over 80 new GaaS colleagues. This reduction is equivalent to circa 12% of the year’s starting headcount of 564 employees. Adding back forecast hiring we anticipate finishing 2013 with 582 Gluers worldwide.”

Good luck to all the people that have lost their job recently and hopefully they will find a new place to work at.

Stay tuned on GamingBolt for more gaming news and leave any comments you have down below.

Source – IGN